Hi, My name is Luke and I’m an addict…ed to Final Fantasy XV.
Okay, Okay I know that all I have written about recently is Final Fantasy, I even wrote an article about my problem with the game here, but then I finished that article and I went back and judged a couple of statistics and realised something – despite my “issues” with the game I am fully addicted.
Now, I now that RPG’s are a bit of a timesink with some of my playtimes in 2016 taking in excess of 40 hours to get through the story and the sidequests but it has been a long long time since I finished an rpg within 30 hours and then went back and carried on for another 35 hours odd, at the time of writing I am currently 72 hours into the game and even for a trophy hunter (which I am not) this is a crazy amount of time to be doing sidequests which do not release any trophy apart form bragging rights. That is over 40 hours spent doing things that are nothing to do with the main quest!
I levelled up to 99, I beat the Adamantoise (twice) I have done all the additional dungeons and taken down the Omega weapon… but still I am playing it and I just do not know why! My quest list has been empty for at least 10 hours now and I find myself fishing and running around trying to unlock the full AP grid so that I know that I have done it. None of my friends or family will care that I have sunk this much time in a pointless task – yet still I press on.
I hear you shouting at me though: “Play something else Luke and you will forget about Final Fantasy” well I have tried that. I started The Last Guardian, I pushed on to finally try Doom or Xcom 2, I even went back on Watch Dogs 2 but nothing I picked up scratched the same itch that Final Fantasy XV seems to be getting at, the whole 2 hours I spent on each of these games just had me thinking about FFXV and I couldn’t stop no matter how hard I try.
In the past day or so however, I finally felt that I had reached my limit – I was beginning to get a little bored of the optional grind and found myself playing for less and less time over each day… and then the update came and with it came “New Game Plus” so I was pressed with a Dilemma, I had finally shaken my addiction to FF but have been presented with the chance to see how quickly I can get through the story at level 99!
No way in hell! I thought to myself, denying that I would pick it up again until the DLC launched! “No Luke, you have earned the break” I screamed internally as I stared at the menu screen, for the first time in my life I took my own advice last night and pushed on and played something else and it was quite refreshing to pick up a new game and start a new experience.
Even so… I started New Game + this morning and I am excited to take the journey with Noctis and pals once again.
Talk about backseat fishing.