FIF#10-Brotherhood: Final Fantasy XV

After a time of war, the countries of Lucis and Neflheim have reached an uneasy truce.  As part of this cease fire, Prince Noctis is set to marry the Lady Lunafreya of Tenebrae.  As Noctis and his three best friends set out on one last roadtrip before his marriage, they find themselves pursued.  Nefelheim has invaded Lucis, breaking the peace and now Noctis is their number one target.  But Noctis intendeds to get to Luna no matter what.  And he’s got the best band of brothers ready to back him up. 

Final Fantasy XV was actually announced almost ten years as Final Fantasy Versus XIII, a game intended to be a tie in to the then current main entry Final Fantasy XIII.  But the game languished in development hell until a couple years back when it was announced under it’s new main number entry banner.  It’s been a ten year wait but Final Fantasy XV is due out at the end of September worldwide.  In anticipation of a huge release, two companion projects have been commissioned alongside it.  One is Kingsglave: Final Fantasy XV, a CGI feature film similar to Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, coming sometime this year.  The other is this little mini feature Anime series.

Brotherhood is set to be released periodically leading up to the release of the game on September 30 and will follow lead character Noctis and his band of bros-Gladiolus, Ignis and Prompto as they set out in their sick vehicle on a cross country trip to get Noc to his bride to be.  I should also note that these episodes are going to be short, in and around 12 minutes.  That’s going to be an even bigger pain considering the wait time between episodes could be months long (I think the next one is due out in June?).  But rambling aside, how is it?

Well, there’s a bit to say and then again not much.  Being so short, we get enough information about the lay of the land and enough about the main characters to get the ball rolling.  You don’t need to spend too much time with this boy band crew to know how tight they are.  Right away, the titular brotherhood is strong with these four.  They quarrel, they kid and they watch each others backs on the battlefield like pros.  You also get the sense that this really might be the last ride for them.  I sympathize with Prompto, the least mature but most fun loving member of the group.  He knows things are changing, especially with Noc getting married.  It could be a while before the band gets back together and theyre going to make this trip count, skirmishes with the military and all.  It’s so wild to see a Final Fantasy story where the main characters are chilling at an out in the middle of nowhere dinner having burgers and fries.  It’s so…refreshing.

The animation reminds me a lot of another Final Fantasy Anime, Last Order, which was a prequel to Final Fantasy VII.  It looks a bit better given that Last Order was part of the big FFVII sequel/prequel blitz almost a decade ago.  The action is a good taste of what we’re going to see in the actual Final Fantasy XV game.  The way Noc moves is incredibly like how a gamer would control a Devil May Cry/Kingdom Hearts designed fighter.  Plus the ability to summon all those weapons one after another.  It reminds me of Gilgamesh from Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works…but Noc could so kick his ass any day. 

I was impressed with this one and im more than ready to tackle Final Fantasy XV when it comes out.  The only downside is the obvious one.  I didn’t expect a lot of action in this intro but we got a lot and it was good.  And then it ended on a damn cliffhanger, with Noc charging to battle a monster that almost killed him as a child.  This months on end wait between episodes is going to be a huge pain.  BUT I’m going to stick with it and hope that by the time this prequel ends, I’ll be ready to try out those sword summoning skills with my Xbox One Controller. 

BTW how cool is it going to be when the AMV’s start rolling out with all kinds of boy band tracks like New Kids on the Block, Backstreet Boys, Nsync or One Direction?  It’s going to happen and it is going to be epicly amusing.