Final Fantasy 15 is genuinely one of my favorite games, but Square Enix focused way too much on the stuff that makes it Final Fantasy and not what makes it the superior game of Pretty Boy Camping Adventure.
Sure you fight Leviathan, goddess of the sea (Who my partner and I called "Demon Flipper" because her speech sounds like that one stock dolphin vocalization slowed down and run through a deep filter), but the real king of the water is a big fuck-off arapaima you can fish up with the help of your himbo buddy. You're supposed to be gathering some royal weapons or whatever (They actually all suck and you should never use them) but the real treasure is all the goofy sidequests and conversations that you get from camping all over the place. Combat is really flat and completely un-loseable if you pack a suitcase worth of phoenix downs, but at least the game has the decency to give you a "Hit button to end fight with a summon" button if it thinks you're taking too long. (I interpret this as "Thunder Grampa wishes you'd hurry this shit up") I wish that it actually did that for the Adamantoise fight, which can be won by standing outside of its attack range and using the plot ring you get and holding down the button to cast Death on it for twenty minutes.
Square Enix thought the best thing to do with the game was add reams and reams of lore about royalty and politics and other stuff that isn't doing a sponsored Cup Noodles quest that's surreal to the point of hunting an actual Behemoth to add its meat to your noodles (Although the actual best bit of it is Noctis' line delivery at the end, which makes it sound like he's aware that he's in product placement hell and just wants it to be over).
I like it to the point that I saw FF16 and just immediately ignored it. It's one guy with a sword. Does he try to get a close-up picture of a very large and dangerous monster with his twink friend? Does he eat food made by Sexiest Man of the Year Every Year? Does he even have a party? There's always been a party in Final Fantasy. I can play a hundred other games with good action, and if I wanted a story about a guy with a big sword, I could just read Berserk.
