When Final fantasy XIII came out lots of people complained about it being too linear, and Square Enix had the bright idea to listen to these people and wandered out of their comfort zone, delivering the most open world Final Fantasy yet, which also happens to be the worst main series title since Final Fantasy II.
It reminded me of Resident Evil VI; a high budget disaster that completely lost its identity by trying to cater to everyone instead of doing its own thing. In Final Fantasy XV, the open world feels lifeless and offers absolutely nothing interesting to do. The narrative is all over the place, and then it feels like most of the story is missing anyway. Even the game-play feels unfinished, as despite some interesting mechanics it devolves to just button mashing and item spamming later in the game.
I came in with low expectations, but I couldn’t have been prepared for this. The only reason I managed to finish this game was because of my sheer disbelief that a Final Fantasy game couldn’t possibly be this bad. I kept pushing myself through this mess hoping it would become better… but it only became worse.
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Positive:
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Negative:
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Beautiful visuals
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Dull, lifeless characters
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Good soundtrack
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Noctis is one of the worst protagonists I’ve ever seen
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An interesting, relatively modern-looking fantasy setting
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The worst, most poorly fleshed out main villain in the series
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Abysmal, disjointed, and incomplete story
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Abysmal plot that’s all over the place and fails to catch your interest
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Repetitive, dull, and unbalanced game-play
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Lifeless, poorly designed open world with nothing to do
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Countless fetch quests that would be embarrassing even in a MMORPG
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Abysmal traveling/driving mechanics where you can’t even steer the car
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Boring, boring, boring, boring, boring
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Visual novel & other stuff impressions 
This review seems misleading. I can provide some reasons as to why, though I can’t say much about the narrative as I’ve only played FFXIII series and FFX, so I wouldn’t know what your expectations are for the story. But the main characters feel relatable, not lifeless. Gameplay wise, it’s not repetitive at all. Enemies have different weaknesses that you can use to your. The game might even feel too easy if you use elemancy. “Lifeless, Poorly designed open world with nothing to do”, is not a point I can say I agree with. There’s more than a handful of dungeons to go through, even without a quest pointing you to where you need to go. Fetch quests aren’t really a problem as they mostly lead you to unexplored places and dungeons. You can upgrade your car to be driveable on terrain and even fly. Overall I can’t say I agree with this review
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All I need to do in combat is spam the blink thing, then teleport out to recharge my mana, then rinse and repeat. And if I get hit I can just use an item to recover. I don’t even know how the game’s game-over screen looks like because it’s nearly impossible to lose. Dodging or countering which could’ve been great mechanics are nearly useless because most of the time it’s impossible to see wtf is happening on the screen because of all the effects.
I’m not sure what your standard for open worlds is, but this is literally the worst open world I’ve seen in a game, and I’ve been through over 800 games by now (granted I avoid stuff that’s known to be bad). It looks beautiful, but none of the dungeons are rewarding, and it’s a miracle if you can even find one when 90% of the world is empty plains and roads.
It blows my mind that anyone could like this cast, but I guess there’s an audience for everything (I’m not sure which version you played, but in Japanese Noctis sounds like some guy working at a convenience store; I cringed so hard every time he opened his mouth; what were they thinking when they came up with his voice…). But anyway, my biggest problem is that the characters, like story, feel incomplete and don’t really display any traits other than their archetypes, which are boring to begin with. I think I found the four warriors of light in Final Fantasy I more relatable than this cast. :p
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I do agree though, having Ragnarok and just blinking makes the game a breeze to go through. There’s a wait mode to help you catch your breath and see what is going on half of the time. But even in wait mode the screen still gets filled up sometimes. But it does help with targetting.
I can’t say just how high my standards are for open worlds, but I do play my fair share. The dungeons you find along the way are mostly for 100% the game. It’s not a requirement to do everything in order to beat the game. That’s not to say that it’s not rewarding. It does reward you with weapons. equipment, if you manage to beat the boss at the end. Finding dungeons and areas to do stuff isn’t hard at all. Most of the time it’s near a parking spot. The enemies in the dungeons are usually way harder than they are in the overworld. It’s a challenge on it’s own and fun to go through
I play the English version. and I have no problem with the casts. I haven’t experienced the Japanese voices. (I have little to no experience in Japanese and having to read through subtitles is not what I want to do when I’m playing a game). The characters are relatable I feel. Except for a few parts here and there when they try too hard, but not enough to ruin the immersion I had. Not as bad as XIII which was edgy. You are right they are archetypes, and they stick to it. I can’t say that, that’s bad. There is character development and growth. Story does feel lackluster. Especially if you factor in the fact that you can do a lot of sidequests in between story missions as those are made very accessable. But what I can say is that the theme of the story shifted from the normal theme of a Final Fantasy game. It feels really nice to have Friendship as a main theme. And the updated game makes more emphasis on the theme. I can’t say much about the four warriors of light. As I’ve never personally played FF1
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