Watch Brotherhood: Final Fantasy XV
Acting as a prequel to the main game, Brotherhood: Final Fantasy XV is a five-episode anime series that you can watch now on YouTube. However, Brotherhood doesn’t just introduce you to the story and the world of Final Fantasy XV, but it also gives fans some much-needed background to the quartet of characters that you’ll be spending all that time with in the main game.
Each episode of the anime focuses on one of the main characters and goes into explaining some of the more intricate details that the game glances over. Whether you’re a newcomer or a long-term fan of the series, checking out Brotherhood will make you feel familiar with the characters from the get-go. It’s also actually very good. With a long evening ahead of you, this is the perfect way to whittle away the hours.
Check Out the Demos
Final Fantasy XV hasn’t just had a lengthy development cycle that outdoes pretty much every other game out there, it’s also had three different demos granting fans the ability to get a taste of the game before its full release. While Duscae focused on the party gathering enough money together to get their car fixed, Platinum took us into the fantasy world of Noctis’ dreams as Carbuncle navigated us through the dangers that lay in wait. Finally, Judgement Disc let fans play from the opening of the game until about the midway point of Episode One, giving them a taste of what was to come.
Due to the fact that Final Fantasy XV is so different from its predecessors when it comes to its combat mechanics, checking out these demos will allow you to familiarize yourself with the way things handle, so you can jump straight into the fun without any teething issues.
Free Up Space on Your Hard Drive
As you may have expected, Final Fantasy XV is quite the large game. As such, you’re going to want to make sure that you’ve got plenty of space on your hard drive so you don’t waste precious minutes jumping into your system settings and deliberating which games to delete instead of just getting it installed.
Final Fantasy XV itself comes in at around 50GB to install from the disc or as a digital download. On top of that, you’ll also need to factor in the day-one update that implements a number of changes to the gameplay. This itself comes in at 9.4GB, so you’ll want to make sure you’ve got a fairly big portion of your Xbox One or PS4 hard drive free so the installation runs smoothly. If you’re purchasing Final Fantasy XV digitally, you should be able to preload the game on PS4 now, avoiding the need to wait when the clock strikes midnight.
Watch Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV
With Brotherhood out of the way, Kingsglaive is the other bit of media you’ll want to check out prior to playing Final Fantasy XV. Now out on DVD and Blu-Ray, Kingsglaive is a feature-length CG movie that takes place at the same time as the actual game. Rather than showing you ‘deleted scenes’ of Noctis’ adventure, Kingsglaive follows the story of his father, King Regis, and the wars that are waged in the metropolis of Insomnia.
While these events are eluded to occasionally in Final Fantasy XV, the detail is often missed, leaving you to kind of guess why and how these things are even happening. It may not be the best movie that came out this year, but Final Fantasy fans are sure to take something away from Kingsglaive. It’s definitely worth checking out if you’re looking for the optimal experience when playing Final Fantasy XV.
Prepare for Your Purchases
Just like with any big release, Final Fantasy XV has a number of different editions, a Season Pass, and a ton of merch to go with it. Therefore, you’ll want to make sure that if you’re heading out to the store, that you’ve got enough cash and have made your picks long before you get in the line. You don’t want to miss out on a bit of merch just because you didn’t think they’d have anything you wanted.
What’s more, make sure you’ve got your copy pre-ordered if you know you’re definitely going to pick it up. While stock is rarely an issue for releases in this day and age, you never want to run the risk and find yourself trawling around your neighborhood in search of a copy. Play it safe, get everything together, get some snacks in, and prepare for the game you’ve (likely) been waiting 10 years for.
Updated: Nov 28, 2016 01:33 pm