The wizarding kingdom of Lucis is home to the sacred Crystal, but the hostile empire of Niflheim will stop at nothing to seize the relic. The King of Lucis, Regis, leads an elite squad of soldiers called the Kingsglaive. Armed with the king’s magic, Nyx Ulric and his loyal comrades from Kingsglaive defend the capital of Insomnia to stop the imperial army’s relentless advance.

Before the superior forces of Niflheim, King Regis has no choice but to agree to the ultimatum, ceding all his lands outside the capital and marrying Noctis’s son to Lady Lunafrea, the former princess of the now captured land of Tenebrae. In the raging war, the machinations of Niflheim turn Insomnia into a colossal battlefield, dragging Nyx into a struggle for the survival of the entire kingdom.

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Perhaps someone is following the history of Final Fantasy very carefully, but as an average viewer who once watched only animation for a long time, and who learned about the release of this film just a couple of days ago, I will try to form a separate opinion without knowledge in the deep gaming universe of FF.

Interestingly enough, there have been several completely unrelated Final Fantasy movies, and this one has nothing to do with the previous ones. Unobtrusively, ‘Kingslave’ really wants to be compared with ‘Final Fantasy’ in 2001. That film made a splash at the time. For which I beg your pardon, but I will compare.

In this case, the plot is built around a political and military conflict between the two strongest kingdoms: Niflheim and Insomnia. Without going into the details of the plot, Niflheim is victorious in a very protracted war. Against the background of the storyline of the film, they also act as villains.

The first thing I want to draw your attention to is the setting. I am a fantasy lover, but also an even bigger fantasy lover. This film has it all. The world of magic works closely with high technologies, which in some moments builds very curious solutions and is quite amazing. Especially along with excellent graphics. The first thing that comes for comparison, familiar to gamers Bioshok Infinit. Also, an attentive gaze of a gamer may notice some similarity with the Souls series. Since the film was made by the Japanese, this is not surprising. The scale of some scenes, battles, all this makes a very strong impression. There are some flaws, but overall, the graphics are excellent.

Characters. There are many of them in the film, but the small timing does not cope with the disclosure of the characters of many heroes, some disappear and do not return without even remembering. In this regard, Kingslave loses to the 2001 film.

Second problem. Understatement. The plot ends too quickly, as the film is a kind of promo for Final Fantasy XV for the uninitiated and an addition for those who are in the subject. But as in any film, there is a cross-cutting theme that is presented head-on and will be understandable even to a child.

But I want to return to the setting. There are many little things in the film that are very interesting for a fan of the genre (!), Not a series. It is wildly interesting to observe how this world works, how a kingdom that has achieved high development in technology interacts with magic, the submission and use of demons for military purposes, some kind of creatures, and so on. Personally, I am very intrigued, maybe even try to study the game.

Bottom line. It is worth repeating that the film is rather weak as an independent picture and in many respects loses to the excellent fantasy of 2001. But as an advertisement for the game, it is very good. Recommended for a one-time viewing for the evening.

Info Blu-ray
Video
Codec: HEVC / H.265 (38.8 Mb/s)
Resolution: Upscaled 4K (2160p)
HDR: HDR10
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1

Audio
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 16-bit)
English: Dolby Digital 5.1
French: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
German: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Hungarian: Dolby Digital 5.1
Italian: Dolby Digital 5.1
Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1
Japanese: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Polish: Dolby Digital 5.1
Portuguese: Dolby Digital 5.1
Thai: Dolby Digital 5.1

Subtitles
English, English SDH, Arabic, Mandarin (Simplified), Mandarin (Traditional), Czech, Danish, Dutch, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Korean, Latvian, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Japanese.