You begin the game in a spacecraft called a StarDrifter, which is capable of traveling at speeds that would put c to shame. There are no missions, and there are no goals beyond those you see fit to set for yourself. You are a member of the Felisian race, but you know little of your species other than that they abandoned their homeworld long ago and were scattered among the stars in ships just like yours. Through your viewscreen you can see innumerable stars, some of which have names, indicating that somebody has explored and bestowed titles upon them. Of course, the vast majority of the 79+ billion stars in the Felisian galaxy are unexplored, and therefore, unnamed.
The real joy of Noctis lies in setting eyes on alien landscapes that nobody has ever seen before. From verdant rain forests to bleak, blasted deserts, the worlds of Noctis never fail to engage the senses. In my voyages I have found icy planetoids so distant from their parent stars that it is impossible to tell where the ground ends and the darkened sky begins. I have swum upon giant worlds with liquid-rock surfaces whose temperatures extend into the thousands of degrees Kelvin. I have watched triplicate stars rise above placid green meadows, their light refracted by a high canopy of crystalline trees. From mountainous peaks extending thousands of meters above rolling oceans, I have gazed down at my distant landing pod and marveled at my own precious insignificance.