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.