Four young men are
stranded on the side of the road after their car runs out of gas. They take a break
from pushing it to try to hail some help, to no avail. “Just gonna have to push
her all the way,” one friend, Gladiolus, intones.
A feathery man lying
on the asphalt, Prompto, dramatically complains, “I’ve already pushed myself…
to the brink of death!” Gladiolus nudges Prompto and another friend laying on
the ground, their nominal leader, Noctis. The three take their positions to
push car but not before Prompto complains once more,” I thought the car was supposed
to push us.”
“Wouldn’t that be
nice,” Noctis states with a hint of dry sarcasm. While the three push the car,
Ignis, ever the genius, sits in the driver’s seat and steers. A soft, wispy
cover of “Stand By Me” begins to play under the banter of the four friends as
the camera pans out to reveal the title card: Final Fantasy XV.
Final Fantasy XV is a janky, unfinished mess. It is a
rather grand departure from the Final Fantasy games that proceeded it.
It is a multimedia empire with an anime prequel, a feature length film
depicting early offscreen events in the game, mobile games, and spinoff novels.
It is also the story of four young men and those they come in contact with after
experiencing a great tragedy. It is a story about the bonds of friendship
forged in both the high and low moments of life. But ultimately, Final
Fantasy XV is exactly the game we need at this moment.
In these times of global pandemics and uncertainty, you just
need to take a load off sometimes and escape. You might not haven’t been near
any friends or family in days, maybe weeks. Noctis, Prompto, Ignis, and Gladio
are exactly what you need. Their relationships are truly heart warming and the
focus of this story. Even though Noctis is the lead character and the one
through which most the story is told, you will have opportunities to control
the entire boy band if you play their additional campaigns. All three of those
stories, as well as the main story, are about our relationships to each other
and what they mean.
But the best part is that you get to experience that friendship
and the way it grows and changes and adapts to various circumstances over the
period of 100 hours. Ok, the game can be hurried through in about 20 hours, but
to get the full experience you have to play at least double that. That time will
allow you to step into the warm embrace of this world and these friends. And
they are friends. Just like in real life, they mock each other’s individual
quirks. They have running bits about calling Noctis by his title of Prince (He
hates it) and Prompto’s crush on Cindy, their mechanic. And how Ignis always
drives because he doesn’t trust anyone else to do the job.
It’s not just the four leads that make you want to stay in
this world. Gladio’s little sister Iris has a very cute crush on Noctis. Cindy
is a hilarious Southern American parody (I think its parody, anyway). There’s one
guy that looks like Jorge Garcia that hires you to take pictures for his
magazine and you don’t even know it. There’s a sketchy reporter/gem
collector/New Yorker named Dino that you do the occasional job for. The list
goes on and on.
Beyond the characters, Final Fantasy XV also tells an
epic story about war, love, loss, sacrifice, and magic. It has giant chickens
you can ride around when you get tired of your (very expensive) car. It has
almost lifelike renditions of various foods. There’s an excellent fishing minigame
you can pass hours doing. You can camp outside in officially branded Coleman equipment.
Or you can stay at hotels with various levels of swankiness. The game has so
much to see and do. And. So. Much. Cup. Noodle. But most of all, Final Fantasy
XV feels like the warm embrace of friends in a time when public health won’t
let me do that. That means I’m going to spend a lot of time with my guy Noctis
and his entourage in the coming weeks and days. Why don’t you join me?
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