It’s always impressive to see a video game getting an entire prequel film. It really shows how they tried to make Final Fantasy XV a huge hit. Now I remember people being a bit salty since supposedly this content would have all been within the video game had it not decided to be a multi media hit. The fact that Final Fantasy XV is by far the shortest mainline game definitely supports this but either way it’s fun to see the events here. The movie is mainly a political thriller I’d say with a lot of moves being made on both sides and so it makes for a captivating watch. It may be a far cry from Advent Children but most things are.

The movie starts with some lore about how one kingdom decided to aggressively start taking over massive chunks of land. It got to the point where they quickly took over half of the planet. Now there are just 2 kingdoms left, the kingdom that Regis presides over which is protected by an all powerful magical barrier and his ancient energies, and the kingdom of technology which uses robots and demons in order to progress. Both kingdoms could not be more different if they tried. The Kingsglaive are the elite warriors who use King Regis powers in order to fight but there are only so many of them. The kingdom is gradually losing this war.

When you are losing a war you always have to consider at exactly what point should you consider surrender. Do you literally continue to fight until the last people are murdered or do you eventually concede? The enemies come in with terms of full surrender where Regis will give up all territories except their capital city which is as close to full surrender as you are going to get. I would say the big mistake was in accepting this. Whether you surrender ground or not, you don’t accept a treaty that involves a total surrender while also taking them behind enemy lines. That is just a recipe for total disaster.

It was well established that the enemies were not able to break into the main city. The magic barrier was that powerful which is really impressive. Everyone outside the barrier was being slaughtered though and Regis was getting older so once he died of old age then that would be it. Still, there are things you could do like training up Noctis and seeing if he was worthy of the ring. Since he has the birthright I would expect he would be able to pull this off. You have to at least try though and I’d argue sending Noctis away was the worst decision here. It pretty much dooms the team to not have a chance.

Now in hindsight we know Regis would fall anyway given the amount of traitors and such but that doesn’t negate the plan of strengthening the army. Allowing the villains to bring all of their heavy hitters within the walls is lunacy. It was obvious that they would cause trouble right away. The instant you let villains in behind the unbreakable barrier is when it’s all over. There’s just no coming back from that so I would say Regis really didn’t do a good job. I can’t say he did good during the opening either when he abandoned the princess and just kept on running. With his abilities he should have been doing really good.

I guess the main idea here is that the heroes are hopelessly outmatched and that’s fine but I would want to go down swinging. From the villains, the most impressive is the general Glauca. Technically we know that Ardyn is even more powerful but in the film he doesn’t fight while Glauca is taking on the combined might of several generations of kings. That is a really impressive showing and the guy is fighting all on his own. It’s easy to see how they would have dominated the entire planet with how many fighters they had. Even having the ability to drop demons around the planet to cause chao is another effective tactic.

Way I see it, the only possible way to win this war would be to assassinate the heads of the opposing kingdom. You’d have to risk it all and really send your guys in because playing defense was a losing battle. That’s why I enjoy all of this political intrigue though. There isn’t a whole lot of action here until the climax but the dialogue is all pretty strong. We get a good view into how the kingdom was losing hope with the surrender and having to see everything going on. I can see how you would lose all faith in the kingdom if your village was one of the places that had to be sacrificed as collateral damage to the enemies.

The soundtrack is more on the forgettable side though. It all sounds a bit generic and doesn’t scream Final Fantasy the way you would like it to. This is one of those films that is not embracing its status as a big video game. Give me some really energetic beats with fast paced music and a lot going on the whole time. That would be a good way to set the stage and also amp up the music. Again, look at Advent Children as an example here. The graphics are really good though and I enjoyed the battling. The teleportation combos are always a lot of fun and it is definitely a creative way to fight. It guarantees that every battle will be really fast paced and energetic. It’s also shown to not be completely invincible since your weapon telegraphs where you will teleport so you have to do this carefully. Most soldiers can’t do this on repeat except for Nyx.

Nyx is a solid character even if he doesn’t have a ton of personality. He’s doing his best to defend his kingdom and stop the enemies so you can give him a good amount of props. He is a strong fighter and isn’t easily led astray like most of his teammates. Libertus is more on the annoying side. He has some valid points but they are drowned out by how he handles the situation. If you want to make a difference then you need to get out there and do something. Also since he is badly injured, there are big limits to what he can do.

I have a ton of issues with King Regis and how slow he is to act but I’ve already gone over that. Lunefreya is pretty solid with how much she has to put up with here. She does her best to help out but isn’t an active fighter so it’s not like she can do everything on her own. Not panicking and continuing to bide her time is a credit in itself. When even Nyx was thinking about retreat she forces him to push on forward which was the correct move.

Overall, This is very much a slow burn movie. You have to really like the various scenes about how the war is going and the characters talking about this or you will get bored. It’s all pretty high stakes and the writing was really solid so I had no problems on my end. It’s not quite an elite movie since I would need more action for that but it has a good amount of replay value and would make for an easy watch. The climax is also a lot of fun to be sure. One of the twists near the end may be hard to believe but with how careless the heroes can be, I suppose that adds a bit of credibility there. Either way, I hope we get more Final Fantasy films soon and I would still recommend this one. With or without context, you can appreciate a good fight as the soldiers do their best in what is basically a futile war after a point.

Overall 8/10