FINAL FANTASY XV WINDOWS EDITION
analyzed 2026-09-16 · sample of 420 English reviews across the whole review history
Across 420 sampled reviews, the aspects players raise most are story (32.6%) and combat (21.0%), and both split opinion: story draws 65 positive mentions against 52 negative, combat 32 against 30. Characters (20.5%) and graphics (17.1%) lean clearly positive, with graphics drawing 66 positive mentions against 2 negative. Players describe the world as "good scenery and big open world", and one writes of the characters, "really feel the bonds the 4 have together". Criticism clusters around quest design (13.6%, 39 negative against 12 positive), performance (11.0%, 32 negative against 11 positive), and pacing (8.8%, 28 negative against 5 positive). Reviews mention stuttering and frame drops, and one calls the quests "boring monotonous quests like in a MMO". Stability (6.2%) and controls (5.0%) also skew negative, while music (7.1%), emotional impact (6.2%), and exploration (5.7%) skew positive. Players also bring up camera and fishing. Smaller aspects include mods, atmosphere, and sound design, all leaning positive, alongside negative mentions of UI, writing, and developer conduct. DLC splits evenly at 12 positive and 12 negative. The overall picture is a game whose presentation and cast land well while its quests, pacing, and PC performance draw consistent complaints.
numbers checked against this report's stored data · quotes copied verbatim from reviews · plain text is the language model's own wording
Aspects
share of sample, axis to 40% · ± is the sampling uncertainty around each share
- positive
- mixed / neutral
- negative
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story
65 positive · 52 negative · 19 mixed · 1 neutral
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the story is very well written as one could expect from a square enix game more so that it is a final fantasy title so of course most of the gameplay is in its story as well with how the game handles with controls.
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From the story, gameplay, environments, characters and their development.
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The story line is, as usual for FF, very rich and has quite a few sad moments.
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combat
32 positive · 30 negative · 24 mixed · 2 neutral
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Combat is all real time, not cut scene's, and that's the biggest draw in for me personally.
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Having said that, the combat is fluid and the game play is addictive.
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Combat, is the most unique thing about this game, it takes some time to master, although when you do its addicting and makes you really want those later perks to unlock.
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characters
58 positive · 18 negative · 10 mixed · 0 neutral
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the way the game looks graphically compared to the xbox one is a huge leap and was worth the wait when it finally did come out on pc, when it comes to each of the characters and their personalities the writers made it obvious that was a neccestiy to make the game more enjoyable and entertaining.
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it is really a game that you can just sit back and relax and take it all in and really feel the bonds the 4 have together
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From the story, gameplay, environments, characters and their development.
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graphics
66 positive · 2 negative · 4 mixed · 0 neutral
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the way the game looks graphically compared to the xbox one is a huge leap and was worth the wait when it finally did come out on pc, when it comes to each of the characters and their personalities the writers made it obvious that was a neccestiy to make the game more enjoyable and entertaining.
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The graphics are beautiful, especially with the food haha.
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A wonderful soundtrack, amazing character interactions, and a beautiful written story are all tied neatly together by this game's breathtaking visuals and smooth gameplay.
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quest design
12 positive · 39 negative · 6 mixed · 0 neutral
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I like some elements of it but the janky movement , atrocious combat , and quests that have an instant-fail mechanic if you're seen, causing you to do them over and over hearing the same dialogue over and over, and the developers given little to no hint to how to proceed.
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The game is filled with boring monotonous quests like in a MMO but you get to do it solo.
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The game’s got loads of side quests, but nearly all of them boil down to fetch quests or kill this thing.
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world
38 positive · 13 negative · 3 mixed · 0 neutral
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From the story, gameplay, environments, characters and their development.
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The environment of the world looks so realistic and beautiful.
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优点：画质精美，路西斯大陆探索空间大，即使什么不做只看风景闲逛也不错，幻影剑天行步飞雷神很酷，世界观宏大
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gameplay
40 positive · 6 negative · 5 mixed · 1 neutral
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From the story, gameplay, environments, characters and their development.
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Gameplay's very fun, but the story feels rushed and unfinished.
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A wonderful soundtrack, amazing character interactions, and a beautiful written story are all tied neatly together by this game's breathtaking visuals and smooth gameplay.
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performance
11 positive · 32 negative · 3 mixed · 0 neutral
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Alt-Tabbing frequently will cause the game to freeze, the game's controls are obviously controller-centric, and random frame chugging is to be expected.
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I really wanted to love this game, i really did but the PC version is un-optimized that i cant even enjoy it without the game stuttering super hard.
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First, graphically its absolutely stunning, however, badly optimized for PC ports; even with my high-end equipment it simply cannot withstand a steady frame rate high enough for the highest settings to be optimal.
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pacing
5 positive · 28 negative · 4 mixed · 0 neutral
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Only thing I got to complain about is that the 2nd part of the game is by far weaker than the 1st.
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Gameplay's very fun, but the story feels rushed and unfinished.
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However, this game suffers massively from extremely poor pacing in chapter and story progression; some questionable encounter design choices; and a second half that completely ♥♥♥♥♥ the bed and left me feeling completely unsatisfied after I finished the game.
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music
26 positive · 2 negative · 2 mixed · 0 neutral
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A wonderful soundtrack, amazing character interactions, and a beautiful written story are all tied neatly together by this game's breathtaking visuals and smooth gameplay.
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The music, story, gameplay are all so fun and unlike any other game.
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👉 The music is great, both epic and chilling.
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see more
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dlc
12 positive · 12 negative · 4 mixed · 0 neutral
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the story DLC's are a very nice and refershing touch the developers did to get their player base back into the game after completing it so quickly, as a plus side you get to learn about each character more and the bond each one has with the main character.
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It runs perfectly on the deck and all the DLC works just fine
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This edition already brings 3 of 4 DLCs, so most of the experience is already here. This helps mitigate the “broken history” heavy criticism that the original release got.
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emotional impact
22 positive · 3 negative · 1 mixed · 0 neutral
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When the game takes a knee and gets serious, you feel it.
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I cried like a baby at the end ;-;
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screaming, crying, the controls are eh at times, but overall, i cried like maybe four hours after finishing it so
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stability
2 positive · 24 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
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This game keeps closing on me for no reason.
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Alt-Tabbing frequently will cause the game to freeze, the game's controls are obviously controller-centric, and random frame chugging is to be expected.
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There's two "bad" things in this game and the first is that it might crash depending on your PC, but if you don't save enough, the autosaves will have your back.
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exploration
18 positive · 4 negative · 2 mixed · 0 neutral
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优点：画质精美，路西斯大陆探索空间大，即使什么不做只看风景闲逛也不错，幻影剑天行步飞雷神很酷，世界观宏大
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I did find a lot of cool weapons when I explored some of the map and stumbled upon random dungeons. Story wise, it felt very spread out until you get into later chapters of the game, then the story feels very rushed.
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As i mention, the side quest can be very repetitive and fetch questish but the exploration itself and the combat are really fun and engaging so you're not really gonna hate it.
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level design
7 positive · 15 negative · 1 mixed · 1 neutral
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The game has an open world, that’s on rails unless you progress 30 hours into the game.
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缺点：女主塑造太单薄，进入帝都王都的场景都是夜晚小图体验不足，复杂地形战斗视角和锁定有点乱
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The open world format hurt this game, I found the main part of the game boring and mostly aimless up through Chapter 8, then from Chapter 9 on you lose access to the open world and it becomes very linear, but the story picks up and it gets a lot more interesting.
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price value
16 positive · 3 negative · 3 mixed · 2 neutral
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The price is good for what you're getting especially since it's a longer game.
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This games is fantastic and gets way to much hate i have played it though on xbox and its good there but way better on steam if you see this games and are considering buying it is worth it.
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整体：特点很明显的一代，但是绝对值回票价
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controls
3 positive · 15 negative · 3 mixed · 0 neutral
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I like some elements of it but the janky movement , atrocious combat , and quests that have an instant-fail mechanic if you're seen, causing you to do them over and over hearing the same dialogue over and over, and the developers given little to no hint to how to proceed.
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Alt-Tabbing frequently will cause the game to freeze, the game's controls are obviously controller-centric, and random frame chugging is to be expected.
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screaming, crying, the controls are eh at times, but overall, i cried like maybe four hours after finishing it so
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bugs
4 positive · 13 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
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And when I tried to complete a quest, the game froze in some weird blue cloudy place that I couldn't leave.
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A lot of the mechanics were buggy and inconsistent, the spell crafting thing is very annoying and cumbersome, the combat is too easy tactically making countering things irrelevant but at the same time hard when you can't see WT* is happening because of bad camera angles and too much stuff happening.
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While it may have some issues, and the typical bugs and whatnot, it doesn't really deter me from playing the game.
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content amount
14 positive · 3 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
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This windows version is better, it has more stuff than it didnt had on the ps4 around the time it came out and you can buy the whole pack at an alright price on a good sale.
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There's A LOT of side quests.
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People say this game feels unfinished but you get 15 chapters each lasting an hour to 2 hours, not to mention several sidequests across the map, training, hunts, short and long dungeons, even cutscenes for when you're camping with the bros, I do not know what …
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writing
4 positive · 13 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
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The dialogue is something else, absolutely stupid and played completely straight.
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There's a lot of dialogue that just didn't make any sense, and it sticks to the Final Fantasy franchise way of explaining to you what is going on.
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In all honesty, the story ranges from innocuous to bad with poorly written characters.
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difficulty
8 positive · 6 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
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It also adds an [spoiler]extra boss fight with the Founding King, Somnus/The Mystic[/spoiler] who can decimate you if you're not careful with your counterattacks or warp-strike setups.
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If you played FF12 and remember the Hunt system, they have implmented that back in to this game as well which lends some extra challenge.
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☑ Easy
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progression
6 positive · 6 negative · 1 mixed · 1 neutral
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Combat, is the most unique thing about this game, it takes some time to master, although when you do its addicting and makes you really want those later perks to unlock.
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End game and new game plus is the most rewarding I have ever seen 100%.
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But overall gives you lots of content to explore, and allot of upgrade paths for your character/characters.
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voice acting
6 positive · 5 negative · 1 mixed · 1 neutral
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The VAs and the Artists tried so hard lol
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-Decent voice acting
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Reasonably decent voice acting, even though I loved FFX's awkward english dialogues.
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balance
1 positive · 10 negative · 1 mixed · 0 neutral
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But it feels like you get hurt way too easily.
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The combat balance is broken by The Ring, trivialising nearly all enemies as part of the main story.
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… greatly; and as a forewarning to any players, I recommend you bring an excessive amount of potions and stuff because those bosses are unnecessarily merciless on your HP bar.
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game length
3 positive · 3 negative · 1 mixed · 4 neutral
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It took 27 hours to finish the story.
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☑ Depends on you
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The game is not difficult, but long as a very story rich heavy game, and sometimes you will ran into a fight which you ended up losing because you've used all the potions!
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learning curve
1 positive · 9 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
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I like some elements of it but the janky movement , atrocious combat , and quests that have an instant-fail mechanic if you're seen, causing you to do them over and over hearing the same dialogue over and over, and the developers given little to no hint to how to proceed.
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The game didn’t tell me there was a sprint button till I googled it 15 hours into the playthrough.
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I loaded into the game and started playing but I was stuck on what you where supposed to do.
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lore
3 positive · 6 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
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It was really missing world building, I did not feel invested in the roles of these different nations or their history because there was so little of it to see.
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Most of the lore is dumped on you right at the end, that is, when it isn't spread across separate DLCs or movies.
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I only wish there was some more backstory and world lore available to us.
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art style
7 positive · 1 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
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This game is work of art! The vehicle mechanics are a welcome addition.
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The VAs and the Artists tried so hard lol
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Engaging story with nice characters, really sells the "road trip with the bros" vibes, well written banter and beautiful aesthetics across the board.
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multiplayer
3 positive · 3 negative · 2 mixed · 0 neutral
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You should play hit game Final Fantasy XV Multiplayer: Comrades with me it would be so cool
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The presence of a multiplayer aspect seems nice though haven't experienced it myself, it should engage me for quite some hours after I'm done with it's story and endgame.
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So much depth and passion, great game and even the multiplayer is extremely fun!
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platform access
4 positive · 4 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
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It's easily the best console to PC port I've ever played and I'm no where close to finishing all the content.
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It's such a better port than FFXIII Lightning Returns was.
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great port that looks really good
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ui
0 positive · 8 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
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Exploration 1/5: Also abysmal, getting around is so painfully slow and involves so many menus, and loading screens, and literally sitting in the back of a car doing nothing.
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如果它不是一个十年前的游戏，那么它真的烂透了。以现在的眼光来看，这游戏的关卡、任务、投放、战斗、UI真的是一坨。。。仿佛各种支离破碎的想法拼凑在一起，能很明显感受到日本人那种非常保守的创新感，可能是给后来的FF7re系列的当经验包了吧。以十年前的眼光看，那确实是很值得玩的游戏
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It shows everything with Imperial measurements (yards, miles and so on, there is no way to change it metric in the game, but you can mod it easily to make the game force it to metric system).
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animation
2 positive · 5 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
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Of course no game is without faults some of the character animations are somewhat glitchy but really nothing more then what one would expect from a game that is already this old.
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B) Conversing with someone (no real dialouge options and terrible lip synching)
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The game disagrees and forces you to stop for about 2 seconds while a "dust yourself off"-animation is played.
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developer conduct
0 positive · 7 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
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Thats very weird and its like they rushed to just publish the game.
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And Square Enix is not keen to fix it.
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Sqeenix, it's bad enough that you don't seem to remember what Final Fantasy even IS anymore, but if you want the rest of us to get on board with your 'exciting new vision for the franchise' then would you at least fix your dang game already?
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atmosphere
6 positive · 0 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
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The road trip vibe is just so unique. And although it originally came out almost 10 years ago, Final Fantasy XV can still look amazing even today.
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But the world they created, the gameplay, the battle system, the level of immersion, the music, the visuals.
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-Solid road trip vibe
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customization
2 positive · 4 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
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-Character design is boring as hell.
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I also thought that the dress up system nightmare from X-2 would have been buried in the desert next to the ET Atari 2600 cartridges.
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- There's a cobbled-on appearance feature that makes 'normal' outfits not show up visually when equipped.
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mods
6 positive · 0 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
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Mods definitely bring this game to life.
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-Mod support
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-The game has official mod support.
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sound design
5 positive · 1 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
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the sounds are amazing and high quality, which is very important in a story where it's main power set regards bladed weapons.
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-Amazing spatial sound (make sure to enable Windows Sonic to unlock the in-game option)
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- Good sound design
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Emergent themes unvalidated
topics reviewers bring up that are not on the validated list; raw counts only, no error bars
- camera 9
- fishing 5
Review timeline
monthly peak 4,118 reviews · all languages
monthly share rated positive · 50% reference · months with <5 reviews faded
the timeline as a table
| month | reviews | up | down | positive | note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mar 2018 | 4,118 | 3,438 | 680 | 83% | |
| Apr 2018 | 971 | 743 | 228 | 77% | |
| May 2018 | 434 | 345 | 89 | 79% | |
| Jun 2018 | 737 | 566 | 171 | 77% | |
| Jul 2018 | 909 | 694 | 215 | 76% | |
| Aug 2018 | 445 | 342 | 103 | 77% | |
| Sep 2018 | 524 | 382 | 142 | 73% | |
| Oct 2018 | 444 | 315 | 129 | 71% | |
| Nov 2018 | 1,875 | 1,455 | 420 | 78% | |
| Dec 2018 | 379 | 259 | 120 | 68% | |
| Jan 2019 | 328 | 231 | 97 | 70% | |
| Feb 2019 | 328 | 232 | 96 | 71% | |
| Mar 2019 | 373 | 283 | 90 | 76% | |
| Apr 2019 | 207 | 159 | 48 | 77% | |
| May 2019 | 187 | 135 | 52 | 72% | |
| Jun 2019 | 571 | 515 | 56 | 90% | |
| Jul 2019 | 776 | 670 | 106 | 86% | |
| Aug 2019 | 156 | 91 | 65 | 58% | |
| Sep 2019 | 186 | 128 | 58 | 69% | |
| Oct 2019 | 182 | 121 | 61 | 66% | |
| Nov 2019 | 531 | 473 | 58 | 89% | |
| Dec 2019 | 776 | 690 | 86 | 89% | |
| Jan 2020 | 770 | 640 | 130 | 83% | |
| Feb 2020 | 574 | 473 | 101 | 82% | |
| Mar 2020 | 1,134 | 949 | 185 | 84% | |
| Apr 2020 | 756 | 620 | 136 | 82% | |
| May 2020 | 1,045 | 853 | 192 | 82% | |
| Jun 2020 | 551 | 443 | 108 | 80% | |
| Jul 2020 | 797 | 701 | 96 | 88% | |
| Aug 2020 | 417 | 347 | 70 | 83% | |
| Sep 2020 | 477 | 418 | 59 | 88% | |
| Oct 2020 | 716 | 616 | 100 | 86% | |
| Nov 2020 | 459 | 399 | 60 | 87% | |
| Dec 2020 | 472 | 406 | 66 | 86% | |
| Jan 2021 | 664 | 589 | 75 | 89% | |
| Feb 2021 | 375 | 321 | 54 | 86% | |
| Mar 2021 | 647 | 552 | 95 | 85% | |
| Apr 2021 | 639 | 546 | 93 | 85% | |
| May 2021 | 622 | 539 | 83 | 87% | |
| Jun 2021 | 446 | 378 | 68 | 85% | |
| Jul 2021 | 587 | 503 | 84 | 86% | |
| Aug 2021 | 364 | 318 | 46 | 87% | |
| Sep 2021 | 302 | 258 | 44 | 85% | |
| Oct 2021 | 589 | 500 | 89 | 85% | |
| Nov 2021 | 385 | 348 | 37 | 90% | |
| Dec 2021 | 468 | 399 | 69 | 85% | |
| Jan 2022 | 578 | 515 | 63 | 89% | |
| Feb 2022 | 267 | 235 | 32 | 88% | |
| Mar 2022 | 390 | 325 | 65 | 83% | |
| Apr 2022 | 345 | 307 | 38 | 89% | |
| May 2022 | 381 | 336 | 45 | 88% | |
| Jun 2022 | 346 | 279 | 67 | 81% | |
| Jul 2022 | 428 | 360 | 68 | 84% | |
| Aug 2022 | 242 | 197 | 45 | 81% | |
| Sep 2022 | 322 | 272 | 50 | 84% | |
| Oct 2022 | 260 | 212 | 48 | 82% | |
| Nov 2022 | 269 | 226 | 43 | 84% | |
| Dec 2022 | 376 | 325 | 51 | 86% | |
| Jan 2023 | 464 | 413 | 51 | 89% | |
| Feb 2023 | 207 | 175 | 32 | 85% | |
| Mar 2023 | 349 | 286 | 63 | 82% | |
| Apr 2023 | 283 | 239 | 44 | 84% | |
| May 2023 | 284 | 234 | 50 | 82% | |
| Jun 2023 | 253 | 215 | 38 | 85% | |
| Jul 2023 | 529 | 439 | 90 | 83% | |
| Aug 2023 | 250 | 201 | 49 | 80% | |
| Sep 2023 | 261 | 230 | 31 | 88% | |
| Oct 2023 | 226 | 202 | 24 | 89% | |
| Nov 2023 | 213 | 188 | 25 | 88% | |
| Dec 2023 | 404 | 347 | 57 | 86% | |
| Jan 2024 | 429 | 361 | 68 | 84% | |
| Feb 2024 | 380 | 326 | 54 | 86% | |
| Mar 2024 | 450 | 388 | 62 | 86% | |
| Apr 2024 | 326 | 258 | 68 | 79% | |
| May 2024 | 361 | 292 | 69 | 81% | |
| Jun 2024 | 220 | 190 | 30 | 86% | |
| Jul 2024 | 310 | 260 | 50 | 84% | |
| Aug 2024 | 243 | 196 | 47 | 81% | |
| Sep 2024 | 444 | 355 | 89 | 80% | |
| Oct 2024 | 314 | 257 | 57 | 82% | |
| Nov 2024 | 209 | 179 | 30 | 86% | |
| Dec 2024 | 422 | 372 | 50 | 88% | |
| Jan 2025 | 399 | 331 | 68 | 83% | |
| Feb 2025 | 280 | 233 | 47 | 83% | |
| Mar 2025 | 308 | 261 | 47 | 85% | |
| Apr 2025 | 235 | 199 | 36 | 85% | |
| May 2025 | 313 | 263 | 50 | 84% | |
| Jun 2025 | 230 | 191 | 39 | 83% | |
| Jul 2025 | 361 | 294 | 67 | 81% | |
| Aug 2025 | 227 | 190 | 37 | 84% | |
| Sep 2025 | 201 | 164 | 37 | 82% | |
| Oct 2025 | 258 | 219 | 39 | 85% | |
| Nov 2025 | 254 | 219 | 35 | 86% | |
| Dec 2025 | 315 | 271 | 44 | 86% | |
| Jan 2026 | 314 | 247 | 67 | 79% | |
| Feb 2026 | 252 | 217 | 35 | 86% | |
| Mar 2026 | 310 | 256 | 54 | 83% | |
| Apr 2026 | 244 | 209 | 35 | 86% | |
| May 2026 | 230 | 191 | 39 | 83% | |
| Jun 2026 | 301 | 236 | 65 | 78% | |
| Jul 2026 | 258 | 214 | 44 | 83% | |
| Aug 2026 | 219 | 183 | 36 | 84% | |
| Sep 2026 | 93 | 73 | 20 | 78% |
How this report was made
- Population
- all Steam reviews of the game (every language, purchase type, and verdict), walked newest-first per window; only English-language reviews are analyzed
- Sample
- 420 English reviews, time-proportional draw over 103 windows (newest-first within each), taken from an all-language walk and kept English-only — where English is a minority the sample runs smaller than the draw, and every margin of error is computed at 420
- Aspect yield
- 262 of 420 analyzed reviews carry at least one aspect (62.4%); every share on this page divides by all 420
- Interval regime
- calm: standard margins of error for a share of a sample (Wilson interval), no widening needed
- Fetch paths
- 103 time windows fetched directly (windowed)
- Language mix
- 1,000 fetched: english 421 · schinese 255 · brazilian 62 · 18 more
- Steam-marked windows
- none flagged by Steam (Valve's off-topic flagging began March 2019)
- Marked share
- 0.0% of sample inside marked windows, under the 2% floor
- Narrative
- passed the grounding gate first try
- Evidence floor
- aspects and emergent themes appear only with 5+ supporting reviews; smaller counts sit at the classifier's false-positive floor
- Instrument readings
- measured once on the study corpus for this model and prompt: frozen calibration, not properties of this run
- · aspect tagging vs. human labels
- 0.801 [0.752–0.844] (F1 against a human-labeled test set; 1.0 is best)
- · quotes filed under the wrong aspect
- 11.6% [6.6–19.6] of quotes, measured by hand on a sample; lower is better — measured on the prior model (2026-08-05); re-measurement pending
- · independent model vs. production labels
- 0.791 [0.772–0.810] (F1 of the production labeler against an independent judge model) — measured on the prior model (2026-07-25); re-measurement pending
- Versions
- deepseek-v4-flash · prompt classify-v1 · ontology v2
- Run
- serve-20260916T103045Z-b2c8cebb · code b09cf2d
full methodology in the milestone write-ups