I sobbed like a baby at the end of this game.

I can't believe RGG managed to make a short game that bridges Kiryu's story between LAD 6 and 7 this damn good. Kiryu is one of my all-time favorite characters in gaming and fiction as a whole, and getting to play as him again after so long was so nice. The combat was as good as it's ever been and the final boss fight was a satisfyingly tough fight that I really enjoyed. The new characters were all great and the story, while short, did a great job at explaining what happened between 6 and 7 before Infinite Wealth comes out next year.

I love this series so fucking much, and this is up there with 0, 6 and 7 as one of my all-time favorites. Kiryu is such an amazing character, and I truly can't believe how much of an emotional gut-punch the ending was; I don't often cry at games but I feel like I've invested so much time and emotional energy into this man's journey that it almost felt cathartic to cry. This was a such a special gaming experience and I'm so glad I got to play it.

People discredit XV because of it's rushed development towards the end of it's dev cycle and it's overall turbulent lifespan even after release but, in it's final form as of when I played it in 2021, I can confidently say that XV is one of my favourite Final Fantasies and games of all time. The game's strengths really lie in it's character's development and relationships, especially between the main four, and does an incredible job of depicting realistic friendships with such steep power dynamics as those between Noctis and the rest of his party. I knocked off a star due to the gradual decline of the overall story upon reaching the train segment and loss of the open world, however, there are still some strong story beats in the later parts, especially regarding Ardyn, and so this doesn't destroy the game overall by any means. In conclusion, I see Final Fantasy XV as one of the most overlooked and underrated mainline games in the franchise that was screwed over by an incredibly long development time and a rushed release.

This entire game; battles, cutscenes, even goddamn menus feels like you're underwater, but man if it isn't one of the most addictive and rewarding JRPGs ever made from a pure gameplay perspective. The combat is superb and the incredibly deep fusion system of these games is at its best here.

The story and its characters are full of missed opportunities but I honestly was having too much fun killing everything in my path to care about any of those losers. I did enjoy Amanozako however, cause she's quite cute and funny.

This game's OST bangs, it FUCKS; nothing but hits here. I only mark it down a half star because of the shit performance (this can be remedied with a PC port) and a couple of really bad dungeons that have no business existing, but at least just felt like mere detours.