I have always agreed with Fenrir on the subject of Noctis. It can be fun for a few minutes, but it doesn't take long before you've been most of the different kinds of planets, and the only planets that have any variation are felysian. Everything else is just an endless, pointless landscape devoid of anything but rocks.
See, I'm a really huge fan aesthetically of deserts. Sand deserts, rock deserts, red deserts, white deserts... A lot of them are ugly, a lot of them are bland, and it's true, when you've seen a few, you really have seen all of them. But I still like them. Some hills just plain look nice. Some arrangements of sage bushes are pleasing. Some of the most boring places with just hills of black and white sand are really very interesting. And just like I can't resist pulling the car over and running around in the desert sometimes, I can't resist just running around in Noctis, saying "Hmm I wonder what that hill will look like from that other hill".
I don't think there's gameplay in Noctis. It's something else. Sure I could probably get the same thing from Terragen (and have, before,) but I kind of like having less control over the process--and for me, terrain has its own 'uncanny valley'...where if it gets too realistic without being perfect, it just starts to look wrong, instead. Only thing I've seen that comes close to looking good is Far Cry. Noctis is over on the other, safe end of that uncanny valley.
And if I was in a long-distance relationship instead of a close one, I'd actually do crazy things like have us both go to the same planet and same star and same sector, even if there's no multiplayer, just to see the same sun in the sky from a weird new world. <3
yeah, Noctis actually has romantic connotations to me.