A determined player has beaten Final Fantasy XV without gaining a single level or using items. YouTuber BOYvsVIDEOGAME played through the entire game with nothing other than his skills and obsessive perseverance to sustain him.
This isn’t the first time that BOYvsVIDEOGAME has completed a game under extreme conditions. He’s cleared Dragon Age: Inquisition solo on the Nightmare difficulty and slashed through Bloodborne without taking a single level. This time, he equips the nixperience band to avoid leveling up on his quest. This item prevents him from “spending” experience points at camps, hotels, or the end of certain story chapters.
Through a mixture of warp strikes and a heavy preference for greatsword, BOYvsVIDEOGAME brute forces his way through some of the games toughest battles. In some cases, like the Aranea Highwind fight, his attacks are fast and furious enough to take down the boss in minutes. Other time, he’ll fight for close to an hour to take down a dangerous hunt target.
For such a demanding playthrough, the process seems pretty haphazard. Bloodborne is a game full of difficult dodging and perfectly timed attacks. Final Fantasy XV proves to be a lot clumsier. BOYvsVIDEOGAME gets smacked around a lot, desperately working his way to victory over difficult enemies.
“The combat is, fucking, so stupid,” he says during a battle against a dangerous behemoth king. “Goofy combat.”
Still, for a game with goofy combat he manages to make it work and find optimal strategies. Using skills like Gladio’s Tempest, he’s able to get in position for sneaky back attacks. Ignis’ Overwhelm ability also allows for a considerable amount of damage and proves vital through the run. Using well timed pauses, he’s also able to slip through enemy hitboxes to occasionally avoid attacks.
It takes nine hours and twenty-six seconds for him to clear the main quest and reach the credits. A time that is still better than the near thirty hours I spent on my first playthrough. He accrues 266,566 points of experience that he never spends. You can watch the final boss fight here if you’re not worried about spoilers.
In general, BOYvsVIDEOGAME is pretty grumpy throughout his playthrough. As the credits end and the game says “fin” he offers a parting thought on his experiences.
“Fin? Fin?” he asks. “Not even that good of a story. You don’t deserve a fin.”