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Final Fantasy XVis a great game80p Archives and a far better one than its protracted, 10-year development would suggest.

So say many critics who lined up the day before the game's long-awaited Nov. 29 release to share their thoughts. It's not without its flaws, but the stuff that works, works extremely well.

For a lot of people, diving in with this new Final Fantasy adventure will be a no-brainer. But for anyone else, here's a general sense of what the critics have to say about what the game gets right and what it gets wrong.

10 years later ...

Matt Peckham, Time

Don’t ask me how, but Final Fantasy XVis not the sputtering dumpster fire some worried was inbound after years of developmental tumult. It is, in fact, the opposite, however improbable that sounds after middling entries like 2014’s Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII, and the disastrous original launch of Final Fantasy XIVin 2010. Final Fantasy XV... feels like a glorious return to relevance for Square Enix’s venerable mix of rideable birds, hopping cacti and emo fashion victims.

Vince Ingenito, IGN

Final Fantasy XVopens, quite fittingly, with a splash screen that reads: “A Final Fantasyfor fans and first-timers.” Having played every numbered entry since the first, I can see both reverence for the old and a courtship of the new in this latest chapter. I’d like to say it’s an elegant fusion of the two, but in reality it’s more of a duality -- a conflict that reaches into nearly every aspect of Final Fantasy XV.

Philip Kollar, Polygon

In the decade since [it was announced], the game has seen switch-ups in its scale, its platforms, most of its development team and its very core design philosophy. It's hard to imagine a project coming out of all these changes, all this time passed, unscathed. And sure enough, Final Fantasy 15wears some warts. And yet, it's also dazzling.

How about that bro-ad trip?

Jason Schreier, Kotaku

These four men are clearly good friends. They tease each other. They make bad puns. They gossip about girls and even have their own specific seats in the car, as is necessary for a proper road trip.

Aoife Wilson, Eurogamer

It's harder for fully voiced, realistically rendered characters to be quite as endearing to players as the pliable party members of old, but all four of Final Fantasy 15's main party members are both likeable and familiar, bolstered by surprisingly well-scripted dialogue and voice acting that make light of their fantastical surroundings.

David Roberts, GamesRadar+

Camaraderie is at the heart of Final Fantasy 15's grand adventure, and even when it falters, its four bros will be right there to see you through to the end.

Andrew Webster, The Verge

[F]or all of its towering ambitions and big, new changes, the parts of the game that have stuck with me are those more personal moments between four friends who truly love each other. I spent nearly 40 hours saving the world, but what really made me tear up was, near the end of the journey, stumbling across a goofy selfie.

Combat is simple and uneven, but also enjoyable

Vince Ingenito, IGN

Fully real-time combat is the single biggest departure from the turn-based systems of the past, and while it doesn’t feel like the other main-line Final Fantasygames in any regard, the way it makes you and your three AI-controlled compatriots feel like a cohesive fighting unit kept it mostly enjoyable for me.

David Roberts, GamesRadar+

If you're looking for a less twitchy, more tactical experience with Final Fantasy 15's combat, simply hop into the options menu and switch on Wait Mode, and time will stop moving when you stand still. Here, you'll be able to plan out your next move, choose your next target at will, and even scan enemies for weaknesses.

Jason Schreier, Kotaku

Combat can reach a furious pitch, but it occasionally stumbles and breaks its own momentum. That’s because of the peculiar way Final Fantasy XVhandles beginning and ending battles. Basically: There is a red ring on the map when enemies are nearby. When you’re in the ring, you’re in battle; when you leave the ring, the battle ends. It’s way too easy to accidentally step out of bounds in the middle of battle, especially given how tight some encounters can be.

Andrew Webster, The Verge

While combat is faster and more satisfying, it can also get confusing and messy, especially when you’re fighting huge groups of enemies or especially massive bosses. When you’re warping around, attacking dozens of foes, the camera rarely tracks you properly, making it a chore to see what’s going on around you.

The story is kind of a mess

David Roberts, GamesRadar+

It's pure Final Fantasynonsense -- talk of crystals and kingdoms and chocobos and the like -- but for the first 20-30 hours or so, it mostly gets out of the way to let you soak up its reality-meets-fantasy landscape and explore it at your own pace.

Jason Schreier, Kotaku

Many of Final Fantasy XV’s pivotal cutscenes are poorly written and oddly shot, and some of the biggest moments happen off-screen for some reason. There are gaping, baffling holes in the plot. Yet there are also moments that are genuinely touching, not just during the main story but in optional scenes all across the world.

Aoife Wilson, Eurogamer

Final Fantasy 15's biggest problem is that despite a strong core cast it's all far too vague, lacking the messy, human appeal of previous titles, which could distil celestial struggles and global plights down to something much more real and relatable. Final Fantasy 15talks in sweeping generalisations and barely stops to tally up the human cost.

There are two distinct halves of the game

Philip Kollar, Polygon

The first half of Final Fantasy 15sprawls, urging players to take it at their own pace and enjoy themselves. The second half feels out of breath in its pacing, moving past whole nations and plot beats far faster than they can be resolved. Numerous side characters and story elements that are slowly developed in the first half are dropped entirely or given disappointingly weak conclusions as a result.

Aoife Wilson, Eurogamer

The open world section, where you're tooling around in your car with your best buds and taking on assorted tasks at your leisure, is where Final Fantasy 15is at its best. The world, while perhaps smaller than some fans may be expecting, crams an impressive number of activities into its imposing peaks and murky depths.

Vince Ingenito, IGN

It’s just a shame that the story more or less washes its hands of the open world for most of its second half. You can return to it pretty much whenever you’d like to, but narratively, it’s dropped in favor of a series of one-off areas that are extremely linear and generally less interesting than what I’d been doing in the first half.

Jason Schreier, Kotaku

What’s strangest about Final Fantasy XVis that it’s essentially two games slammed together. For half a playthrough -- or longer, depending how much you explore -- you’re on an extravagant road trip, driving from town to town and camping out under the stars. Then the game takes a sudden pivot, ditching the established framework and transforming into something else entirely, sort of like a reverse version of Final Fantasy VI. It’s weird. It’s jarring. And, ultimately, it works.