So overall, I was a bit dissapointed, but I still enjoyed a lot of the game despite it's glaring issues. You can tell the game went through development hell and many aspects don't feel complete. I'll split it up by what I thought was good/neutral/bad. (I'm a huge FF fan and I'm sorry if I sound like I'm hating, I think many people are enjoying the game and that's fantastic!)

SPOILERS BELOW!!

The Good

The Boy Band Bromance
- The relationship between Noctus and his three best friends was the most fleshed out part of the game's story, and you grow to love each character’s personality as well as their camaraderie together. The best part of the ending was Noctus’ farewell to his friends, and the photos you take over the journey emphasize the brotherhood they share. Photos, campsites, eating food together, all those little moments are the best of the game.

Animations and Movement
- Noctus and bros fight in an exciting and fluid way that makes the combat seem way better than it actually is. (The animations carry the combat on it’s back). Noctus and Co. also move around the world in a nice weighty, realistic way.

Bromance Side Stuff - Photo Album/Campsites
- Small part I loved. Taking photos and looking at the journey in nostalgia was amazing. So was Noctus taking 1 photo with him at the end. -Freaking awesome idea to have your character and friends camp out, eat food and chat together after a day’s journey. Once again, another aspect that emphasized friendship that hit it perfectly.

The Creatures
- Just from a creativity and variety standpoint, the game had an incredible slew of creatures to look at. Throughout the game I felt like I was constantly fighting new monsters and the passive creatures look unique as well.

The Neutral

Music
-The Music was decent. Some tracks were memorable, some were forgettable. I don’t think the music will hold up as close as well as many Nobuo classics or XIII’s stellar track. However, the music didn’t detract from the series either. Overall, it’s OK.

The Combat
-I want to put this under ‘The Bad,’ because it has terrible and shallow mechanics that you repeat for a long time. Compared to other FF games where you control a variety of characters that play out differently, you only control Noctis who can basically do 2 or 3 different actions over and over. However, the animations, creature variety, cool audio effects, and quick pace make the combat exciting enough despite these faults that I didn’t hate it. I’ll give it a low neutral grade.

The Graphics
- Hard to judge based on Xbox One graphics quality, but they were OK. Brilliant at times, inconsistent and choppy on others. Chars and animations looked good overall, but the environments need more graphical detail to make the world feel more alive and lived in.

The Bad

The Story
- The Story had potential. Despite how much of a convoluted mess it was, I still enjoyed a good portion of it because of the 4 Bros’s interaction with the world and their journey as a centerpiece. Outside of them, the story is an incoherent, muddled mess. It literally feels like a patchwork of several story ideas pasted in random order without explanation to the player. The chapters don’t flow at all, and so many aspects are either not explained or poorly explained. Such as:
-The backstory being sold as a movie. That sucks that you have to do homework to try to enjoy a games narrative scope. -One of the worst examples of ‘Show, Don’t Tell’ i’ve ever seen. Major events happen with no emotional impact because you don’t actually see them happen, or don't connect with the characters because you didn't see them in person enough. -The order everything happens makes it seem like they took a variety of story elements and mixed them up in a blender at random. Noctus getting the family weapons, the road trip to marry Lunafreya, taking down Niflheim, Ardyn’s evil backstory, The summons you acquire, I could go on forever. "What's the goal right now?" I asked my self over and over.
To sum it up, this is the most poorly explained, poorly paced story I've played in a long time.

The Open World
- As wide as an ocean, as deep as a puddle explains it off the bat. It’s a big world with some diverse environments and cool creatures. That’s where the positives end. It’s a shallow, lifeless world when you take a closer look at it. It looks like the beta version of an open world before it’s filled in with a variety of interesting mechanics to interact with.

Side Quests/Hunts
- Similar point to the one above. There are no actual side quests, as in there are hardly any other actual stories to tell outside of the main one. There are only MMO-style fetch quests and lifeless NPC dispensaries to get X, fetch Y, bring it back rinse and repeat, Korean MMO grind style. I hate to bring up the Witcher 3, but the disparity in quest quality is so large it’s embarrassing both AAA titles exist in the same timeframe.

The Camera
-You know all about it.

Magic
-There’s hardly any, and the system is basically a fraction of Rikku’s mix system, a single magic system for one character!

The Verdict - 6/10. Great bromance and nostalgic moments galore can only do so much vs. truly awful storytelling, pacing, open world building, and the games many many other flaws. I’ll still Stand By You, for a bit longer, though, Square Enix... just not on release day until proven otherwise.