Final Fantasy is a long-running and beloved franchise, which in and of itself is comprised of smaller, detailed game universes. The compilation of Final Fantasy 7 is likely the most well-known and perhaps the most complicated, but the Final Fantasy 13 games (and one or two more) have their Fabula Nova Crystallis connections as well. Final Fantasy 15, too, has its own multimedia universe.
While it’s not as confusing as Final Fantasy 7, there are still a few media projects that add new context to the story. Indeed, one fault many had with the game is how Final Fantasy 15’s DLC episodes revolved around filling in blanks in the core story. This complicated a few story elements prior to their release, but with Square Enix moving on with Final Fantasy 16, there’s a clear order now.
Thankfully, there’s no need to go digging around for that order either. Redditor TheFlashBat01 hade made an awesome graphic that outlines the order in which to play/view Final Fantasy 15 material. They do note what is and isn’t optional, but to take it all in, here’s the recommended order:
Final Fantasy 15: Best Order/Timeline
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A King’s Tale: Final Fantasy 15
- How Long to Beat: 1.5-2 hours
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Final Fantasy 15: Brotherhood Animated Series
- Viewing Time: Roughly 1 hour 15 minutes.
- Final Fantasy 15 – Play until near the end of Chapter 1 when the party stays at Galdin Quay
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Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy 15 Movie
- Viewing Time: 1 hour 50 minutes
- Final Fantasy 15 – Play until Gladio leaves the group in Chapter 7.
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Final Fantasy 15 DLC – Episode Gladiolus
- How Long to Beat: Roughly 2 hours.
- Final Fantasy 15 – Play until the end of Chapter 9
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Final Fantasy 15 DLC – Episode Ignis
- How Long to Beat: Roughly 2 hours
- Final Fantasy 15 – Play Until the start of Chapter 12 or until a certain point in Chapter 13.
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Final Fantasy 15 DLC – Episode Prompto
- How Long to Beat: Roughly 2 hours
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Final Fantasy 15 DLC – Comrades (Play before Chapter 14)
- How Long to Beat: 25-30 hours
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Beat Final Fantasy 15
- How Long to Beat: About 30 hours for the main story, not counting DLC
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Final Fantasy 15 DLC – Episode Ardyn
- How Long to Beat: Roughly 2 hours
- Could be played alongside A King’s Tale, but it makes more sense after playing through the base game
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Final Fantasy 15: The Dawn of the Future
- This book covers the canceled Final Fantasy 15 DLC: Episode Noctis, Episode Lunafreya, Episode Aranea, and an alternate ending to Episode Ardyn
- 384 pages
Final Fantasy 15 Story
To experience the full story of Final Fantasy 15, players can roughly expect at least 70 hours of gameplay, about 4 hours or so watching shows and a movie, and a couple of days’ worth of reading. This is ultimately quite shorter than the Final Fantasy 7 compilation or Final Fantasy 13 story (since it features three full-length games as opposed to one with a few DLC pieces), but the story is one worth experiencing.
As Square Enix moves forward with Final Fantasy 16, it’ll be interesting to see if it gets a similar treatment. DLC is more common nowadays, so it can certainly expand the story that way. And, perhaps if it’s well-received enough at release, fans could see a direct sequel to it someday. It all remains to be seen, but building smaller universes within the larger Final Fantasy universe is a fun element of the franchise.
Final Fantasy 16 is in development for PS5.