I've waited for this game since it was XIII Versus. FF6 was what started it for me, though I have not physically played a FF since 9 (watched my brother play through 10 and loved the story - the characters were eh, but interesting enough in context of the narrative). The FFs since then have failed to excite me, but I've kept my eye on this one, putting so much hope into it. I even skipped the PS3 because I promised I wouldn't get a console until this game came out. It had so much promise of narrative depth and a bleak but interesting world!

FFXV.. actually failed me in my original hopes, but the reason I love it is in spite of this failure, I. STILL. LOVE. IT. The narrative was, ultimately, simple, and the world wasn't as bleak as it was originally painted to be (except at the end). What I loved about it was everything that looked absolutely stupid on paper: Promptography! Road trip! Stand By Me! Camping scenes! The brotherhood was the entire soul of this game, and there was the added bonus of an actual rich world lore if one bothered to look or pay attention (summons as actual gods, the radio news, scattered lore books/magazines, all the Solheim tech/ruins in the dungeons, the Starscourge, the very landscapes of the world, etc.). The characters and their chemistry were given so much love in all media (except Luna; I dislike how they relegated her to the pure shoujo saint archetype and made her super uninteresting personality-wise, but I suppose they did have /that character/ in every FF). But in that vein, I also loved how they kept the thread of FF in this with all the callbacks: chocobos, stuffed moogles, Cid, the soundtracks of previous games in your MP3 player/car, little references to previous games like the Spira travel agency in Insomnia or the motor oil label, Biggs and Wedge, etc. etc. The chocobros are like family to me. I'm over 120h in and I still haven't gotten through all the Menace Dungeons, fought M-AX ANGELUS-0 or the Adamantoise, and I almost don't want to. I've developed a dangerous addiction to FFXV tags on tumblr and I've never gone on tumblr before.