Monster of the Deep: Final Fantasy XV

Monster of the Deep: Final Fantasy XV
Information
VR/AR	Virtual Reality
Developer	Square Enix
Publisher	Square Enix
Platform	PlayStation 4
Device	PlayStation VR
Type	Game
Genre	Simulation, Sports
Input Device	PlayStation Move, DualShock 4
Play Area	Seated
Game Mode	Single-player
Release Date	21 November 2017
Price	US$29.99
App Store	PlayStation Store

See also: VR Apps and VR Games

Monster of the Deep: Final Fantasy XV is a virtual reality fishing game developed and published by Square Enix for PlayStation VR on the PlayStation 4. Set in the world of Final Fantasy XV, it has the player fish alongside Noctis and his companions, then fight and reel in large "daemon" fish in boss encounters that switch to crossbow shooting. It is a standalone download and does not require Final Fantasy XV.

The game was revealed at Sony's E3 2017 press conference with a September 2017 window, was delayed, and was released on 21 November 2017 at US$29.99. It replaced a different Final Fantasy XV VR project: a shooting demo shown at E3 2016 that Square Enix never released. On Metacritic it holds a "mixed or average" Metascore of 62 based on 27 critic reviews.

Reviewed 13 October 2026. Store listing (price, release date, hardware, modes), UploadVR announcement, delay and review articles, Road to VR, VideoGamer, Kotaku, 4Gamer, PlayStation LifeStyle, TheSixthAxis and GamesBeat texts and quotes, and Metacritic and OpenCritic scores. About review dates.

Gameplay

The player creates their own avatar and joins the Final Fantasy XV cast on fishing trips. TheSixthAxis compared the range of avatar options to the character editor of the game's Comrades multiplayer expansion. Story mode builds to a fight with the creature that gives the game its name, while a free fishing mode has no story objective. The game also has bounties and tournaments, and rods, reels and lures can be customized. Noctis acts as a fishing rival and Prompto photographs the player. The player's cabin is a hub between missions, where story missions, hunting quests and recreational fishing are chosen. According to TheSixthAxis, the player moves around each environment in first person by hopping between fixed fishing points.

Fishing and boss fights

The game can be played with a DualShock 4 or with two PlayStation Move controllers. In 4Gamer's July 2017 hands-on with Move controllers, the left hand held a sonar that showed fish positions as rings when the Move button was pressed. The right hand held the rod: the player held the Move button, swung the arm back and forward, and released it to cast. The left hand then gripped the reel handle with the trigger and wound the line in, and the rod had to be moved in the direction shown on screen when line tension rose. With a DualShock 4, the player flicks the controller to cast and rotates the left analog stick to reel; TheSixthAxis called the DualShock 4 a viable option but described the Move controllers, with one hand casting and the other reeling, as the preferred one.

In the 4Gamer demo, catching three fish brought out a fish that had turned into a daemon, which first had to be weakened with a crossbow held in the left hand and then reeled in. In the released game, the player catches smaller fish to draw out a boss, then switches to a first-person crossbow sequence before reeling it in. GamesBeat described one boss fight in which the player sits in a boat on a lake and uses sonar to find the fish. Hunting challenges ask the player to catch specific fish, and money buys new lures, rods and outfits such as a chocobo costume. UploadVR noted that the player sits still and faces forward the entire time.

Development

At E3 2016, Square Enix showed a Final Fantasy XV VR demo on PlayStation VR in which the player, as Prompto, toured the game's world and took part in a simple shooting section; it had been announced as a free download. Kotaku's Patrick Klepek described the arena section as warping "between a few pre-determined points" and shooting a monster. Speaking to Sirus Gaming at PlayStation Experience in Southeast Asia, as reported in August 2017, Final Fantasy XV lead designer Wan Hazmer said that "The Prompto Shooting game was actually a showcase back then", and the demo was not released. Road to VR wrote that the game began as a first-person shooter add-on for Final Fantasy XV, which was scrapped and replaced with the fishing game.

When the fishing game was revealed at E3 2017 on 12 June, UploadVR described it as fishing-based downloadable content and wrote that Final Fantasy XV's VR support had undergone "a significant redesign" since E3 2016. By August 2017 it had been confirmed as a standalone game rather than an add-on, and the developers released a video of a fishing trip they had taken as research.

Release

The game was first planned for September 2017. In August 2017, Square Enix moved the release to 21 November. The Japanese version was teased at the Tokyo Game Show in September 2017, followed by an English teaser trailer; PlayStation Store pre-orders cost US$30 and included an in-game samurai outfit. About two minutes of gameplay were shown before Sony's Paris Games Week 2017 press conference in late October, and the worldwide release date of 21 November was repeated.

Platform	Region	Release date	Price
PlayStation 4 (PlayStation VR)	North America	21 November 2017	US$29.99
PlayStation 4 (PlayStation VR)	Japan	21 November 2017	3,797 yen (before tax)

As of October 2026, the US PlayStation Store still sells the game for US$29.99. The listing requires a PlayStation VR headset and PlayStation Camera on PS4, supports up to two PlayStation Move controllers, and states that the game is playable on PlayStation 5, where some PS4 features may be absent and a PlayStation Camera adaptor is required.

Reception

Monster of the Deep received mixed reviews. On Metacritic it has a Metascore of 62 from 27 critic reviews; on OpenCritic it has a Top Critic Average of 64, with 29% of critics recommending it.

Publication	Score	Notes
Metacritic (aggregate)	62/100	27 critic reviews
OpenCritic (aggregate)	64/100	Top Critic Average; 29% recommend
PlayStation LifeStyle	8.5/10	Score as listed by OpenCritic
Destructoid	7/10	Score as listed by OpenCritic
Push Square	7/10	Score as listed by OpenCritic
TheSixthAxis	6/10	Reviewed on PS4 Pro
GamesBeat	55/100
Hardcore Gamer	1.5/5	Score as listed by OpenCritic

David Jagneaux of UploadVR wrote that "The base gameplay is fun and rewarding, but it is relatively shallow", and found that hitting the middle range when casting "was much more finicky than I thought it should have been". Tyler Treese of PlayStation LifeStyle called it "the best fishing game I've played in virtual reality", while listing a short story and inconsistent casting among its weaknesses. Jim Hargreaves of TheSixthAxis praised the detailed environments but found the loop repetitive and too simple, writing that "the fishing doesn't get any more complicated than that"; he estimated about a dozen hours for players who get absorbed in it.

GamesBeat criticized text boxes that were slow to clear, the lack of an immediate retry after a boss-fight death, low-quality visuals, tracking glitches and limited replay value, and said the boss fights were "the only time Square Enix takes advantage of the VR". Metacritic's summary of Push Square's review says it found the motion tracking and menus unreliable, but that the game was "not the gimmicky gag that many expected it to be"; Hardcore Gamer, in Metacritic's summary, called it lazy and broken despite its visuals.

See also

• PSVR Games
• PlayStation VR