5/5 ★ – asoola's review of Final Fantasy XV: Royal Edition.

It’s been four years since I played and finished my first playthrough of the main story in FINAL FANTASY XV. This year I decided to replay it and after this replay I can say with full confidence that this game is magnificent. To me FINAL FANTASY XV story is about brotherhood, love, family and accepting your fate and I’ll discuss each point and why I loved those themes and how one theme related to the protagonist of this story. Let’s start with the first point brotherhood: the bond between Noctis, Ignis, Prompto, and Gladiolus is written so well I truly felt how much they cared for each other & loved each other and how they would go through anything to support each other, their bond felt so real whether it was when they argued or had the time of their life together they felt like true friends, like brothers. Now onto the second point love: love came in many forms in this game whether it was familial love or platonic love (as stated above) for this specific point I’m talking about the romantic love between Lunafreya and Noctis I personally loved their relationship together and their love for each other felt so real in each moment they had with each other, the writers did a good job portraying how much they loved each other in a simple yet lasting manner. Their love for each other was so strong it knew no bounds in my opinion. Next is the family point: Regis loved his son so much and would do anything to save his son from his fate even if it came to him sacrificing his life. Regis relationship with Noctis left me in tears on multiple occasions not only because Regis would do anything to save Noctis, but also because Noctis wanted to see his dad happy and hated seeing him sad he would’ve done anything to help ease his mind. Now lastly is accepting your fate: For me to talk about this I’ll have to heavily include Noctis since he accepted what will happen and faced it head on. Noctis started as a reluctant prince who had mixed feelings about being a leader or rather king, he didn’t think he was up to the task since he looked up to his father and thought he’s the coolest. Noctis lacked confidence and as the journey unfolds his drive to be the next King of Lucis wavers however he grew as a person as the journey continued he learned how to accept the consequences and move forward. He will never forget the people he lost but as Ignis says “A king can’t lead standing still.” so that’s how Noctis starts accepting his fate to be a King. He gains confidence and wants to help the people but his fate wasn’t just to be king there was one other thing, he needed to have the strength, courage and determination to sacrifice himself for his people. As hard as it was to accept he still accepted it and walked tall, which is why I think Noctis is of course heavily intertwined with the “accepting your fate.” point! Noctis’s character development is seriously the best character development I’ve seen for a protagonist! Now that I talked about each point I want to talk about the story and antagonist first though story, in my opinion I think the story is very well written! The points I mentioned above and how they unfold in the story is amazing, the story of FINAL FANTASY XV is something that is brilliantly written how each plot point unfolds and how the dots connect as you progress is great to me, the pacing of the story fits the story they’re telling too! I can go on and on about why I think this story is amazing but I’ll stop here and say to me it is a fantastic story! Now Ardyn I’m going to be honest back in 2020 I thought he’s a great antagonist and I still do but I wasn’t a big fan of his character this opinion did change because I started loving how well written his character is! The parallels he shares with Noctis are written amazingly, he’s such a well written antagonist! He came off at first as helpful and charismatic guy but deep down he was always two steps ahead! I love when the antagonist is written as a parallel to the protagonist! Story and antagonist aside all of the characters I met in the game left a lasting impression on me and I loved all of them very much! Ignis, Prompto, Gladiolus and Lunafreya all of them are characters that are written very well they didn’t just exist for Noctis’s story each of them had their own troubles and stories that blend so well with the main story as a whole! The gameplay was fantastic (I used to dislike the magic gameplay not anymore though!) and the music in this game is a masterpiece! The world of FFXV and lore is something I’m very interested in too! In conclusion I personally love everything about this game and I can’t think of a single thing I hate that’s why after four years I’m finally reaching the opinion that FINAL FANTASY XV is a well written, emotional, and enjoyable game that I will always love. 🖤