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Final Fantasy XV: Windows Edition Review — PC Save the Queen

 
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3D Boxshot Wizard LHS v1.1
3D Boxshot Wizard LHS v1.1

 
Overview
 

Published by: Square Enix
 
Developed by: Square Enix Business Division 2
 
Platform(s): PlayStation 4 Xbox One Microsoft Windows
 
Genre(s): Action role-playing
 
Mode(s): Single-player, Multi-player(Comrades DLC)
 
Game Type: , ,
 
FG RATING
88%
88/ 100


User Rating
no ratings yet

 

Raves


All DLC included for a price slightly below standard retail. Even greater visual heights from what was previously possible. Controller Support. Keyboard and Mouse allow for more advanced combos.

Rants


Frame drops. Lighting Issues.


Posted April 19, 2018 by

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A Final Fantasy for Fans and First-timers. The game literally opens up with that line, and as someone who’s barely played any of the previous numbered titles, I could not agree more.

Originally released on November of 2016 for the PlayStation 4, Final Fantasy XV has finally made its way to the wonderful world of PC gaming. bringing with it all previously released downloadable content, meaning this is essentially the definitive edition of the game, rather than just a simple PC port. The game also takes advantage of this versatile new platform by adding a few new bells and whistles here and there. You can download the game now on Steam for P2,699.00.

STORY

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You take on the role of Noctis, a prince on a fated quest to bring peace between two warring kingdoms. Accompanied by his most trusted, and dearest friends —Ignis, Prompto, and Gladius— the four set out on a grand adventure of friendship, loyalty, and purpose. You’re pretty much stuck with those three dudes throughout the majority of the game, unlike in most RPGs where you’re allowed to switch it up however you want. But, as a result, the story is able to solidify a close narrative bond between Noctis and his friends, making them as much a part of the grand story than they would have been had they been just a couple of interchangeable henchmen.

Not gonna lie, the game sports a pretty odd and dodgy plot, but then again, when did Final Fantasy ever have a straight-edged story? That being said, there’s a whole slew of plot mass to get through, not to mention the plethora of side quests and whatnots you can encounter along the way. These side-quests are perfect excuses to grind, if only they weren’t boring and repetitive 80% of the time. They usually open up with unnecessarily slow introductions and boring-ass dialogue when the bottom line is usually something as boring as looking for some dog tags in the middle of nowhere for a measly reward. After completing the said sidequest, you then get to unlock the next tier of quests that essentially asks you to do the exact same thing x number of times.

GAMEPLAY

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Final Fantasy XV’s gameplay is pretty different from what you’d expect from a numbered FF title, not that Final Fantasy ever had a standard combat system throughout the years, foregoing the traditional turn-based action with a more hands-on real-time approach. Some might tell you that it’s reminiscent of Arkham’s iconic combat formula but it’s really more akin to that of Kingdom Hearts if anything. The face buttons are mapped to some of the more basic combat actions. Pretty straightforward in that you attack by tapping and/or holding a single button and block/dodge with another. You can freeze time to pause the action at any time which is useful for when perusing through your item list or for analyzing your enemies and their weaknesses. Noctis also has the ability to close at great distances but hurling his weapon and warping to it on impact. Noctis can also issue commands and chain tag attacks with his posse.

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Final Fantasy XV’s combat on the surface is pretty bare and simple and the PC version, as with most games nowadays, obviously includes controller support, but the keyboard layout enables players to issues more complex gameplay commands far beyond what a controller layout allows. Interestingly in FFXV, characters don’t level up in real-time. You earn points which are then tallied and calculated after camping out or staying in at a hotel. This is interesting because you could actually bank the experience until you get a big enough EXP multiplier then cash it in for a huge jump in Level. The game supports a day and night cycle, and some monsters and quests can only be encountered at night. The danger also significantly ramps up at night for that’s when strong scary monsters show up.

It’s important to note that all previously released DLC from the console editions are in the Windows Edition, including the multiplayer expansion ‘Comrades’.

VISUALS & PERFORMANCE 

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Final Fantasy XV’s world was beautiful and expansive and now, with the PC version, that splendor is completely renewed, with better lighting, textures, draw distance, shaders, and particle effects that stimulate the need for exploring FFXV’s fantastical world like never before. The PC port enables all sorts of graphical tweaking as well as some brand new visual options courtesy of NVIDIA. These new options enable players to add more realistic detailing from environmental objects, down to each characters individual hair strands. Final Fantasy XV’s combat also benefits significantly from the higher frame-rate made possible by the PC platform. Battles can get quite crowded and chaotic, having the increased framerate makes the flow of combat smoother and easier to follow.

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Final Fantasy XV on PC really does look great, unfortunately, I did encounter some graphical errors that were persistent enough that they were quite hard to ignore. For one, there was an issue with the lighting where the transition between outdoors to indoors and vice-versa produced some really awkward lightning in the dark. This doesn’t happen often but it does happen, and the only workaround that seems to work requires a full reboot of the game, which is pretty tedious. The next one is only really a big deal for those planning on streaming it through GeForce Experience. ShadowPlay streams fine initially up until you decide to have the boys rest for the night, at which point they’ll be waking up to a huge drop in performance. This doesn’t happen quite often and I’m not sure if using a different game capture software will do the trick, but for ShadowPlay, I’ve only managed to solve the problem by turning off the stream. I’m certain it isn’t the rig because there were times where the stream went without a hitch for several hours at a time. This brings me to the game’s biggest visual problem; frame skipping. It doesn’t matter how high-end your rig is, Final Fantasy XV on PC  periodically skips frames often enough that it’s quite difficult to ignore.

VERDICT

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Final Fantasy XV: Windows Edition is more than just a successful PC port. It takes full advantage of this new platform and delivers improvements we didn’t even know it needed, bringing more beauty to an already beautiful world and more adrenaline to an already fast-paced combat system. You can forgive its occasional framerate and lighting issues when you consider the fact that it still outperforms its console counterpart. The fact that it also includes every single piece of DLC previously released as well as few new exclusive treats for PC for a price point that’s a little below the standard price and you’ve got yourself the perfect excuse to jump in and go on a road trip with the gang for the first time, or even again.


Dian Raval

 
Dian is a writer for Flipgeeks who, in his spare time, stares at a wall in his basement. If you'd like to discuss music, video games, or the infinite wisdom of concrete, follow him on twitter @iburnandfume or subscribe to his YouTube channel @iburnandfume. He's pretty much iburnandfume in everything. Apparently he... burns and fumes.