Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV

Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV is the story, imaged in CG, of the magical kingdom of Lucis, home to the sacred Crystal. The menacing empire of Niflheim is determined to steal the Crystal. King Regis of Lucis (Bean) commands an elite force of soldiers called the Kingsglaive. Wielding their king's magic, Nyx (Paul) and his fellow soldiers fight to protect Lucis. As the overwhelming military of the empire bears down, King Regis is faced with an impossible ultimatum—to marry his son, Prince Noctis to Princess Lunafreya of Tenebrai (Headey), captive of Niflheim, and surrender his lands to the empire's rule. Although the king concedes, it becomes clear that the empire will stop at nothing to achieve their devious goals, with only the Kingsglaive standing between them and world domination. (Gary Reber)

Special features include the featurettes A Way With Words: Epic And Intimate Vocals (HD 04:53), Fit For The Kingsglaive: Building The World (HD 05:35, To Capture The Kingsglaive: The Process (HD 06:08), and Emotive Music: Scoring The Kingsglaive (HD 06:05); upfront previews; and an UltraViolet digital copy.

The 2.40:1 1080p CGI picture is highlighted by state-of-the-art CG, which fans of the technology will relish. People imagery is quite impressive, as representatives of real humans. Fleshtones are naturally hued throughout. The expansive setting and backgrounds are full of nuanced complexities and exhibit good dimensionality. The color palette emphasizes dark hues in the realm of grays, but strong, saturated hues are generally suppressed. Deep black levels could be deeper to enhance contrast, but still shadow delineation is quite good. Resolution is excellent, with fine detail exhibited on object textures, uniforms, facial features, and hair. The imagery is remarkable and complex in terms of realistic rendering and is sure to please fans of the gaming franchise. (Gary Reber)

The DTS-HD Master Audio™ 5.1-channel soundtrack is quite dynamic, with bombastic sound effects conveying battle, defined by firepower and explosions, with aggressive surround envelopment and directionality. Deep bass is enhanced with sub-25 Hz .1 LFE energy. Foley is quite real sounding. Dialogue is intelligible, with generally good spatial delineation, even though ADR produced. The outstanding sound element is the power and dynamic orchestral score. The score occupies a wide and deep soundstage presence that dramatically expands to the surrounds to create a holosonic® soundfield experience. This is a very fine soundtrack experience, with excellent fidelity and dimensionality, as well as exciting sonics, with an often aggressive soundfield dimension. (Gary Reber)