It Feels Like a Final Fantasy Game

The most recent entries in the Final Fantasy series have lacked an ineffable atmospheric component that made the worlds of VI, VII and X so compelling. Eos, the world in which Final Fantasy XV occurs, evokes VII’s Gaia: it’s a slightly futuristic, vaguely dystopian take on our own present-day earth, but it’s filled with enough of the series’ signature lore (e.g. crystals, summons, Chocobos) to still feel distinctly like a Final Fantasy game.

Its Battle System Is Forward Thinking

Final Fantasy XV will do away with the turn-based battle system that the series has seldom deviated from in its three-decade long history, which finally feels like a step in the right direction — and it’s definitely a huge improvement over the barely interactive battle system of XIII. Like the most recent canon entries in the series, enemies appear on the overhead map (as opposed to the classic “random battles” of early Final Fantasy games), but this time, battles aren’t separate gameplay segments: XV’s battle system, which is being termed the “Active Cross Battle” system, has more in common with the lightning-fast, action-oriented battles from series spinoff, Kingdom Hearts.