Final Fantasy XV comes out in September of this year. SquareEnix is doing all it can to build hype and get people ready for the latest entry of the Final Fantasy series. This will be the fifteenth main installment of the series; this doesn’t count the various off shoot games released over the years. While most of the previous games just came and went with very little extra, save Final Fantasy 7 which had some animated features that came along years after the game such as the much loved Advent Children. Square is boosting even more FF15 realm lore with a series of short animated episodes called; Final Fantasy XV: Brotherhood.
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The anime is done by A-1 Studios, the folks behind Sword Art Online, Black Butler , and the unbelievably good Erased which just wrapped up its last episode. Whether you consider their work a hit or a miss (I personally did not care for Black Butler but then again that show was mainly loved by teenage girls), they have put out great shows in the past, which has made them a notable studio.
Brotherhood: Final Fantasy XV will have 5 episodes available online for free. Three of which are already online to watch through their youtube page or the anime streaming service, Crunchyroll. Two more will be released before the September 30 release date of the game. For those who ordered the now sold out collector’s edition, they will get a sixth episode only available through that version of the release. Hopefully that will get an online release shortly after so those of us who missed out on ordering it(I am one of them), but we’ll see what SquareEnix does once the game is released.
So far the episodes range from 10-15 minutes. You can fit a lot in that time if it is done correctly. While the animation is great, the story leaves you wanting to know more which I am guessing is the point so you pick up the game. While it is a great marketing play, it left me wondering if I really wanted to play the game.
The anime details Noctis’ backstory from his childhood to the opening of Final Fantasy XV. The first and last episodes of the anime tie in with the Platinum Demo: Final Fantasy XV – itself a prequel demo of the game. I thought the demo was interesting and it made more sense after watching the first 3 episodes of the anime prequel.
So far each episode revolves around one the four main characters, the first episode gives us a little back-story on the main storyline for the game. While the second is about the relationship between Noctis and Gladiolus, Noctis’s body-guard and brother like figure. While the third gives us a deep insight into the friendship between Noctis and Prompto Argentum, a friend of Noctis form the lower social class.
Like I stated before the animation is top notch but each episode seems to be stand alone stories but also loosely tying together. Between the first and second episode the question arises, did the team survive the attack of the giant, six armed snake creature that is from Noctis’s past that nearly killed him as a child. The second and third episodes wrap up their storylines by the end of the episode. This leads me to hope that the last two will wrap up any questions left by the first episode. Rumor has it that the first and last episode tie into each other so we’ll see if that is true.
Overall, the first 3 episodes of Brotherhood left me with a positive impression – not rosy, but positive. For a freebie, Brotherhood’s solid enough and is on the right road to do what it needs to do. All we need to see is more banter, brotherhood and battle, and it looks like that’s exactly what’s on the plate.
Have you watched Final Fantasy XV: Brotherhood? Are you excited about the last two episodes? Feel free to discuss in our comments section below.
