A few months ago, I bought Final Fantasy XV Royal Edition because it was on sale. I have played the standard edition before, when it was available on Gamepass. But I never really got past the first few hours in the game. This time around, after having bought it, I resolved to actually finish the game.

This game is such a quirky RPG. Maybe it’s because I haven’t played a lot of Japanese RPGs since Final Fantasy 10. Maybe these features are already in other games nowadays. But I found this game to be a departure from what I expected a Japanese RPG to be. It's like going on a road-trip adventure with your best friends, where you and your friends look like you belong in a K-pop boy band. You could say, it's like a boy band got their own action adventure RPG made for them. Weird, but good.

The game takes place in a fictional world, but is based on our modern world. Almost like a parallel universe. There are cars in the game. There are activities like camping and fishing. Cooking and eating food is a notable part of the game. One of the characters brings along his camera, which he uses to take photos and selfies throughout the game. Characters carry cellphones and would occasionally get on a call in the game. It’s not what I expected from a Japanese RPG. But man is it a good game.