Peaceful kingdom of great magic Lucis, protected by the power of the Crystal, and a technologically advanced revisionist state - an empire Niflheim long ago began a bloody war for territory and resources. During the long years of war, Niflheim captured all neighboring states and territories ( Galahd, Tenebrae etc.), and Lucis, realizing that the enemy can easily arrange a blitzkrieg to the capital of Lucis - the city insomnia, erected a magical wall around him, fueled by the Crystal.

Niflheim managed to almost completely capture all the cities and territories of Lucis, except for the majestic Insomnia - a reliable wall became an insurmountable barrier for the invaders. Several years ago, when Tenebrae resisted, the king Regis together with son Noctis arrived there to cure him of his illness.

The then ruling elite of Tenebrae - Knox Fleur(Ravus with his sister Lunafreya and their mother) provided Lucis with military support against the "neefs", so they kindly received King Regis and his son.

It is worth noting separately that Prince Noctis of Lucis and Lunafreya were brought up together and the Nox Fleury dynasty was never alien to the kingdom of Lucis. However, the Empire of Niflheim decided to deliver a decisive blow to Tenebrae, depriving both kingdoms of leadership and demoralizing the forces of the allies. Imperial General Glauka attempted to assassinate King Regis, but he and his son were saved. Niflheim captured Lunafreya and Ravus, killing their parents, and the kingdom of Tenebrae itself fell under the protectorate of the empire.

It's been a long time, Prince Noctis has grown, Lucis continues to be defeated by Niflheim, King Regis's health has declined, and the "Swords of the King" (trained fighters who use the power of the Crystal in battles with the "nif" (they will be discussed in more detail later) hold back the hordes enemies.

The protagonist of the film - the "sword of the king" Nyx Ulrik, along with his friends Libertus and Crow, after a battle with the "nifs", where they used demons, find themselves in the last stronghold of Lucis - Insomnia, and serve, guarding important city objects.

"Royal swords" in the service.

Nyx Ulrik is a stubborn soldier, an example of the defenders of Lucis, he takes an example from his captain Titus Drautos, and the motto "For the hearth and home!" inspires him to further resistance in a lost war.

From Ulrik, in fact, they blinded a typical protagonist of any serial Final Fantasy, who, despite all the hardships and hardships, fights hard for his ideals and sees the world exclusively in white and black. Nyx's homeland, Galahd, is captured by the "nifs", but the hero himself remains always loyal to his king Regis, while his friend Libertus dreams of how to win Galahd from the empire. At one fine moment, Libertus's faith in King Regis finally collapses, and he goes into the shadows, regretting the recent past.

Separately, it is worth mentioning the attitude of the inhabitants,

occupied by the "nifas" of the lands.

People are indifferent to the war between the two states and sincerely believe that some rulers are no better than others, and Lucis is the same oppressors as Niflheim. This is indeed confirmed by the striking difference in the standard of living in the province of Lucis and the capital of Insomnia, where poverty and hopelessness contrast sharply with beauty and wealth. Even the emperor of Niflheim, Idolos, was struck by the luxury of Insomnia, admitting that the cities of the empire pale in front of her.

Such inequality played a cruel joke and turned against the kingdom of Lucis itself.

First, it lost the territories and resources so much needed to conduct further hostilities, and then, realizing its future defeat, King Regis decides on the humiliating peace proposed by Niflheim. Based on the agreement to end the war, Lucis had to give up all of its territory to the empire, except for the capital of Insomnia.

After the preliminary consent of Regis, Ulrik's friend Libertus is forever disappointed in the ruler. Sincerely believing that the king will be able to win back the lands where Libertus comes from, the warrior decides to quit his service in the "Swords" and join the rebel movement, the purpose of which is to disrupt the peace agreements and continue the war of attrition.

Important plot points from the movie were transferred to the game, thus further misleading those players who did not watch Kingsglaive.

ABOUT THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE FILM AS A SEPARATE LINE

Adrian Bouchet not only voiced Drautos, but also "shared" his appearance with him.

Since the large-scale scenes of battles and the attack of the Niflheim army on Insomnia were very expensive to create in the game, Square Enix decided to move this to a separate project. Also, the developers wanted to go beyond the graphics of the current consoles and eventually transferred many of their ideas to Kingsglaive, because the cost of implementing large-scale battles in the game would significantly exceed the similar costs for the film, according to Square Enix financiers.

More than 50 third-party specialists from other companies around the world were invited to develop Kingsglaive: Digic Pictures (who worked on Assassin's Creed), Image Engine (who participated in the creation of special effects in the Game of Thrones and Jurassic World).

The development team never stopped working on the film - it was carried out 24 hours a day by different regional teams on different continents. According to Takeshi Nozue

The writers of the film had a difficult task - to attract more fans, both from among those who were not familiar with the series before, and those who had already grown up and stopped playing Final Fantasy. The main emphasis on the implementation of this task was placed on cinematic graphics, technology and separately character design. When Sakaguchi saw the first footage of Kingsglaive, he made his remarks about King Regis.

The king seemed too perfect and flawless to Sakaguchi, and his eyes did not express the wisdom and life experiences associated with controlling the enormous magical power of the ancient kings. Takeshi Nozue listened to the words of the Master and redesigned not only the design of King Regis, but also several other characters, breathing "more life" into them and making them realistic.

The team spent a lot of extra time polishing the "film" of the film.

Sean Bean while working on the voice acting of King Regis

PARTIES TO THE CONFLICT

• Lucis- a peaceful technologically advanced kingdom, very similar to the modern world of the 21st century, a mixture of magic, peaceful technologies and a Renaissance monarchy. Unlike Niflheim, Lucis technology developed in a different, "peaceful" direction. This is primarily due to the wall, thanks to which the inhabitants felt safe and focused their development around material assets filling the city with wealth.
• King's Swords or "King's Swords"- this is the main impact force and an army in the vanguard of Lucis. Only those soldiers who can control the magic of the king go there. The "Swords" consist mainly of soldiers recruited from the provinces of the kingdom, now lost, mostly from Galahd.

For a long time, the main motive for serving in the "swords" for them was the goal of reclaiming their homes in the occupied territories, but everything changed when Regis decided to sign a peace treaty. It is not surprising that during the bloody denouement, half of their fighters turned out to be traitors - someone was seduced by the promises of the leadership of Niflheim, and someone even pursued personal motives, hoping to get even more magical power.

Captain of the Royal Swords - Titus Drautos, one of the minor characters in the game, who played leading role in the fate of Insomnia. Drautos is surrounded by royal attention and enjoys almost all the benefits available only to members of the royal family, and his life story is full of secrets, betrayal and death.

The hierarchy of "swords" is rather peculiar. In the absence of the captain, any other fighter can take command if the right to command has been delegated to him by the king. Together, the "swords" are able to control the collective strong magic on the battlefield and crush thousands of enemies.

Emperor of Niflheim - Iedolas.

The Niflheim Empire is a state that plunged the entire world of Eos into chaos and the abyss of war. Technologically advanced, its soldiers are made up of robots and demons, and its officer positions are human. This allowed the empire to save the human resource that is working in the rear to create new combat units. Emperor Idolas rules Niflheim, and the capital of the empire is the city of Gralea.

It is obvious that the name "Niflheim" is borrowed from the German-Scandinavian mythology, where it denoted one of the nine worlds - the land of giants and ice, one of the first worlds. According to legend, it was in Niflheim that the god Odin defeated the giant Hel. Unfortunately, neither in the game nor in the film, we know practically nothing about Graley, except that the city has the same high-rise skyscrapers and many research complexes, which are supported by most of the exorbitant taxes of the citizens of the empire.

The soldiers of the empire are armed with both firearms and melee weapons, among them there are both robots and people. To hasten the desired victory, Niflheim made unprecedented discoveries in xenobiology. They managed to create robots and weapons from particles of demon materials. It all ended with the fall of the capital of Gralea and the reign of eternal night in the world of Eos, where hellish creatures ruled the ball.

The majestic capital of Lucis is the "father's home" of Insomnia.

RETURNING TO THE GAME. PLOT

Final Fantasy XV kicks off the day before the film's denouement, where Regis' noble son Noctis leaves Insomnia with a group of friends on the King's orders. Thus, Noctis manages to avoid the fate of his father and the entire Lucis elite, which was mercilessly slaughtered by General Glauka and the demons from Niflheim.

Separately, it is worth talking about the partners of the prince, who later became his most dear people:

• Gladiolus (Gladio)- Bodyguard of Noctis, in fact, his entire family is the bodyguard of the kings, whose task is to protect the royals of Lucis. Gladiolus's father was killed in the battle with Glauca (Drautos), but this most important event was completely ignored by the developers. Gladio wields two-handed powerful weapon, and as an additional one, you can set shields, which are of little use in battles with bosses. Gladiolus, in addition to the function of the “human shield of the prince”, can also give good advice, and sometimes even bring down the arrogant and whiner from heaven to earth. Possesses survival skills, is the most senior in the team.

• Prompto- a character, apparently added in order to somehow diversify a gloomy company with sharp jokes and self-irony. He uses only firearms in combat. different type. Prompto is the only one of the main characters who comes from Niflheim and is ashamed of it in every possible way. In Brotherhood, Promto met Noctis in high school, where he was already into photography.

• Ignis- a courtier who was specially brought up as a lifesaver for the frivolous Prince. He obviously fits the role of king instead of the latter, although, unfortunately, he is not from the Lucius family. Knows how to cook deliciously, uses fast daggers in battle. By the second half of the game, due to the negligence of the developers, Ignis is an absolutely useless character, capable of turning the despondency of the passage into depression, although cannon fodder is never enough. For the vast majority of players, a blinded Ignis serves as a “healing bait”.

• Noctis- Member of the Lucis family, hereditary king. Closed in himself, a pessimist, because of which many really worthy and good people. Except your appearance he cannot boast of anything, because even royal power is not his merit, but most likely a given. During the game, the Prince loses everything that is possible, in a dangerous situation he leaves his faithful comrades surrounded by enemies, and only the pity of the developers “saves” the trio from death. Gossips they say that the gods of Lucis initially understood the worthlessness of Noctis and made hell in Insomnia because of this, and the hero Libertus was absent throughout the game, although he should play according to the film big role further down the story. After the ideal image of the hero in the face of Nyx Ulrik, Noctis looks like nobody and nothing, and if the main message of the film was, despite the betrayal, to put their lives FOR THE HEART AND HOME (the kingdom of Lucis and the king), then in the game they die only for the stupid Prince, which, to the credit of the developers, is enough to understand this in the second half of the game, when he has already lost everything.

From left to right: Ignis, Prompto, Noctis and Gladiolus.

Ardyn Izunia- one of the few worthy characters in the game and the film. Thanks to his strong character, he went from nothingness to chancellor great empire. Fate was unfavorable to him, but in spite of everything, he swam against the current and always achieved his goal. I'm sure 99% of the players went to great lengths just to follow him.

Emperor Idolas- the ruler of Niflheim, to whom the expression "as he lived, so he died" is ideal. Even though he was in the movie central character, representing Niflheim, he appeared in the game for the only time in human form, becoming a victim of his vanity and greed. Idolas can only be compared with Noctis, if the latter, due to his cowardice and doubts, finished off the legacy of Lucis, then the former sacrificed his capital Gralea and its inhabitants in order to assert his own dominance. But the emperor's gullibility played a very cruel joke on him - in this regard, as they say, "do not spit in the well, from which you will drink later."

Cor Leonis- the immortal marshall, or simply Marshall, as he is called in Eos. Despite universal reverence, as well as strength, he turned out to be a coward and left the prince, saying goodbye to him at the end of the first half of the journey. After the massacre in Insomnia, he survived only because he “reeled up the fishing rods” in time.

Lunafrey- a beautiful girl belonging to the once independent dynasty of Nox Fleur, who ruled Tenebrae, the future wife of Noxtis, who gave everything dear, including her life, to facilitate the path for the future rag-king to return to the throne. The character of the Moon is completely opposite to her fiancé, she experienced many tragic moments and this hardened her.

Lunafreya communicates with Noctis via text messages in a book carried by Umbra the dog, although mobile phones are present in the game.

The plot turned out to be very atypical against the background of other numbered "finals", here one could feel the influence of Western culture and self-copying with borrowing history from Final Fantasy VII, and this is a very controversial move, given the opinions of old fans of the series. If you don’t want to get depressed, quit the game, get very disappointed (if you are one of those who love happy endings and victories of your game characters), I highly recommend not boarding a ship and sailing to Altisia. The second, linear half of the game will be morally humiliating and disappointing.

The only word that can describe the development of the events of the second part is despair.

All dreams are shattered, and towards the end, a wave of hopelessness rolls over. Probably, the developers thought that it would be very cool to do it this way, but the significant difference between the first half and the second will not be able to “rebuild” the player into a negative wave. It is also very striking that the linear part was molded “maybe” with great haste and indifference.

An older Noctis in the second half of the game. It took him 10 years to prioritize and put an end to the impostor on the throne.

There was an impression that the scriptwriters of the developers saw it in a completely different way, as in the end it was implemented technically. The plot smears, unsticks and bursts like a soap bubble, which raises a huge number of questions, and the first of them is “Why did the gods load Noctis with a burden that he cannot lift?”

After the end of the game, you will feel emptiness and bad mood in your soul, female half, perhaps even become a little sorry for the Prince.

It is especially worth highlighting the actions of General Cor Leonis, who simply left Noctis to his fate at the most decisive moment. Did the immortal marshal also think that nothing good would come of the kid, and the kingdom would never be reborn?

The wise commander simply would not have made many mistakes of Noctis, however, the decision of the scriptwriters cannot be redrawn. But the above-described cons of the plot seem worthless compared to the ending-contradiction. It seemed to me that 2 teams were engaged in storytelling at once, and their actions were not synchronized and different, which ultimately led to “the ending will be like this, but then it will become different”, i.e. so you understand, the writers have been saying for a long time that the plot will go from point A to point B, but when this happens, they transfer it from point B to point C, which is on the other side of point A.

And here there are no sacred meanings and philosophy, however, the developers hint in every possible way that think for yourself about the ending, which can be interpreted as depressing, or as joyful.

Just like that, inexplicably, Ravus rose from the dead. Those who haven't watched the movie don't care, the rest are in "silent" shock. Tabata promised new cutscenes to explain his sudden resurrection.

GAME AND FILM

Final Fantasy XV has quite a few differences from the movie. Despite the fact that the developers have positioned Kingsglaive as the backstory of the game, this is not entirely true.

Yes, in the case of Lunafreya, the game follows the plot of the movie smoothly, but a number of significant Kingsglaive characters were missing from the game. So, for example, the developers forgot about the "Resistance" and Libertus, about the fate of Captain Drautos and other notable characters.

The role of Emperor Idolas in the game is completely reduced to a minimum, where he will be shown only once and very quickly. The fate of the surviving "Swords" also remained unknown. Logically, those who remained alive after the fall of Insomnia and did not betray the king should have joined Noctis and helped him, but there is no mention of them at all.

In addition to all this, there are a lot of little things in the game that do not correspond to the film. So, for example, Noctis's companions dress in Swords costumes, although they do not own royal magic and power, and Noctis himself is a king only on paper, not to mention that they were not members of the Swords before. In general, the plot of the film turned out to be solid and tightly put together compared to the game: there is practically no supernatural and the film does not indulge in all serious, sliding into extremes and contradictions.
If the film pleased us with a truly royal scale, beautiful battles, amazing locations, characters (which we empathized with), then the game slipped into a small-town routine. All these advantages of the film were completely crossed out in the game. At the risk of watching the movie before appreciating Final Fantasy XV, a certain category of players will run into disappointment.

After the high-profile release of Kingsglaive, everyone opened their mouths in surprise and epicness, and the thought of how the Japanese RPG would “do” the Western Witcher crept into their heads, but the expectations were in vain - the game does not correspond to the film in any way, except for a few plot elements.
A separate paragraph is worth writing a couple of lines about the PS3 version and the late development of the game, where the developers demonstrated the beautiful streets of Insomnia with large-scale battles on them. This is not here: partly it was displayed in the film, partly cut. The battle in Insomnia will not be remembered by you at all, except for the hopeless darkness and idiocy in the form of “defeat mobs 20 lvl higher than you”, and the whole atmosphere of Kingsglaive in the game is not felt at all. You will not see the neon-filled beauty of the streets and avenues of the royal capital, and the royal palace and the throne room will not cause you anything but a feeling of disgust.

GAME WORLD AND GAMEPLAY

The developers greatly simplified the game's combat system, and for the first time made a single controllable character throughout the game. By the way, fighting enemies is interesting only in those battles where their level exceeds your character. Some enemies turned out to be very unbalanced: for example, you can meet a monster that is low in level, but deals huge damage and is tenacious, although before that you killed 10 levels more without problems.

The combat system is a game of compromise between old fans and the modern gaming audience in general. The battles themselves are interesting only at first, where you still admire Noctis's warp attacks and team attacks along with one of the companions, and a little further it's just boring and uncomfortable. By the second part of the game, the entire combat system slides into a dull 10-15-minute “hollowing” on a tenacious monster with a regular heal, because the plot bosses there are very aggressive and cause critical damage even at level 50 of the protagonist.

Noctis can choose between all of the weapons available individually to his companions, as well as use a one-handed sword. Separately, there is magic, but its significance in this game is somewhere at the bottom closer to zero. Therefore, get ready for the whole game to “hit and hold” one button of enemies, occasionally alternating with duet attacks and a squire skill.

Beautiful open world game. It can be explored endlessly.

The second part of the game exposes these problems very much and turns the passage into endless torture, and Chapter 13 can easily turn you away from Final Fantasy XV forever.

Separately, I note that if you sailed to Altissia with low level 30-45, then you can safely load saves in the Big World or start the game again, because this game is not about balance, and the period when you can return to the past again will not come soon.

In the linear part of the game, you will not be able to level up the character, and the whole run and fight against bosses like Ravus and the usual demons of Insomnia will turn into a brutal gamepad rape by you and Noctis by demons in the game. In Insomnia, you will encounter level 70+ opponents, but don't flatter yourself by rushing into the fray with them. These enemies kill to death (without the possibility of using healing) with one hit.

This is the price for an unfinished product. The developers only managed to balance the final boss with 0 lvl, but before you get to it, you will have time to change your mind and fall out of love with the game 10 times. Square Enix boasted a large number of monster opponents before the release, but these were empty words and ordinary "childish boasting".

The main characters travel on the Regalia royal car, which then “learns” to fly. It can be customized and painted as you like, collecting the necessary stickers in a variety of places.

Although there is some variety in the open world of Eos, immediately after sailing, the work of the designers responsible for the monsters and other opponents in the game ends.

"Corridors" will be stuffed with the same enemy soldiers, diluted with 2-3 types of demons, and the shameful mission 10 years later and the nightly arrival in the "Hammer" will make even the most unpretentious fans sob. All the way from the pier to the "Hammer" you will observe exactly 2 types of demons, throughout the damn 3.5 kilometers of the way.

Another proof of the hasty riveting of the last missions "to fuck off", unacceptable in the creation of AAA projects at the present time in the West. It's amazing how foreign gaming publications give the game high marks, given the above ...

Many of the readers will rightly ask themselves: “Is everything so bad?”. Of course no. The game is beautiful in the Big World of Eos, where you are free to travel anywhere and make grandiose discoveries. What is not there!

This is truly amazing, because unlike Western RPGs, the open world is so beautifully designed that you will always want to return there and take on new challenges or discover something new. The big world subtly hides the problems of the combat system, making it seem more adequate, and the opponents are very well balanced than in the second part of the game. Here you will not only have to kill to go further along the "corridor", but to kill for the sake of pumping, loot, hunting ranks, experience and much more.

Sometimes the car gets a bit cramped, although this doesn't bother Noctis at all when his childhood friend, Gladiolus' sister Iris, is sitting next to him.

It is impossible to describe the adventures in Eos, it must be personally tested by everyone who, after reading the above, decides to take the game. Believe me, even in this state, it costs absolutely more than all the games released this year combined, catching the huge number of sandbox features in the first place.

It is here that your disappointment will surely change to that first feeling before the first launch and passage of the game, and when Umbra again takes you to the past and you can continue to explore Eos after completing the main plot.

MUSICAL DECORATION

Everything is almost perfect here. You can buy new music albums in stores while traveling around Eos, as well as listen to tracks from the anime and movie of the same name, final fantasy I, V, VII, XIII on the Regalia radio, which creates a really grand choice. Otherwise, beautiful background music appears in the second part of the game, when the story cut-scenes follow one after another. In general, the background turned out to be worse than in the “finals” of the 90s.

King Regis also liked to travel, but in the company of Cor Leonis, Cid and Father Gladiolus.

CONCLUSIONS

The first half of the game made me seriously think about the second revival of the Japanese game industry (after all, Final Fantasy XV is its "face" with a huge budget with 10 years of development) and its return to the Golden Age, and even superiority over the western one, but this did not happen.

All your dreams and impressions are shattered in the second half of the game, where you will overcome kilometers of the same corridors, fighting the same type of enemies and watching the blatant shameful hack that arose either due to lack of time for development, or due to the negligence of developers over the past 2 years. However, if you close your eyes and stay forever in Big World Eos, then the game is almost perfect.

Final Fantasy XV can and should be played... but only when the price tag drops by 60-70%, recommend this game behind full cost I'll risk it only to die-hard fans of the series.

Hi all. The Gamebizclub team is in touch, and we continue to talk about the new part of Final Fantasy, the official release of which is scheduled for the end of September this year. The continuation of the epic saga, which has been under development since 2006, is already close, so we decided to jump ahead a bit and tell about the heroes of the game.

Characters in Final Fantasy XV play a major role - they fight, cut through a sports car on beautiful places communicate and complete tasks. In , published a few days ago, we talked about the gameplay and the plot of the game, and today we will introduce you to the key characters.

From this article you will learn:

Characters

• The main characters, five inseparable friends - Noctis, Ignis, Gladiolus, Prompto, Cor.
• Supporting characters - Lunafreya, Gentiana, Regis, Idola and others.
• The unnamed characters that were shown in the trailer, however, their actions and role in storyline have not yet been disclosed by the developers.

You can get to know some of the characters by watching Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV, released this year. There you will meet Prince Noctis and learn the backstory of the game. Now watch the trailer for this movie.

heir to the throne

The protagonist of the game Noctis Lucis Caelum is the prince of the kingdom of Lucis. His family, the Tselum, owned and protected the only magic crystal that was the last in the world. The young man was next to him for a long time and gained a special power - he owns magic, several types of edged weapons and the ability to teleport to them.

His character is strong, but not that calm, but rather cold. But despite this, great responsibility sometimes adds to his nervousness, because of which he acts sharply and emotionally.

Faithful Assistant

A longtime friend of Noctis, Ignis Sciencia is a loyal and devoted companion who accompanies the prince on his travels. Ignis is characterized by an extreme seriousness and sometimes coldness of character, but despite these qualities, he is very devoted to the prince.

As a child, Ignis received a good education, which helped him easily enter the civil service and become an adviser to the heir to the king. Preference for the iaido style of fighting allows the youth to easily deal with enemies in close combat. In combat, he throws knives and, if necessary, can take the place of Noctis at the wheel of a car. His name means "fire" and "knowledge".

Family protector

Another loyal friend of Noctis, Gladiolus Amicitia, he noticeably surpasses all his associates in strength. Unshakable and cold-blooded in battle, in relations with friends he is very cheerful and sociable. His name comes from the name of the Roman sword - gladius, and the surname is translated as "friendship, friendly."

speed fighter

Prompto Argentum has been friends with the prince since school, having nothing to do with the royal family. He has a very carefree and cheerful, and sometimes too frivolous character, which does not prevent him from showing a willingness to help others.

Its feature is the fight with the help of various firearms, as well as considerable speed, which became the reason for such a name. Prompto means "sharp" or "quick".

Lion's Heart

One of the strongest fighters in the entire kingdom, Cor Leonis, treats his friends rather neutrally, perhaps even rudely, but his patriotism and love for his homeland makes him defend the whole company. Cor does just that, though not fully supporting their goals.

Cora's age is 42, and in Japan this number is considered unlucky, because, according to the inhabitants of the country, it is at this age that various accidents often occur. His name translates as "the heart of a lion" - this characterizes Cor Leonis as a brave and strong character.

The Prince's Bride

Noctis' childhood friend and fiancee-to-be is Lunafreya Nox Fleuret. Stella Nox Fleuret, Noctis's enemy, was originally supposed to be in her place. But later the developers changed the decision and changed it to the princess, who now plays a more global and decisive role. The name of the princess is translated as a sword, because in the game she uses a rapier.

Supporting characters

There are other characters involved in Final Fantasy XV, and although we have referred to them as supporting characters, many of them play a very important role in the storyline. The developers promise that during the game you will meet each of them, or they will somehow affect the storyline.

For example, Regis Lucis Caelum CXIII is the 113th ruler of the kingdom of Lucis and the father of Prince Noctis. His fate is not entirely clear, because during the attack of the troops of the hostile Niflheim, the king was considered dead, and his real fate is still unknown. It is possible that in the process of searching for the crystal, Noctis will find his missing father.

Antipode Regis - the main anti-hero of the game and the emperor of Niflheim named Idola Eldercapt. He made a pact with the kingdom of Lucis, the purpose of which is to steal the magic crystal. An important role in his retinue is played by Ardyn Izuniya, the chancellor of the empire, who, despite his detachment from politics, expanded the production of Magitek troops. Ardyn plans that developing these troops will help strengthen the empire.

Less global, but important characters with whom you will definitely meet - Gentiana and Aranea Highwind. Gentiana is a special creature that serves the princess and heals other characters.

Her name comes from the name of the gentian flower, which is known to have medicinal properties. Aranea Highwind is a captain in one of the empire's air force corps. She skillfully owns her business, which is why she received such a high rank. Her opposition to Noctis was shown in the first trailers of the game, however, the name became known not so long ago.

In search of adventure, Cindy Aurum, the granddaughter of the famous Sid, present in almost all previous parts of Final Fantasy, will periodically help you. She helps Noctis and his friends by working as a mechanic, such as fixing a car or a broken sword.

And the last hero worth mentioning is Etro, the goddess of death. She was mentioned by Stella shortly before the signing of the "peace" treaty with the Niflheim Empire in one of the trailers.

According to the heroine, there is a legend that tells about the special ability of the goddess - to open the Invisible Gates. During this souls of the dead rise into the sky, outwardly having the appearance of a beam of light. In addition, it is said that those who are dying at this moment acquire the powers of the Dead Kingdom. A little later it will become known that Stella herself, as well as Prince Noctis, see this light. So, there was already a moment at which they could die.

In the process of wandering, adventures and battles with monsters, you will meet other heroes that have not yet been announced by the developers. But it is already clear how diverse the characters and behavior of the characters are, how they will interact and influence the gameplay.

Let's hope that the developers will present a successful project in the RPG genre. We remind you that the release date of Final Fantasy 15 is scheduled for the end of September. The game is expected to be released simultaneously for consoles (PS4, Xbox One) and PC.

In the next article, we'll cover Final Fantasy's combat system, which will show you how to fight monsters, what Noctis can do, and more. Subscribe to our blog updates and follow the news. With this, we say goodbye to you and wish you success. All for now.

How DLCs are trying to patch holes in the story.

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Square Enix is ​​trying hard to make a separate franchise out of Final Fantasy XV. Games, movies and animated series are designed to shed light on the past of the world, as well as better reveal the characters of its inhabitants. Let's leave the question of how much this is generally necessary for the players. The main thing is that in the original Final Fantasy XV, both characters and lore were described in such subtle strokes that the company's desire to develop them seems like a hasty attempt to patch holes in the narrative. At the same time, you still need to keep a serious face, saying that this is how everything was intended.

Final Fantasy XV itself received three plot add-ons - one for each of the protagonist's companions. It would seem like a great chance to learn more about the brave Gladiolus, the cheerful Prompto and the prudent Ignis. Let's try to figure out whether it is possible to reveal a character in a couple of hours of an additional adventure, if this was not done in 100 hours of the main game.

Episode "Gladiolus"

The action of this DLC takes place exactly after Gladiolus was defeated by Ravus and left his friends. When he returned, they did not particularly go into the details of his absence: they shrugged their shoulders and accepted the strong man back. Well, nothing, here they will explain to us where the bodyguard of the young king went and what made him leave his comrades in difficult times.

Gladiolus's interests, as it turned out, are by no means altruistic - he is driven solely by lack of confidence in his abilities and the desire to prove to himself that he is not some kind of weakling, and he was simply unlucky in the battle with Ravus. That is, the hero left his friends not to help common cause but just to improve self-esteem. In the world of Final Fantasy XV, the best way to do this is to take the test of Gilgamesh, the ancient swordmaster.

In accordance with all the cliches of such stories, no one before Gladiolus could pass this test. However, there is Marshal of the Royal Guard Cor Leonis - the only one who managed to return from the cave of testing alive. It is his main character DLC and takes with him.

The idea is clear - through severe trials and dialogues with Cor, Gladiolus discovers himself, proves everything he wanted, and decides to lay down his life so that Noctis is not in danger. The message is normal (there is nothing more to say about it, though), but it is not clear why all this could not be shown as part of the main plot of the game. Would that hurt the already uneven pace of the narrative? Or was Final Fantasy XV so action-packed that the reveal of Gladiolus's character just didn't fit? However, the same questions can be addressed to the rest of the DLC. The only difference is that in Episode Gladiolus the protagonist is an egoist who has abandoned his friends.

The cave of trials itself is a long corridor, according to the tradition of Fabula Nova Crystallis, studded with all kinds of crystals

Gladiolus, with all the desire, is impossible to empathize with. This is a rotten character who puts his own ambitions and the fight against complexes above the safety of his comrades and, most importantly, the king he swore to protect. The addition answers the question of where Gladiolus disappeared, but this is not at all the Gladiolus who was ready to beat the crap out of the infantile and hysterical Noctis with his fists.

Here it is a aching and constantly doubting mountain of muscles. In the two or three hours it takes to complete the add-on, the image of the character is destroyed to the ground. If Square Enix wanted to show that behind the stern appearance of Gladiolus is a simple person who is not alien to anything, then they screwed up.

In fact, if you cut out all the cutscenes and dialogues, you can run the expansion in less than half an hour.

Moreover, through the prism of DLC, it is impossible to look at the character's character in the old way. As for its events, what after, in the main game we see a self-confident, responsible and strong hero who understands when it is worth leaving the sword in its sheath and not asking for trouble. Thanks to Episode Gladiolus, we now know that all this is a mask, a fiction, and just hypocrisy.

It can be objected that Gladiolus wants to be a kind of beacon of hope for his comrades and “not burden” them with his problems in an already turbulent time. The only thing is that the whole Final Fantasy XV is positioned as a game about friendship, and in front of real friends there is no need to pose as someone else. True friends should accept you for who you are, with all the flaws and doubts. That is, either the DLC destroys the main idea of ​​the game, or I do not understand anything about friendship.

The bosses are terribly boring, and in the chaos of special effects it is difficult to parry enemy blows

Episode Gladiolus patches up one plot hole in the main game, but this expansion shouldn't exist at all. If Square Enix was so keen to take Gladiolus out of the story, they could have done it a lot more gracefully than just sending him on a stupid personal adventure that breaks the flimsy framework of the character's personality.

Episode "Prompto"

The most useful DLC, which, however, does not make it good. Prompto Argentum is perhaps the only character in Final Fantasy XV to receive any sort of reveal. That sparse dialogue on the roof of the diner is not God knows what, but in the context of the entire main game, it would be foolish to count on more. Prompto really needed to be told a little more than about other characters, because he, unlike the same Gladiolus or Ignis, actually has a secret.

In Chapter 12 of Final Fantasy XV, the train carrying the main characters to Gralea is attacked by Ardyn. He is in Once again is played with Noctis's mind, causing him to push Prompto off the top of a moving train. The guy drops out of the story for a while, and towards the end, appears again and tells his friends that he is one of the clones of the army of the Niflheim empire.

The comrades say that they do not care where he comes from, and they are called to beat the villain. Thus, an important plot point that runs counter to what we saw in the anime Brotherhood: Final Fantasy XV is left without due attention.

We were not told how Prompto found out about this, or whose clone he was, or how common this practice is in Niflheim at all. And after all, this is not some trifle - this is an important part of the drama of one of the main characters. Even in Final Fantasy VII's infantile storyline hodgepodge, Red XIII's issues and history were given more attention, and the characters and events in that game were outrageous. In addition, information about the empire cloning program would make the world a little more alive and interesting.

Approximately half of the expansion Prompto spends in monotonous corridors

The expansion begins with Prompto trudging through a snowy field, suffering from the cold, like Gideon White from Advent Rising or Nathan Drake. According to the laws of the genre, the hero falls to the ground exhausted, and in the next scene he finds himself in a clone factory. Here Prompto meets Ardyn, who really wants him to know the truth about his origin, releases him from the cell and gives him a revolver.

Around this very truth, the plot of the supplement is built. Only now Prompto recognizes her 30 minutes after the start of the game, and then, the remaining hour and a half, he only whines and suffers because of his origin. To the credit of the writers, it must be said that the reflection of the hero is shown at an unusually high level for Final Fantasy XV.

There is also a trigger character that makes Prompto think that moaning will lead to nothing, and personal throwing, shown through hallucinations. But both stages of the hero's acceptance of his nature are extremely protracted. The expansion’s timing is packed to capacity with pictures of Prompto’s physical suffering and campfire gatherings that are useless for his disclosure.

The second half takes place on snow-covered fields, where there is absolutely nothing to do but complete repetitive tasks and improve the snowmobile.

And in the context of the main plot, all this overcoming of one's own doubts turns out to be zilch. At the end of the add-on, Prompto is determined, accepted himself and goes to the rescue of his friends, but when he meets them, he again begins to whine and worry. Everything the hero has been through is suddenly worthless.

But the main goal of Episode Prompto was to create a "bridge" between the fact that Prompto is a clone and the second episode of Brotherhood: Final Fantasy XV, which tells how he met Noctis. We should have been told exactly how Prompto ended up in Lucis and why he lived without his parents. The bridge didn't work. We only learn that at the age of about one year he was kidnapped from the laboratory by unnamed soldiers of Lucis and given to be raised by some family. All.

The value of Episode Prompto is, of course, higher than that of the Gladiolus add-on, but everything told in it could also be shown within the main plot. The story of friendship would only benefit if Prompto's comrades helped him deal with his problems. But most importantly, the DLC does not really answer questions that arise after completing Final Fantasy XV. It looks like the writers didn't even think it through.

In the DLC credits, I encountered a bug: some scenes were supposed to be shown on the left, but my muddy Prompto hung in the air against the background of text flying up

Episode Prompto just throws dust in the eyes. It is as if some kind of important events: one of the main antagonists of the animated film Kingsglave appears, Prompto and Aranea save the world and all that. But everything that happens does not add anything new either to the image of the character, or to the picture of the world, or to the main plot of the game. However, against the background of other DLCs that destroy the canons and characters of the heroes, this can be perceived as a blessing.

Episode "Ignis"

You can argue for as long as you want about how justified the existence of the previous two additions, however, for their events in the main plot of Final Fantasy XV, a kind of base was prepared. Gladiolus has gone somewhere, Prompto has fallen off the train. line up separate story pedant Ignis Scientius could only be around the episode in which he lost his sight.

His adventure is clean water filler. The plot is sucked from the finger, and the strained drama causes nothing but irritation. Here the situation is similar to Episode Gladiolus - a familiar character behaves in an unusual manner. The dissonance is not so critical, but it catches the eye. The main problem is different - this DLC destroys the already fragile canon of Final Fantasy XV.

Almost the entire expansion of Ignis makes his way through the ruined Altaisia ​​to the altar, on which lies the lifeless body of Noctis. Along the way, he meets Ravus, who goes there, but in order to save his sister, Lunafreya. Heroes put aside differences and go to the rescue of those who are dear to them.

Until the climax, nothing significant happens at all. Already at the altar of Ignis, Ardyn catches up. The soldiers of Niflheim grab the protagonist, and the villain raises a dagger over the young king. Desperate, Ignis puts on the Lucii ring. And, no kidding, this is one of the dumbest decisions characters in Final Fantasy XV make. And that says a lot.

Ignis was given a grappling hook and allowed to run across rooftops. At times, DLC resembles some kind of Assassin's Creed

Ignis is the voice of reason for all four heroes. He is educated and prudent, not prone to rash decisions and always thinks several moves ahead. He knows full well what the Ring of the Lucii can do to someone who is not of royal blood and whom the collective wisdom of the Lucius monarchs deems unworthy.

In addition, he saw before him the example of Ravus, in his blind lust for power, wearing the ill-fated ring. In Kingsglave, it immediately considered him unworthy and burned his hand. No power or ability was bestowed upon him by the ancient kings. That is, we were given to understand: putting on a ring, you either gain power or become a cripple. This is also stated in the official Final Fantasy XV Ultimania guidebook.

Episode Ignis spits on canon. Here, Ignis goes blind, because the monarchs, as expected, considered him unworthy, but he also gains the strength to fight Ardyn. How and why this happened, the game does not even try to explain. Obviously, all because of the desire of the developers to create drama through the voluntary self-sacrifice of the character. The gesture turned out to be spectacular, although it was possible to raise this topic without destroying the canon.

However, the desire to create a strained drama fully manifests itself only in the alternative ending of the add-on. With the stunningly stupid ending of Final Fantasy Type-0, its director, Hajime Tabata, tried to squeeze a tear out of the player. But the cheap tragedy of the alternate ending of Episode Ignis puts that scene under the belt.

Ruined Altaissia still looks beautiful

At the climax of the DLC, Ardyn invites the protagonist to join him, and if he agrees, the villain takes Ignis to Gralea. Why is unclear. But here Ignis puts on the ring again and tells the ancient monarchs that he is ready to sacrifice his life for Noctis. With the power of kings, Ignis defeats Ardyn. Noctis, Prompto and Gladiolus suddenly find themselves in the building. To sad music, they bow down over a dying friend, mourn, and the young king, with the help of the Crystal, finally ascends the throne.

This alternate ending is not just the ending of the DLC, but the ending of all of Final Fantasy XV. The war is over, Ardyn has never captured the Crystal, the world has not been plunged into darkness, and Noctis has not been in a cave for ten years. And it's all thanks to Ignis' sacrifice. Cinematically speaking, this scene is not badly staged. Yes, but all this is in vain: all the tears and suffering are just a cheap way to evoke emotions in the player. After all, there was none of that. The alternate ending is not canon, so crying over it is stupid.

Episode Ignis is a hack. The shortest and most pointless of all DLCs. It seems that the writers were forced to write at least some story about Ignis, because the rest of the characters got their own adventures. From this addon, we learned how Ignis went blind. But is it really that important? There was a battle around and the character could just fly some fragment in the face.

We didn't learn anything new about Ignis, as his devotion to Noctis has been talked about numerous times in both the main game and Brotherhood. In my opinion, the only goal pursued by the developers was to show another tearful scene, even if it was sewn to the plot with white threads.

All three "personal" expansions designed to patch holes in Final Fantasy XV's story fail at the most fundamental level. Moreover, they destroy the already poorly written characters of the game's heroes. Their existence can only be justified by Square Enix's experiments with gameplay, because all DLCs are very different from each other both in the level structure and the combat system (Episode Prompto is generally a third-person shooter).

Even in the free DLC in honor of the release of Assassin's Creed Origins, there were more interesting finds and character disclosures

The developers are turning Final Fantasy XV into a game-service and have already promised to support it with add-ons throughout 2018, “finish” the plot and close up holes. But there was no faith in the success of the enterprise before, at the announcement of all these alternative versions of the thirteenth chapter and DLC. And after the first attempts in this field, it seems that Square Enix is ​​just trying to revive a deliberately dead and frankly boring story. And it's obviously not worth it.

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If you're still wondering if Final Fantasy XV is worth your attention, then maybe this is the place for you. Today we will weigh all the pros and cons, and also try to assess the level of quality of the game as a whole.

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Intro

Around March, the PC version of Final Fantasy XV finally made it to steam. However, it was only now that I managed to write a review on it, because, like any self-respecting RPG, FFXV has a certain depth, and starting to write a review of the game without really understanding it is a bit stupid. Among other things, by now the hype around the game has subsided somewhat and now we are in a relaxed atmosphere, with a cup of hot tea or coffee (here, whoever likes it more), we will sit down and figure out if this game is worth the money, and why .

It just so happened that a certain layer of video games is not very popular among CIS players. Not the last role in this was played, so to speak, by "console" roots. How many people, for example, remember the Battletech universe? How much do people know about Road Rash? Or maybe EarthBound? Legend of Zelda? Most of those reading this article have no doubt heard of the above universes, but how many of the readers actually had the opportunity to by ourselves play at least one game in the series, that's the question.

The heroine of our today's review suffers from a similar ailment - being a very popular series of games all over the world, she, nevertheless, remained practically unknown in Russian-speaking circles. This disease did not bypass the author of the article, however, since there is no plot connection between different parts of Final Fantasy, entering a new universe, as well as understanding and studying it, is relatively easy.

Movies and games

In general, in addition to quite a large number of all its advantages, Final Fantasy has long been known for the fact that it has full-fledged animated films using computer graphics, which in one way or another introduce viewers to the universes of different parts of the series. In our case, the original film is called "Kingslave: Final Fantasy" and tells about the backstory of the events of the game, as well as about the world of Eos in general.

If we touch on the plot in brief, avoiding spoilers, then the picture is something like this:

For many years now, the kingdom of Lucis has been fighting for the possession of a crystal with great power, with the empire of Niflheim. Despite the fact that the crystal belongs to the kingdom of Lucis, it is nevertheless on the verge of defeat. The situation is further complicated by the fact that in the empire they first learned how to create combat robots - warriors without a soul, and soon even managed to subdue mighty demons to their will. The crystal, in turn, has colossal magical power and with the help of it, King Regis Lucius Caelum XCIII protected the capital of the kingdom, Insomnia, with a magical wall. True, only on one side. On the other side of the kingdom, there are fortified forts in which the battle blades hold the defense - warriors who use powerful magic, and also rely on their outstanding physical skills in close combat.

On one of the most unfavorable days for the kingdom, the empire, with the help of demons, manages to almost completely destroy the defensive fort, but instead of finishing off the survivors, the Niflheim warriors simply retreat. A few days later, the consul of the empire arrives in Insomnia (let me remind you, the capital of the kingdom) and asks for peace, of course, on a number of conditions. One of these conditions is the transfer of territories belonging to the kingdom of Lucis to the control of the empire and the wedding of the young prince, Noctis Lucius Caelum, on Lunafreya Nox Fleur, a representative of a noble family of another, now captured kingdom, Tenebrae.

The film itself has several plot blunders, as well as a couple of moments that are not very easy to understand (the latter relates mainly to combat scenes), but as an intro to the game it looks quite good. Moreover, it is made on a high graphic level- sometimes the viewer can catch himself thinking that he is watching a movie, not an animated film.

Atmosphere

And we will begin the analysis of the game, perhaps with the strongest, and at the same time somewhat ambiguous part of it.

Why ambiguous? It just so happens that Final Fantasy XV is an RPG from the Japanese. In fact, this means characters straight from the anime, with very outrageous hairstyles, fights in the style of "jump and hit the enemy while you are in the air" and a whole bunch of other details that anime is so loved for. I would not call this moment controversial, but in the territory of the CIS countries, many people have a somewhat ambiguous attitude towards this genre. So if you can’t stand such things, then here’s your first and very serious reason to think. In addition, especially sensitive individuals can pick up a hint of a certain homosexuality of certain characters (although, I can assure you, there is not a single "gay" in the game).

Well, if you are calm about all of the above, then you will open up just a huge, rich and beautifully written world that you want to believe in and in which you want to live, despite all these strife and political squabbles.

Actually, one should start with the fact that the reader should not be deceived by the word "kingdom". In fact, Eos is a fairly advanced world, in which there is a place for firearms, cars, and high technology in principle, and also which, in terms of development level, is close to our planet in the 20th century. Only here in our world there is no magic, and at night demons do not crawl out of the ground, from which people are forced to protect themselves with a huge amount of light.

As in any self-respecting RPG, the world in Final Fantasy has own history, which you can learn about from books, stories of friends and other NPCs. There are even local resorts and attractions where our protagonist can find a crowd of interested tourists, or just vacationers.

During the game, our protégé will have to travel a lot. And since he is the crown prince of the kingdom, no one, of course, will send him on a dangerous path full of adventures. With the player in the company there will be three more friends who are also faithful servants of the crown, ready to give their lives for the main character, if necessary. Naturally, each of the heroes has his own combat skills, character and even hobbies, so let's dwell on the hero's associates (and on the hero himself) in more detail:

• Noctis Lucius Caelum (or simply Noctis) is the crown prince of a kingdom. Almost all his life he was spoiled, so at the beginning of the story he is a kind of representative of the golden youth, the sons of wealthy parents, who is not used to denying himself anything.
• Gladiolus Amicitia- A childhood friend of Noctis. Over the years, his family has protected the king, so, as you might guess, he acts as a kind of bodyguard for the prince, as well as his mentor in combat. Just loves physical exercise, considers survival in the wild to be his main hobby. Armed with a heavy sword and shield, he is the "tank" of the party.
  
• Ignis Siencia- Another childhood friend of Noctis. Unusually serious, he nevertheless has a very subtle sense of humor (although, alas, he jokes infrequently). In the party, he is responsible for ensuring that everyone is fed and that the prince has clean clothes. Actually, cooking for Ignis is not just another tedious chore, but a full-fledged mania, because literally immediately after the next battle, he can suddenly be overshadowed by a new recipe, which he may hasten to implement at the next stop in the camp (the main thing is not to poison anyone accidentally, hehe). Ignis is armed with blades and a spear, making him a melee assassin of sorts.
• Prompto Argentum- A friend of our character from school days. Unlike previous heroes, he is, rather, a simple person who does not serve in submission to the king. Appears before us as a simple, carefree and always cheerful guy. Again, unlike the rest of the party members, he, according to the plot, does not bring much benefit. She loves taking pictures of everyone and everything. Carries a firearm, as you might guess, is a warrior that deals damage at a distance.
  

Actually, the game begins with the fact that our brave heroes leave the territory of Insomnia for the first time and discover that outside the capital, it turns out that a completely different currency is used (in English version - gil). In order to earn this currency, the heroes will have to hunt various animals, help not the most successful drivers with car repairs, deliver goods, fish, or race Chocobos (such a mixture of a giant chicken and turkey, an analogue of a horse in our world). In general, nothing particularly unusual, although it should be noted that the variety and a huge selection of activities still clearly benefit the game. Moreover, the player in one form or another participates in the hobby of his friends as well. So, for example, it directly depends on the player what kind of food Ignis will cook (and since one dish often requires several components at once, you should periodically run into stores and buy certain ingredients). And Prompto will kindly provide the public with photos taken during the day.

And on their journey, the heroes go on a royal car - Rolls Royce Regalia. This vehicle is a unique instance, so it is easily comparable with any supercar. And like any supercar, the Regalia has a whole bunch of not the most convenient parameters that our hero and his friends can improve by searching for parts and installing them in the workshop.

In general, since we are talking about the car, it should be noted that traveling on it feels somehow special, not like in ordinary arcades or RPGs. The player just wants to go and open his mouth, looking around, and not concentrate on the road. Fortunately, the developers have provided a special opportunity - to entrust the control of the car to your friend and enjoy the view.

What can be said about this chapter. Is the game atmospheric? Definitely yes. colorful secondary characters, friends of the protagonist, now and then joking with each other, or a car mechanic girl speaking with a slight "southern" accent, a bunch of unique places, a deep study of the universe. It can be seen that more than one talented screenwriter had a hand in the game - everything around is saturated with the atmosphere of some kind of road movie.

Plot

Unfortunately, in this case, it’s almost impossible to tell about the plot, because Final Fantasy XV is a game that places a lot of emphasis on stories and talking about the plot in an article of this kind is like giving you a book and making you read it from the end. But this does not mean that nothing will be said at all, no.

During the game, Noctis will travel the world, staying at various hotels and eateries along the way, or setting up tents for the night, in search of the tombs of dead kings. Each such tomb contains a number of enemies and bosses, as well as special unique weapons. Such weapons are more powerful than conventional weapons, but using them costs our alter ego a precious health bar. The plot itself is served with the help of well-posed dialogues and interestingly presented scenes. Sometimes Noctis has a choice of answers, although, alas, one cannot count on a constant variety. Toward the end of the game, we will be completely protected from the open world and forced to follow the scenario strictly. And here the game makes a very painful blow "in the stomach" (however, not for the first time, because we have not yet touched on the gameplay part): why, one wonders, were some of the territories fenced off? Apparently, the developers did not have enough time and effort. We missed it. And this is actually very annoying, especially for an RPG game.

Later, back in the era when Final Fantasy XV was only on consoles, the developers tried to rectify the situation with four story DLCs. One of them even brings multiplayer, the action of which takes place in the so-called "dark" times. The other three let you play as each of Noctis's companions and learn their story in a slightly more colorful way.

In addition to the last point, the players also promised four more fairly large-scale DLC until 2019, so who knows, maybe new locations will be added there? In any case, until then, you still need to live.

Well, summing up the plot - yes, it exists, and, moreover, it is quite well done (after all, when did the Japanese have non-atmospheric games with a weak plot at all?). At certain points in some additional quests, there will also be an opportunity to reveal characters with new side, which cannot but rejoice.

Gameplay

Here everything is more or less traditional for the RPG genre: We run, kill opponents, get levels, spend experience points to develop certain skills in our company.

The combat component deserves a separate discussion. First, it really is very reminiscent of anime. Noctis runs flat on the ground, jumps a good meter (or more), can strike while hovering in the air, or parry straight at an opponent from a certain distance while still in the air. In total, the protagonist has 8 types of weapons, three types of magic and the same number of loyal allies in circulation.

Each opponent uses his own tactics, and also requires an individual approach. So, for example, some enemies like to set up ambushes, waiting for the player in different places, while others, on the contrary, do not touch anyone unless you start pestering them.

Naturally, each enemy has its own strengths and weaknesses: Some beasts are very agile, and therefore easily dodge a blow from a heavy sword, but are very susceptible to polearms. Some monsters are quite calm about fire magic, but they can't stand ice or light. Among other things, most enemies have different damage zones. Some people are more painfully given missed blows to the head, and someone does not like when they hit him in the body. In theory, all this forces the player to experiment and look for new approaches even to already known opponents, but in practice, in most cases, the gameplay may well slide down to an elementary “calling” of the enemy.

Allies also play a rather important role: The game provides for a kind of battle scale. When receiving and dealing certain damage, this scale slowly but surely fills up. Then we can choose the help of which ally to use, and together with him apply a rather powerful combo that deals additional damage to the enemy. As in any anime, sometimes in order to be more effective, friends need to stand next to each other and together concentrate the attack on one target (one of the comrades also has a separate skill for this). The skills themselves also grow with use and, accordingly, deal more damage over time.

And finally, magic. Actually, magic itself is a kind of fireballs that we throw at the enemy, and which we can create from the elements. With him, the prince can store only a small part of these elements and accumulates them in special places, around conditional camps. Also, magic can conditionally include a teleport, as well as Noctis's special combo attacks using weapons. This job consumes mana. In order to replenish mana and health, you just need to throw the sword in a special place, away from the battle and teleport to it. Thus, our hero will take a short break and replenish his strength.

As a result, even though quite detailed description, some readers may still have questions, so this is how a "live" battle looks like (because, unfortunately, it will not work to transfer it with screenshots).

Quests.Yes, as already mentioned, there are really a lot of additional quests, but here is their study ... In a nutshell - some of them are simply terribly designed. For example, the driver's car broke down, he pulled it aside and is waiting for help. It seems that everything is logical. Only now deadly demons wake up in the game world at night. One giant on a local scale may be quite enough to roll a whole group of relatively well-trained hunters alive into the asphalt, but for some reason the monsters avoid peaceful drivers. And the carriers are happy to get up and wait for a year of help. Peppercorns in this situation are also added by the lack of adequate dialogues. You just meet the driver and he literally complains in one sentence that the car is broken. Well, the truth is, even in MMOs, this approach has not been used for a long time! And I'm not talking about the logic itself - in one day you can meet up to three drivers, with some luck. What is this, a general low quality car? Total carelessness? Why do half of the drivers stand on the side of the road?
The other part of the quests is divided into "get to point X and kill everyone", "find me such and such an ingredient" and "get to point X, kill everyone and find ingredient Y". Variety as it is!

The result is a very strange situation when, on the one hand, you want to praise the quests, on the other hand, to scold them. Why? Yes, because there was not enough time and money! Because they failed! How could everything be done better, but, alas and ah ...

In addition to quests, another very unpleasant moment should also be noted: the game really, really likes to throw "meat" at your party. Apparently, one of the developers thought that just exploring the world would be boring for Noctis, so when you travel on foot, a certain number of enemies will attack you with enviable regularity. The difference between the waves can be literally a couple of minutes. As a result, you will not end up exploring the game world, but fighting for a day. This is especially noticeable at night, when in one battle, in parallel with a giant demon, you will have time to smash about three parties over simple monsters, and enemy soldiers that will appear literally under your nose.

What can be said in the end? Perhaps the gameplay is the weakest part of the game and often leaves with the help of the atmosphere and interesting playfulness of some moments. It's not that it's too bad, or that the game turns players away from itself with little variety and stupid grind. No, playing Final Fantasy XV is quite interesting and fun, but just like with the previous points, the same ailment manifests itself - we didn’t get enough, we didn’t have enough time and energy. It could be much better!

In some justification for the developers, however, I would like to note this: In fact, Final Fantasy XV is a long-term construction. During development, the game's concept, setting, and even combat changed several times. So, for example, initially it was generally assumed that the player would control the entire party at once, and, if desired, be able to switch control from one character to another and make deadly combinations in this way. And when switching to Prompto, the game generally had every chance of becoming a full-fledged third-person shooter.

However, concepts have changed, people responsible for development have changed, years have passed, and as a result, some very outdated game mechanics have remained in place from those times, almost a decade ago, when having such features was not considered something kind of shameful or shameful. .

Alas, it’s already 2018 (well, or 2016, if we take the original release date of the game on the console), and what was acceptable then is not always acceptable now. Perhaps I'm pushing too hard on the shortcomings, but if by most parameters the game pulls on a solid eight, then the gameplay itself, in its "cleared" form of dialogues and other crutches, pulls about six - six and a half points, and this, in fact actually, it's pretty sad. However, let's not talk about sad things.

Graphics, animations and physics

Here's what Square Enix really did not lose, so it's with the graphics! Final Fantasy XV looks very beautiful and quite realistic even on the standard configuration, but for fans high resolutions brought a free patch with textures in HD resolution. The Internet is still circulating screenshots in 8k. And they look, I must say, very dignified. It should also be noted simply breathtaking panoramic views, which every now and then meet our heroes in their difficult journey. However, the Japanese are praised not only by epic views. After all, it is japanese games almost all the time pay great attention to the little things! And the FF XV is no exception. Even at a simple gas station, you can find a whole bunch of small parts, giving a kind of charm and uniqueness to an already wonderful atmosphere!

Animation deserves a separate paragraph. They are really made in an interesting way, with attention to detail. So, for example, when running fast, our protégé will jump over the fence himself. And there are many such examples. However, if you wish, you can make our protagonist walk like a disabled person in peaceful areas, and this somewhat spoils the picture.

Of the obvious disadvantages, perhaps, only physics, which relates to graphics very indirectly, can be noted. And now I'm not talking about anime jumps, but specifically about the physical model of the game as a whole. So, for example, you have some possibility of getting stuck in the bushes, since their physical model is made in a very specific way, and Noctis can simply cling to one leaf, which will not give him a pass. However, in fairness, it is worth noting that even the most curious player will climb into such bushes quite rarely.

Well, in continuation of the topic of physics, the player cannot drive a car. All that is available to him is a car that goes strictly along the road, like rails, like a tram, and if you want to turn around, Noctis will make a sharp and spectacular U-turn with a slight skid. And everything would be fine, only at a slow speed it looks very clumsy and completely unrealistic.

With a certain number of upgrades, however, this drawback will go away (still, a flying car moving strictly above the roads would be that joke), but a little sediment, as they say, remains. In any case, these are all minor quibbles and visually the game leaves only pleasant impressions.

Music and sound

Another gem in the game can safely be called music. Each location plays its own theme, and when you enter the building, the processing changes, and now the same melody is played on completely different instruments. Melodies do not cut the ear and, in principle, sound quite pleasant, especially for lovers of calm piano compositions. In general, Square Enix did not stint on music not only in terms of quality, but also in terms of quantity. The developers have provided players with five hours of continuous soundtrack! Just think about this number! It is clear that no one will let you fall asleep to monotonous melodies.

Well, for lovers of facts, perhaps the name of Yoko Shimomura will say something. Considered the most celebrated female video game composer in the world, she already has over twenty years of experience to her credit. Among the most outstanding works- music for such masterpieces as Street Fighter II, Kingdom Hearts, several Super Mario games and even a couple of melodies for Final Fantasy III.

The overall sound is also not far behind in terms of quality. Above, I already gave an example of a car mechanic girl speaking in a South American accent (alas, I can’t say anything about Russian localization). And these little things slip through every character. So, as already mentioned, the Japanese approach to detail is always on top!

The only slightly weak point is the small number of unscripted dialogues between characters during travel, and all the same poorly designed quests, where some NPCs can only speak one line of text. But this is more of a problem general plan elaboration of quests, rather than sound in particular.

Results

Well, well, that's all. We got acquainted with the pluses of the game, with some controversial points, as well as with its minuses. What else can be said here? Just to briefly summarize:
Before us is a very worthy representative of the RPG genre, soundly seasoned with anime elements. Very atmospheric, moderately linear and has a great sense of immersion. To some regret, it is worth noting that the company failed to fully realize the full potential of the game and some mechanics in it work with a loud creak.

So, for the facts:

Graphic arts - 8.0

A beautifully designed and looking game. Especially for the PC release brought high-resolution textures.

Gameplay - 6.5

Unfortunately, the weakest part of the game. Somewhat outdated mechanics, a lack of quality in a certain (relatively small) part of the quests. Basically, everything is played up due to various kinds of crutches, but the gameplay in its "pure" form still leaves much to be desired. Yes, there are quite original ideas with the hobbies of the main characters, yes, there are a couple of very interesting ideas, but alas, these ideas are not enough.

Music and sound- 8.5

Great soundtrack, huge variety of compositions. Some melodies, of course, appear much more often than others, but the main impression is strictly positive.

Atmosphere - 8.5

The game is very atmospheric. A whole bunch of details and trifles are superbly sustained. Here you are given to study huge cities in the style of hi-tech, and small gas stations, and even abandoned structures that resemble some S.T.A.L.K.E.R. The idea of ​​taking a selfie, the idea of ​​setting up a camp for the night, the idea of ​​cooking food, or spending the night in a hotel, spontaneous additional quests from party members, all this adds charm, comfort and uniqueness to the game.

Plot - 7.0

Interesting presentation, a few interesting moments, even the most discerning gamers will definitely find it. The revelation of some characters through additional quests (however, nothing particularly new).

Overall score - 7.5

Verdict:

A very good game that will not leave indifferent the average player, especially those who are not very familiar with Final Fantasy games. Yes, many argue that Final Fantasy X was much better, but earlier the sun was brighter and the grass was greener.

telegraph

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