Final Fantasy XV review: enthralling and slick, but problems lie beneath

Final Fantasy XV is not like other games. But as you marvel at its lavishness and beauty, you may start to notice the wheels coming off

A tagline greets you every time you start Final Fantasy XV: "A Final Fantasy for Fans and First-Timers". It isn't that the goal itself is notable, so much as the fact that Square Enix feels the need to repeat it every time you turn on the console. After all, what game hasn't tried to appeal to fans and first-timers? Metal Gear Solid 4, maybe. But other games generally assume their audience includes fans, first-timers, and everyone in between.

Of course, Final Fantasy XV isn't like other games. Other games don't take a decade from revelation to release, meaning there's rather more "first-timers" than there ever have been before. Other games don't launch with a tie-in movie voiced by Aaron Paul and Lena Headey, or a five-episode anime detailing the lives of the main characters, widening the gap between the fans and the first-timers still further. Other games don't get delayed by three months to ensure that all the content is on disk, before receiving a day-one content patch, and a follow-up content patch a month later. Other games don't feel the need to open, not with a stunning set-piece, or a slow intro to the world, but with a weird combat tutorial/lore guide where a strange fox thing talks to you about how to fight in the game before the game proper gets going.