Sadly I can't share any enthusiasm for FF15 right now even beyond the story. I had to force myself to sit down and try to play more and I couldn't do it. Tried twice and was burned out, so it's back on the shelf. The whole thing leaves me completely sour. Trying to get the Ultima Blade at the end (that rare drop you need during a hunt) probably didn't help, but all it did was made me realize how bare bones and weak this game is beyond its great production.
- Just like FF13 you once again have zero control over your party AI. Even less so than FF13 because the gameplay here is even more bare bones. No paradigms or whatever to shift into. All you can do is slap different one use abilities on them. What if I want them to do something more specific or completely lock them into a single role like buffing, defense, etc, or what if I don't even want them to be in a battle? Can't I sit them on the sidelines or have them do nothing, or target ONLY one enemy specifically? It's a clusterfuck of granting you... no control whatsoever.
- Even worse, you only get to play as one main character and cannot switch. Boring.
These two issues alone make me rip my hair out. Yeah it's flashier and faster paced than something like FF12, but at least that game had macros, TONS and tons of flexibility there, and tons of abilities and magic like most of the series, and you can control anyone on the fly. How has this series only continually gone backwards from some of the good things FF12 did? Considering they continue to focus on more real time battle mechanics.
Most of the dungeons I did were just caves and generally kind of boring. I also hate how they couldn't bring back goofy looking treasure chests or something. The flashing diamond-esque item icon is super lame.
The music was great, but really feels forgettable already. I can't even recall the final boss theme. If there's one thing I can praise about the FF13 games, it's the music ... which to me is more videogamey in cool ways. I know this is subjective, but there just seemed to be way more BEEF there too. The OST's for each of the FF13 games are huge. This felt like the smallest FF OST ever produced. It's all kind of just there. Love Yoko's work, but yeah. Really wish they could get Uematsu back one of thesedays.
Side missions lead into nothing. Sure they might eventually point you into the direction of a new dungeon or something. But you are otherwise just getting new loot. The structure of everything outside of the main story is about as thin and MMO as it gets. Utterly repetitive and uninteresting.
I just can't give this one any slack now. I'm going bananas wondering if FF13 is better. It's arguably a more complete product and has more depth to the battle system and mechanics once you can actually mess with them. The four Ninja Turtles of FF in FF15 were likeable, but they can't alone save everything else.
. FFXV might feel a little better after a few DLC drops and some major tinkering with the story but it feels like it would need some major rewrites to stand alongside the other stories within the series especially in the Luna and Ifirit department. 
)
. should I watch the bundled kingsglave movie, or just go directly into the game and watch it later?