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Final Fantasy XV: Pocket Edition HD Review: A Bite-Sized Disappointment

Final Fantasy XV is a staple for modern day Square Enix that has one of the most bizarre development cycles and releases in gaming. When it originally launched for consoles in 2016 it had been 10 years since its conceptual reveal trailer, underwent both a system change as well as a director change, and a 3 month release delay. After such a long developmental cycle the game receive mediocre  reviews including from myself who was extremely confused to how the game was considered “finished” in the first place with laughably unexplained cut scenes, bad animations, a simple combat system with no depth and just overall lack of polish; all of that development time and the game just ended up being bizarre and incomplete. Square Enix even stated that this was intentional in order to promote a “games as a service” model in order to keep providing for the consumers. Final Fantasy XV has continued to grow as its own brand since its release nearly 3 years ago with a full length feature film, an anime series, two mobile games, DLC and free updates to further “polish” the game. Square Enix is continuing to expand the reach of this multimedia powerhouse with the release of Final Fantasy XV: Pocket Edition for the Nintendo Switch, PS4 and Xbox One; an HD port of a “demake” originally made for mobile platforms. This demake somehow manages to capture the spirit of the original while adding some minor adjustments to make the originally once bumpy road trip a little smoother.

Final Fantasy: Pocket Edition HD retains the exact main plot from the original console release, even going as far as using the same audio and cutscenes; just chibi-fied. Set in a fantastical modern land, or a “fantasy based on reality”, Prince Noctis of the kingdom Lucis, must travel with his three companions to be wed to Lady Lunafreya of Tenebrae to complete a peace treaty. Thing don’t go exactly as planned as the peace treaty is very soon breached by the enemy nation, Niflheim, and the four boys must go on a journey to save the people of Lucis. In the original release I was baffled by how little of the story there was in the main game; a good chunk of it was found in supplemental material, specifically the anime series and the movie, like how the four boys became friends and how the peace treaty was breached in the first place; all of which are kind of crucial to the plot. To put it frankly the original story was a mess, important battles and events occur off screen, characters aren’t introduced or have purpose but the player is expected to care about them, time-skips happen often, almost no time is spent on the rival empire Niflheim and a lot of the characters associated with it go nowhere. It's just a weird occurrence when a randomly introduced man named Jared gets three main story quests devoted to him when the main antagonists get no screen time, some characters even only appear for one in the entire game. The main four characters,  Noctis, Ignis, Prompto and Gladio, and their “roadtrip” are meant to be the heart and soul of the adventure; and they really are. Their interactions are charming, amusing and downright funny I love the brotherly bond the four share throughout the journey and during gameplay; its just annoying to realize that there is no in-game explanation as to how the four became friends in the first place! The story was, and is still, definitely a mess but the game developers tried to alleviate some of these issues through updates and DLC; although not perfect, the game is in way better shape than it was when it originally released.

Final Fantasy XV: Pocket Edition HD contains most of the major hiccups of the original release since its story is almost 1:1 with the original just with a new coat of paint, but it still manages to improve in some areas. One thing that stood out to me the moment I started it was the added “context” found before cut scenes; text blurbs occasionally appear to inform new players about the lore and the general story which helps comprehension immensely and is something that should have been in the original release to begin with. Another way Pocket Edition HD improves upon the story is by providing NPC dialogue strictly regarding the plot; this helps with world building and keeps the player invested in the story. One of the most common complaints about the original release was the lack of urgency since the plot seemed very “linear” but the game itself  was open world so a lot of that plot tension was lost. Since Pocket Edition HD is a linear experience, the plot isn’t lost upon the player and is almost always the focus.

The entire game has been compressed into a cute, chibi art style that is very similar to the 2007 FFIV Remake for the Nintendo DS and 2013’s Bravely Default for the Nintendo 3DS. The art-style is distinct and translates the character designs well but the animations leave a lot to be desired. It feels as though they cheapened out on animations during cut scenes rather than it being part of the “demake” experience. The voice clips are all ripped from the console edition so some dramatic scenes come off as goofy rather than emotional. Pop-in is common and the game chugs while in docked-mode; in handheld mode the game runs at a smooth 60 fps most of the time. The menus are nothing special either; they feel pretty empty, boring and bare bones. It's not horrible for a mobile title, but for a $30 Nintendo Switch game this is bit disappointing. 

Pocket Edition HD takes the console version and streamlines it to become a linear adventure rather than an open-world one. The world of Eos in the original release was vast but empty; it was just big for the sake of being big with nothing to do. Pocket Edition’s linearity is actually a benefit since the game seems a lot more focused, the plot is more cohesive and it feels more like a game rather than a walking simulator. The combat system has been overhauled but not for the best. As someone with 90 hours in the original release, I learnt the “depth” of the combat system but it wasn’t entirely enticing; it eventually watered down into mashing warps and holding buttons to block every attack in the game. It wasn’t deep or engaging,it kinda was just there. Now PE: HD takes this already watered down combat and dilutes it down even more. Each party member fights on their own while the player can only control Noctis. A single button is held to automatically attack the enemy you’re targeting, while occasional prompts appear that give you the option to perform a special attack with one of your teammates. Noctis can warp-strike to any enemy on the field at the cost of MP, and occasional QTEs can give you a brief window in which an incoming attack can be dodged or parried. The combat system is very bare-bones and fun at first, but it begins to drag once you realize it doesn’t get any more intricate. It’s stale and just plain easy;  there is almost no challenge whatsoever. You can pause the game at any time to consume many readily available Potions to restore HP and the enemies go down fast. 

In a similar fashion, the progression system is a watered down version of the console version. XP is awarded to party members after each battle and is applied at the end of each story mission. Leveling up party members allows for upgraded stats and AP to be gained. These Ability Points can be used on the bare-bones skill-tree to obtain new skills for the party; the skill-tree is just kinda basic and boring especially taking into consideration that enemies die easily to basic attacks as is.

Final Fantasy XV is Square-Enix’s new cash-cow and as such is being distributed to every platform imaginable. Square’s newest venture with the XV brand, Final Fantasy XV: Pocket Edition HD is a bizarre one and tough sell. This mobile app “demake” up-scaled for HD on the Nintendo Switch is a strange concept that lands in the story department for the most-part but lacks greatly in regards to game-play. It's a very strange release that serves little purpose considering the original release is a bit cheaper than this mobile title ported to the Nintendo Switch. It gets the job done if you want to experience XV without access to any other console but the price-point is just too high to justify the purchase.

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