Final Fantasy XV’s world continues to expand with the brand new Pocket Edition, released early and out now for mobile devices and tablets. Taking a chibi approach to the base game released in 2016, Pocket Edition is a perfect rendition of it’s big brother console predecessor and is already looking to be an early contender for Mobile Game of the Year.

Final Fantasy XV: Pocket Edition is a 2018 mobile port of the 2016 game, it is developed & published by Square Enix. It is currently available on Android and iOS devices.

Final Fantasy XV’s otherwise dark story and world becomes cute and slightly lighter.

When Final Fantasy XV: Pocket Edition was first announced last year year the general consensus was a combination of laughter, intrigue, and sighs. When you consider the lengths Square went to for the core version of XV, of course a near exact mobile port of the same experience would raise a few eyebrows. However, Pocket Edition against all odds succeeds in recreating it’s predecessor for a new audience and even out shines it’s console counterpart’s flaws.

Despite the obvious hardware limitations Final Fantasy XV: Pocket Edition is a near flawless mobile recreation.

THE GOOD: In perhaps one of the biggest early gaming surprises of 2018, Final Fantasy XV’s pocket form is a mobile experience that introduces the fan-favorite world to the more casual player in a way that oddly works. As one would expect with a full game mobile port, Pocket Edition is no stranger to content cuts, however most of this is limited to a little bit of unneeded story and some mini games & side activity. Pocket Edition’s sacrificing of bits & pieces of the story hardly, if at all effect the retelling of it with the most important parts being completely present. The gameplay has been reworked to fit the touch scheme of most smartphone titles and in a lot of ways it works in a manner that’s superior to the console version. Keeping things clean and easier to access without confusing anyone, especially those new to not only XV, but the overall core Final Fantasy experience also.

Touch controls fair better than the original gameplay mechanics for casuals.

In-game you control lead character Noctis while AI controls Ignis, Prompto, and Gladiolus. You aim Noctis at enemies to attack and some timed tapping does the general block, counter, and dodge mechanic reminding you that this is very much a mobile game. The side activities that did manage to carry over from the main version are pretty much the same here, but don’t expect to be able to cruise around all over the place like on console. You’d think that the art direction would distract players from the more emotional portions of the story, but it oddly still feels as moving as it does on console.

Story even with some trimming remains mostly intact. 

THE BAD: Some of the character model designs are a little off putting, but I understand that this was done on purpose to make each model unique to each character. There’s an odd variation of price between each episode with the first episode being free, episodes 2-3 being $0.99 each, and episodes 4-10 being $3.99 each. The total cost is $20 making buying the episodes individually even more ridiculous.

Titans have never been this adorable.

OVERALL THOUGHTS: A pleasant surprise with a lot punch, Final Fantasy XV: Pocket Edition is probably the greatest mobile port on the market now. It’s almost a complete match for match redesign of the console experience outside of some obvious necessary changes. Even so the changes have a major impact on the XV experience overall. Not only would I recommend it to those of the mobile audience, I’d also recommend it over the console version for those still on the fence.