Square Enix

Clive Rosfield, firstborn son of Archduke Elwin Rosfield of Rosaria, has had a hard life. When the Eikon Phoenix chose his younger brother Joshua as host, his mother rejected him as a failure. But he was proud to be his little brother's Shield, and blessed with a piece of the Phoenix's power by Joshua. But their small nation was betrayed, his father assassinated, Joshua killed by a mysterious second Eikon of fire, and he was sold into slavery as a Bearer—a person who can use magic, looked show more down on as inferior across the land. And so Clive has made it his life's mission to survive long enough to exact revenge on that second Eikon.

Verdict:
I love this story. Clive is honestly my favorite Final Fantasy protagonist (yay, we get an adult!). But the lack of depth to the gameplay really hurts this title.

Details:
I wanted to like this one better. The characters are amazing. The writing is superb. The whole story is poignant and well handled (though a friend strongly disagrees about the last five minutes or so). Everything is so pretty.

But. But. The gameplay itself is not great. Modern Final Fantasies have been pushing towards more action combat (which I get, even if I don't like it), but this one lacked any real depth. I just wound up picking a couple Eikon abilities I liked and slamming my way through the story with ease. The gear options are limited and there's no strategy to them. It's just "buy/find new piece with higher numbers." There is no real party system, just AI-controlled NPCs that'll tag along on some missions. Torgal (Clive's faithful wolf companion) is the only character that can even be ordered to do anything, and his ability pool is limited. The Eikon battles are gorgeous, but basically just quick-time events. I might as well have been watching a movie. The side quests are mostly just fetch quests which, while they do expand the world lore, get really old after a while. It's made worse by the fact that the world just feels...empty. There's also no need to grind for levels at all, so there's nothing to do but fetch quests, hunts, or move on with the story. show less

This beautiful hardcover art book celebrates the artwork of the Mana series aka Seiken Densetsu, from its early roots on the Game Boy to the colossal Super Famicom/Super Nintendo game Secret to Mana to present games for a variety of systems. The early games were incredibly influential for me as a kid and as an adult (read my Clockwork Dagger books to see proof of that--or just look at the Clockwork Crown cover).

The book itself is quite high quality, with vivid illustrations and solid show more binding to support the heavily-weighted book. In addition to the book being outright gorgeous--Hiroo Isono's work will forever delight me--there are interviews with many of the artists and personnel who've worked on the games over the years, including an extensive interview with Koichi Issii and Hiromichi Tanaka at the end. However, these interviews are also a reason why I gave the book 4 stars rather than 5, because all of the text is incredibly small. It's not easy to read at all. I understand why they did it--more pages, more expense, more cost, fewer sales--but I wish they could have found a better middle ground between the art and the text. show less

Prince Noctis Lucis Caelum—Noct—has been sent off by his father to marry Lunafreya Nox Fleuret, a childhood friend, oracle to the gods, and former princess of a vassal state to the Niflheim Empire. Meanwhile, he will be finalizing a peace treaty with the same empire. Given his father's old car and accompanied by his three friends-cum-guards (Ignis, royal advisor/cook/butler; Gladiolus, royal bodyguard/fight trainer/camping specialist; Prompto, common-born sharpshooter/high school show more buddy/budding photographer), he sets out to enjoy his last hoorah before he'll need to settle down and be responsible and kingly. But the empire sabotages the peace treaty, his father is assassinated, and Noct and Co. are left on the run as he tries to get his throne back.

Verdict:
This is a fun road trip, but lacking in substance. There's little plot until far into the game when suddenly you're on rails. And other than your main team, characters get little attention. Combine with with a somewhat clunky combat system, and you get a stylish but thoroughly average Final Fantasy.

Details:
This game is stylish. It was the first mainstream Final Fantasy to do action combat. Noct—being of royal lineage—can flip between any kind of weapon on the fly and teleport around the battlefield. Spells are done by crafting three elements (Fire, Ice, and Electricity) and a catalyst (gives bonuses or ailments). Noct can call out to his friends to have them use their abilities to aid in battle. The world is rather huge, and Dad's cool-ass car can be upgraded by Cindy to be even cooler.

But the story is kinda all over the place. For the first eight or so chapters, it's just a road trip game. Go camping with your buddies. Eat at diners. Hunt some monsters. Do tons of side quests. Explore. Noct—and therefore you—are given basically no real details about the overarching story. There's an empire and a war that's been going on for a while, but...why? King Regis sealed off the city behind a barrier years ago and it keeps out daemons, but what are daemons and what's their relevance? If you pay close attention, every chapter the days get a little shorter, and in later chapters people make reference to it, but it's not explained until almost the end of the game. Almost everything plot relevant isn't really explained until basically the last chapter of the game, and a lot of plot is solely in little notes you find lying around that chapter.

Some stuff is explained on in other media (the film Kingsglaive which happens simultaneous to the beginning of the game, the prequel show Brotherhood, the prequel side game A King's Tale about Regis's youth, the co-op multiplayer Comrades about the time between chapters 13 and 14, the DLC episodes...), but if you have to grab other media to understand what's going on, you've got an issue.

The combat is a bit lackluster. There's bonus damage and tag-team animations for hitting an enemy from the back, but good luck getting Noct to circle well. The clothes have stats and abilities tied to them, which is annoying when you only like a few of them. There's no ability to choose what summon you want and a hefty cooldown on using them, so there are summons I've never seen because RNGesus doesn't like me.

Then there's the characters. Noct and his friends have great chemistry, but Lunafreya is a flat plot device, not a character. Then there's Gladio taking a sudden level in jerk-ass later so fast it gives whiplash. show less

(Pretty major spoilers ahead)
After Ciel’s long lost (because he was actually dead) twin brother shows up, Ciel gets publicly accused of impersonating the real Phantomhive heir and also of being a serial killer. So he and Sebastian go on the lam and are taken in unexpectedly by their sort-of friend, Lau. Oh, and we learn more twisty/shocking things about The Undertaker.

Wow, this manga is a constant rollercoaster and I love it.