Final Fantasy XV and Kingsglaive. Bonus scenes focusing on Lunafreya were included exclusively as part of the Ultimate Collector's Edition. The series was edited together into a 30-minute episode and broadcast on Japan's Tokyo MX network on September 30, 2016. The five episodes were also broadcast on Niconico during a launch event livestream on November 28, the day before the worldwide launch of Final Fantasy XV. The planned run only extended to five episodes, but Ofuji stated that depending on public reception to the series, further episodes could be produced. Episodes Reception The initial reaction to the series was better than the developers had initially expected, with the first episode getting more views than anticipated upon release. As of November 2016, the anime episodes were among the most viewed on the game's official YouTube channel. "Before the Storm" was the most watched video on the channel, with over 2,330,000 views. "Dogged Runner" was fifth with over 614,000; while "Sword and Shield" and "Bittersweet Memories" were at #13 and #14 with over 431,790 and 344,000 views respectively. The final episode had the lowest viewing figures, with just over 110,000. Versions of episodes on the channel featuring multi-lingual subtitles also had view counts above 100,000. In her review of the anime's first episode, Meghan Sullivan of IGN praised the visuals and fight choreography, but felt that the story would be confusing to those not already familiar with the game. She finished by calling the episode "a solid start to what will hopefully be a memorable anime". Michelle Nguyen of Geek.com, writing following the release of "Sword and Shield", was generally positive about the anime, praising its characters despite her dislike for the lack of playable female characters in the game itself. Speaking about each episode, she found the first episode to be rather weak, and ranked "Dogged Runner" high for changing Prompto into a more complex character. Andrew Webster, writing for The Verge, said that the anime captured the game's mixture of humor and traditional role-playing story tropes, sharing Nguyen's praise for "Dogged Runner", and saying that the anime made him more eager to play the game itself. Destructoid's Chris Carter, in an article on the release of the final episode, said he enjoyed the anime overall, although he found the final episode lax on story when compared to the rest of the series due to its focus on action. He stated