Posted in: Games, Video Games | Tagged: FFXV, FFXVPE, Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy XV, Final Fantasy XV Pocket Edition, game review, Square Enix

Even With All the Cuteness, Final Fantasy XV Pocket Edition is Just an FFXV Starter Kit

What can I say about Final Fantasy XV Pocket Edition that I haven't already said? It's a nearly 1:1 re-creation of Final Fantasy XV designed for mobile with a cutesy art style and simplified tap-controls. The first chapter exists for free, and runs basically like a demo. From there on, you can pick up additional chapters for $0.99 USD for chapters 2 and 3, and $3.99 USD for chapters 4 through 10. Or you can just get the whole bundle for $19.99 USD. Which isn't that bad when you consider how much went into making the Pocket Edition a perfect recreation of the original game.

That said, if you have played FFXV, there is little for you in the Pocket Edition other than a chance to breeze through the story again much faster than you did the first time around. While having a much cuter, but still emo prince to run around as. For folks new to the game, the Pocket Edition is something like the FFXV starter kit. It's an easy entry point into the game, its a much easier game to play, and it requires much less time. It also doesn't require a gaming PC or a console. Everything else is pretty well represented in the mobile edition.

It even has a tie-in add to King's Knight: Wrath of the Dark Dragon which is the mobile game designed to let you role-play as Noctis and friends. And they also appear in King's Knight. It's such a weird mind-bending concept and blatant marketing ploy, I really did just have to give that game E3 Best of Show. So getting this pop up add was something of a treat, though most would find it a bit annoying. I kid you not, I may have spent a few solid minutes chuckling to myself over this one.

But really, the Pocket Edition exists to give players who were turned off by the open-world, hundred-hour plus RPG style that Final Fantasy XV was built on. FFXVPE exists for the story fans. Its a visual novel more than it is a game, though there are certain gameplay elements still in play. You do get to use your blink strikes, dodges, parries, and you get to use your friends' specials. You still have the Armiger and the Ascendancy tree. It's all just easier. You control everything with a flick of a finger or a gentle tap.

FFXVPE contains very few of the original's side-quests, because its focused just on the story. There are no hunts, no fishing spots to go spend hours at, no cats for you to go feed at Galdin Quay. Even the stealth portions have been dumbed down to make them easy. The Pocket Edition is just that. It's a smaller, condensed, simplified version of FFXV designed to be played in pieces and enjoyed for the story. The game play is a perfect reflection of the game's cutesy chibi style.

And despite how much I might dislike the simplification (more complex controls do exist for mobile games. Hell, King's Knight has more complicated controls), I end up getting swept away by the story and the art and find myself enjoying the ride. Even though I know exactly how this cutesy road-trip ends. And oh, damn is that ending interesting to see played out in chibi-form. Since, you know, no one's faces move as they talk in the Pocket Edition.

Essentially, FFXVPE isn't designed for fans of FFXV. Its designed for players who either didn't have time to finish XV, or never got into it because the open-world RPG format is too daunting. The Pocket Edition is designed for a much different market, one that is less enamored by punishing boss battles and realistic graphics. And it caters to them very, very well.

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