Final Fantasy 15 Review Round-Up: Worth The 10 Year Wait?

There are some fairly lofty expectations riding on Final Fantasy 15, so the fact that the first reviews are beginning to come in should make this an exciting day for fans. The title has been in development in some fashion for ten years, so it's easy to see why anticipation might be high. Does it live up to the hype? Judging from the reviews landing today, it would seem it does.

At the moment, Final Fantasy 15 is sitting at an aggregate score of 86 on Metacritic, with 25 reviews. In general, it seems that a lot of reviewers are fond of the game's combat system, open world, and post-game content, with some liking the main story more than others. The general takeaway seems to be that while Final Fantasy 15 has its flaws, it's still a very good game worth the attention of patient fans.

Game Informer's Andrew Reiner had high praise for the game's characters in his 8.5/10 review. "I was a big fan of Final Fantasy X's ensemble, but thanks to the smart (and often funny) dialogue, Final Fantasy XV's characters are my favorite in the series," Reiner writes. He also notes that Final Fantasy 15 is "unlike any RPG or open-world experience I've played before," which is pretty high praise for a series as long-running as this one.GameSpot's Peter Brown notes that "the real fun is just getting started" once the main story wraps up. "Unreasonably large monsters, legendary weapons, and mysterious high-level dungeons lie in wait if you choose to continue playing," Brown says. This post-game content is held in stark contrast to a story that he says "leaves little room for its stars to evolve and earn your affection." In the end, though, Final Fantasy 15 puts on a solid enough show to earn an 8/10 from GameSpot.

Over at IGN, Vince Ingenito gives the game an 8.2/10 and holds its four heroes above whatever flaws it might have, saying that the "mutual respect, understanding, and kinship of these four is fleshed out and reinforced beautifully whether in combat, on the road, or everywhere in between." That's an encouraging thing to hear, considering the game seems to focus on more on these four as a single unit rather than the exploits of Prince Noctis and his three bodyguards.

Eurogamer's Aoife Wilson agrees that the four main characters and mechanics are strong points of the game, but can't say the same about the story. "The plotting is quite bafflingly bad; nothing of note actually plays out in front of you for most of the game," Wilson writes. "In fact, most of the inciting events take place either off-camera or in Kingsglaive, the full-length tie-in feature film."

In Polygon's 9/10 review of the game, Philip Kollar notes that the only real downside to the new combat system is the touchy camera, which can have problems in tight spaces. He also says that even though there are some issues with with the development of both the world and some side-quests, everything comes together neatly in the end.

"The world as a whole and some of the smaller plot beats aren't as well-developed as I'd hoped, but the game has a clear and logical goal for Noctis, and every part of where it leads and where he ends up feels right." Kollar writes. "For as much trouble as most games have with endings, FF15 nails it."

All in all, it sounds like at least some people will consider the 10-year wait for Final Fantasy 15 to be worth it. It may be a little rough around the edges, but most of these reviewers seem to be able to overlook whatever flaws might be present to view the finished product as an experience that was ultimately worthwhile. Considering some of the low points the Final Fantasy series has hit in recent years, that's definitely good to hear.