Let's share our first (spoiler free!) impressions!

[Snap Jumper]

I've just completed chapter 5 (SPOILER)where Noctis and company have to infiltrate an enemy base in order to retrieve their stolen car, and I came to the first serious round of frustration, and it was due to the map system. I set the mini-map to always have north at the top because I prefer the map not rotate. However, (SPOILER)when I tried to escape the base after Noctis had Ramuh clear it out, it was very confusing that the larger map of that area on the menu's map screen was fixed, but rotated so north wasn't at the top, nor was it close. At least they put a compass on that screen, so that helped. I wish I could have rotated the menu (larger) map for the area, though.

Other than that, and having to hear the same things over and over (like Prompto singing the Chocobo theme or "I feel so sluggish") this game has been very enjoyable. There's plenty of things to do and the scenery and people look really good. Now to figure out why the diners have booths that could fit 10 people each when the places are mostly empty when I walk in.

[Necronopticous]

Is there a way to skip some hours of time? There was a hunt I wanted to do, but it was only available at night. I tried camping, and it just skipped me to the next day. Can I skip half a day somehow instead of wasting time running around waiting for night?

The ability to freely skip time is one of the many very basic open world game features missing from Final Fantasy XV. That said, accepting a nighttime hunt during the day will give you a prompt that lets you skip to night. You can abandon & re-accept if need be. It isn't perfect, but it gives you some amount of control at least.

It felt like such a waste of time, and there was so little to do during that time since the next part of the story said I'd be away from that area for a while. Where on earth are all the monsters to beat on?

You get some dingus later that lets you "summon monsters" to fight which you would think would cure this problem, but in my experience it doesn't really work. I think I was able to call one giant bee one time. Maybe I'm doing something wrong or not using it in the right place, but of course the game won't actually tell you.

[Loony BoB]

For summoning monsters, I found it works once you find a good spot and just keep whistling and then running around for a few seconds. It doesn't seem to work on roads, but if you go into areas where monsters normally spawn then chances are it'll work alright. I use it to farm AP.

Also, Snap Jumper: Yes! That map thing frustrated the crap out of me too. I didn't even spot a compass, I just looked at the minimap and kind of figured it out based on that.

[Necronopticous]

Someone on Reddit typed out the default control scheme

X jumps. It also interacts. Square isn't used for interacting because it's the walk button. There's a walk button. L3 or Circle sprint. Unless you're on a chocobo in which case Square sprints. R3 opens the map. In the Regalia R3 doesn't do anything and the touchpad opens the map. Dpad Up starts the radio. L2+Dpad Up starts the MP3 Player. Dpad Up otherwise does nothing useful outside the car unless in combat in which case L2+Dpad Up does nothing. Circle automatically walks to points of interaction. I'm not sure why but it does. L1 and R1 are used for the Armiger but can be hard to use because both buttons need quick execution on time with each other and can't be held. Summoning gets its own dedicated button on L2 despite needing several seconds of holding to perform.

[Kappy]

The amount of time I've spent jumping in front of an object I'm trying to pick up

I had an odd glitch yesterday in Chapter 7, fighting one of the Imperial robots. It fell through the floor! I tried locking on and warp-striking at it and Noctis did the same and the screen went black for 5 seconds and the game quit to a loading screen which never completed I had to reset the game.

[Necronopticous]

That is actually a result of the classic localization confirm/cancel swap. In this case the localization team swapped only some functions of O and X and not others, exacerbating the problem even further. The control scheme is actually a pretty good metaphor for the game as a whole.

[Wolf Kanno]

Still Chapter 3, but I'm finally breaking away from sidequests to focus on the main story, especially now that I've most likely shot myself in the foot and am probably over-leveled as hell for the part I'm going into.

Pros:

• CHOCOBOS! Enough said...Okay more seriously, I'm seriously digging the way they were implemented in this game and I love the fact they are more useful than past installments (not counting the MMOs) since they can be used everywhere and the time limit for them is quite generous. Being able to customize them was cool too, especially when you notice the first color palette you unlock are the color schemes for the basic Chocobos you race against in VII.
• Prompto taking selfies with his Chocobo are adorable.
• Finally got some better weapon options and really opened up combat.
• I appreciate the fact that weapons are more standardized and not filled with dumb "increases the Tech bar when evade ground based moves" nonsense from more recent battle systems. I got a Lightning Spear and it does exactly what it says it does and not some arbitrary boon to an overly complicated battle system.
• I love that character quests have a bit of story to them.
• While I am way under-leveled for them, I love the Dungeons I've encountered so far. The Mine Shaft one with the low level Goblins and the freaking Lv. 50 Ronin prowling on the bottom floors was pretty cool.
• Iris is adorable and her little story mission was really cool. She's my favorite NPC so far.
• I love the way Iris breaks the fourth wall in the menu system since when you open it up, she'll be sneaking a peak at Noctis until she notices the player is watching her and then starts acting like she wasn't just gawking at him.
• Finally took out that Lv. 30ish mutant monstrosity behind the Hammerhead, which is as satisfying as the first time you take out a Saurion in the Estersands in XII.
• After what feels like a lifetime of gas stations and silly resort locations, I finally reached an honest to goodness town and it didn't disappoint.
• I can finally beat some of the Daemons that appear at night.

Cons:

• I never thought I would say this but the world might be too big. Again, going back to my previous posts, I often feel like too much of the game is just trying to get to the interesting places, and I find my favorite quests tend to be ones that don't require me to go far from the mission giver. I mean thank god for the Chcocobos cause I can't imagine I would have finished half of the quests in Duscae if I didn't have them to shorten the walk. It doesn't help the fast travel system is just as slow.
• While I love the concept of Mark Hunts, much like FFXIII, XV seems to have failed to understand what made them so interesting in XII. That would be the fact that many of them either had some interesting, non-repetitive, story component to them which often expanded the lore of the world, but XV sadly has very few story based ones and many of them were unique creatures that may look like something you faced a hundred times before but always offered some unique gameplay element that made you really have to think on the fly and learn the ins and outs of the gameplay to finally beat. Instead, XV's is much like XIII's with many creatures just being beefier palette swaps of things you've faced over and over again which can be beaten with the same tactics. My favorite fights tend to always be ones against creatures I've never encountered before, but I assume they'll become the new standard later.
• The Deadeye quest was so much cooler in the demo than the final game. In fact, despite the amount of fanfare you get for beating it, the fight was completely underwhelming.

[Wolf Kanno]

Chapter Five baby!

Pros:

• The battle against (SPOILER)Titan is much more exciting when you actually play it for yourself. In fact, I feel like XV's gameplay has a similar problem with Xenoblade Chronicles, where the combat looks utterly boring and repetitive when watching videos of it, but the actual playing of it is so much more fun.
• Armiger Mode is pretty broken, and then you gave me a group attack with it? What the hell were you thinking XV?! I love it.
• Barring his really weird Raven wing sleeve, I'm really digging Ardyn. He's giving me a Kuja vibe with his theatrical personality.
• I actually found one of the Lucian Royal Weapons on my own, and I feel pretty proud.
• Midgard Zolom?! and he's still an unsuspecting kick in the teeth for an unprepared party? I'm digging these subtle shout outs to the classic series.
• The Ice dungeon was pretty amusing, and running into freaking Mindflayers in there is just as unnerving as it was in FF1.
• Now that I'm actually ignoring quests to push forward on the story mode, I've been growing more invested in the game again.
• Gladious' Survivor Skill has reached the point he can find Phoenix Downs on the field.

Cons:

• While I absolutely appreciate the fact that XV doesn't lower itself to the typical overuse of the "collect 100 bear butts for me" type quests that tend to ravage open world games like Syphilis in a whore house, I do feel the quest system of the game has some issues. The issue is that while some of the more mundane quests are pretty comical the first time you do them (pick up some guys groceries? Is "Prince" Eos' special term for "town chore bitch"?) they quickly lose that quality when you go back to the person and he gives you five different versions of the same damn quest. Overall, like Xenoblade, I feel XV has a quest problem and I feel a simple "less is more" approach would have sufficed much like it would have in Xenoblade. It's great to have things to do in the game, don't get me wrong , but I could have done without going to Duscae and having what I'm guessing is about fifty samey quests open up all at once. There is a bit of a story thread for them so their may be some pay off later when the quest chain ends but we'll have to wait and see.
• While I appreciate the ability to play classic FF music in the car, the song selection isn't always the best. I could have done with less battle themes and more character/event themes. None of this is helped by me playing Theaterhythm on the side and the song selection for many of the collections is the same in both games.
• After accidentally reading somewhere that some of the items are used as a special currency late in the game, I have become absolutely paranoid about selling any of my loot, which has led to some money shortages here and there.

[Yar]

I gave up. I'm about four or five hours into it and I just cannot go any further, not even just to laugh at it. This game is not good. The story makes no sense and is poorly told. The characters are awful. And most importantly, this game is just really smurfing boring.

Enjoy the game, guys. Ten years waiting for a game where you just hold down the circle button. woo

[Kappy]

4 or 5 hours is nothing! What Chapter were you on?

[Loony BoB]

WK: http://home.eyesonff.com/showthread....16#post3645916 just for you, baby

[Bubba]

I've had barely any time to play this with baby illnesses but what I've played I've really enjoyed! Still trying to get the hang of fighting but it's a struggle. I was so close to death on the boss fight in the first dungeon. I was just getting battered. The boss at the end of chapter 2 was much more enjoyable though. It felt Final Fantasy-esque even with the action-based combat style.

Just started chapter 3 and having a play around with fishing. I'm not bad! I haven't been disappointed in the slightest. I'm also glad I watched Kingslaive again the night before this came out.

[Kappy]

Fishing is the one thing that hasn't really clicked with me gameplay-wise. I really don't enjoy it. I'm still on Level 1. xD

[Elly]

the fishing is really easy as long as you do not reel in at any time the tension bar is up, even when it's white, just pull in the direction it tells you to and reel in only when the tension bar is gone completely and your line will last so much longer... just let go of R2 any time the tension bar appears and all will be good...

so far i'm 40.5 hours in and almost done with Chapter 3, only a couple more side quest to go and i can begin Chapter 4, i'm really loving it, it really feels like a Final Fantasy game should to me... blows my mind how people are already done when there is so much to see and do in this game (they must have skipped 90% of the game), but i've never been one to rush through to the end if i love the world, setting, and characters... so far this really is an awesome game and it belongs on my favorites list of VII, VIII, X, XIII, and now XV...

[Kappy]

My struggle was getting them hooked in the first place. I can get the red bar to appear (ie they are alert) but it disappears after a few seconds.