No other Final Fantasy has given you this much freedom, this early.
The civilisation you’re greeted with is the small hamlet of Hammerhead, and it’s enthralling. The opening bars of a Florence and the Machine cover of Stand By Me start, as you begin to push the car toward civilisation. Those same characters are stuck with a broken-down car in the middle of scrubland. In a flash forward, the four heroes fight a god. Strange fox thing aside, it starts so strong.
Maybe Final Fantasy XV could do with being a bit more like other games. Other games don’t feel the need to open, not with a stunning set-piece, or a slow intro to the world, but with a weird combat tutorial/lore guide where a strange fox thing talks to you about how to fight in the game before the game proper gets going. Other games don’t get delayed by three months to ensure that all the content is on disk, before receiving a day-one content patch, and a follow-up content patch a month later. Other games don’t launch with a tie-in movie voiced by Aaron Paul and Lena Headey, or a five-episode anime detailing the lives of the main characters, widening the gap between the fans and the first-timers still further. Other games don’t take a decade from revelation to release, meaning there’s rather more “first-timers” than there ever have been before. Of course, Final Fantasy XV isn’t like other games. But other games generally assume their audience includes fans, first-timers, and everyone in between. After all, what game hasn’t tried to appeal to fans and first-timers? Metal Gear Solid 4, maybe.
It isn’t that the goal itself is notable, so much as the fact that Square Enix feels the need to repeat it every time you turn on the console. A tagline greets you every time you start Final Fantasy XV: “A Final Fantasy for Fans and First-Timers”.
0 kommentar(er)
