Board 8 > Andy Plays Final Fantasy XV

(+) Yeah! (+)

There's actually way too many dungeons that are just dark caves or mines in a game this good looking.

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I'm pretty sure they patched out the permanent Aranea glitch, but she's still pretty silly in the late game since she doesn't level and guests can't be downed.
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I do like the 4 bros gimmick but it's sad that Aranea won't ever be joining the party properly!

pjbasis posted...

There's actually way too many dungeons that are just dark caves or mines in a game this good looking.

Yeah this I agree with. The open world environments are cool but most of the dungeons are repetitive looking corridors. There was the cool volcano climb and one where you run through a river, but the rest are all dark and... well, standard fantasy stuff. Nothing to reflect the kinda modern setting of this one, at least yet.

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I agree that the dungeons could have used more variety. I did like Crestholm Channels, though, and the volcano was alright too.

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Episode Gladiolus complete! That was shorter than I expected. It was fun to play but I had hoped it would make me like Gladio more and layer him as a character more than it actually did. The ending is good on that front but I honestly feel like the DLC did more for Cor than it did for Glad >_> Wonder what happens if you pick all the mean dialogue options to him. I failed miserably at the Final Trial, didn't even get him down to half health :(

The Gilgamesh fight was great, phase 2 got super intense. He also mentioned Noct being the Last King of Lucis, hm. And it still seems a little odd that Glad just wandered off from Noct to almost die but whatevs.

We set sail for Altissia next time!

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The only DLC I've done!

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For what it's worth I think the other two DLCs are better. My preference is Ignis > Prompto > Gladiolus. That just so happens to be my character ranking as well.

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DLCs definitely get better in release order, and Ignis is best boy now and forever.

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Time for a long boat ride to Altissia! We get to chatting and have small pieces of background info portioned out to us, then we finally arrive in the watery city (cool entrance!). There's gondolas, a dress by Vivienne Westwood (???), and most importantly, fishing spots. After a day of fishing we move forward with the plot, meeting some guy and then a friendly politician Camelia. The negotiations here are whatever, but I'm keeping a save back here because I really want to see what happens if you pick all the obviously wrong answers lol. Does it game over you if Noct makes a bad impression? IDK.

After this, a lot of stuff happens. The game has been teasing Leviathan for some time now, so my expectations are high. Lunafreya gives a speech which is, by her standards, positively rousing. Then she goes to summon the Tidemother and OK this is legit pretty cool of her. The cinematography of this entire sequence is so good, all the shots of Leviathan towering over everyone are done really well. I like that she has the arrogance appropriate of a god.

Noct is on his own here and we get some fun simple combat sequences with the Empire and Leviathan as we jump around the city, then Ardyn shows up out of nowhere and stabs Luna. I was legit shocked by this, I don't know why but I didn't see it coming. There is an interesting moment between Luna and Ardyn afterwards where she heals him and her words clearly affect him a little, but then he's away and she's down. Noctis goes Super Saiyan (kinda reminiscent of Layle at the end of Crystal Bearers) and the super cool Apocalypsis music is back as we dominate Leviathan. This isn't really a fight, it's entirely unlosable, but atmospherically it is amazing. Noct unleashes the power of the King of Kings, and unfortunately the gameplay is super basic but the sequence is still so cool.

Leviathan eventually goes down, though not without some help from Titan, and not before causing a ton of damage. I'm glad a game finally did justice to Leviathan again and let her be a badass, it's the biggest role she's had since V and perhaps the first time Leviathan has ever lived up to its name! Really looking forward to see what they do with Shiva, Ifrit and Bahamut.

Luna and Noct are finally reunited as children in a pseudo dream in a field of flowers, which gradually dissolves into reality as Luna disappears into the watery depths. Again, really strong aesthetics here, and no small amount of VII vibes. Lunafreya was unfortunately never allowed to grow as a character, or be a believable or interesting human being for most of her runtime, but at least she went out like a champ. RIP, I suppose. A waste of a character, but she earned some points here.

Noctis is understandably devastated, and it seems Ignis was temporarily blinded somehow (DLC time?). A few weeks later we're on a train, and Gladio is a huge asshole to Noct for absolutely no reason. I know he's going for a 'tough love' thing here but what the heck was that about? Noct wasn't even doing anything wrong or self-pitying, he's still on his journey and doing all he can but Glad is mad anyway because... he's still sad? He's not over grieving his fiancee yet? Come on, there was no need for that and all it's gonna do is push Noct further into a spiral, he needs support from his friends! Gladio remains the worst of the 4.

We learn that Ravus has been blamed for the disaster at Altissia and is sentenced to be executed. Seems weird, I guess he may just be another casualty of the weird unfinished plot of this game. Now what is Ardyn's game, why did he kill Luna but still want to help Noct? No idea, but he's put himself firmly in villain territory now, no more kindly guides I imagine.

I leave it here, but I'm excited to see where things go now. Just how badly will this hit Noctis? Is the game pulling a reverse XIII where it starts off open and then gets more linear as it goes? How are we gonna get the blessings of the other gods without an Oracle? Only one way to find out. Whew!

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The Leviathan fight is amazing

Also absolutely do not play Episode Ignis yet

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"gets more linear as it goes"

perhaps

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Leonhart4 posted...

Also absolutely do not play Episode Ignis yet

Understood!

Gladio and Noct are fighting a lot, constantly sniping at each other in these mines. Between the two of them going at it, Ignis being silent, and Prompto awkwardly trying to lighten the mood, the vibe is pretty uneasy down here. I guess it's to the game's credit that things are noticeably uncomfortable, shows it did a good job of previously establishing them as bros. I try to slow down for Ignis but the AI is so atrocious I give up on that after 2 intolerable minutes.

Gladio is still way more of an asshole here, Noct has done nothing wrong but he's pissed at him for not being kingly enough or whatever. After the Malboro fight (I am sadly too overleveled for this to be as cool as it should!) Ignis insists on traveling with us and Glad and Noct are OK again. I don't think this was handled very elegantly but tbf that is how things often work IRL. To Gladio's credit he did raise some valid points about Ignis not coming with us. We end the chapter with Ardyn hopping on the train humming the chocobo theme.

Chapter 11 is incredibly short. It's immediately obvious that Ardyn is actually Prompto from how he's addressing Noctis, but I didn't figure the twist that Prompto was Ardyn! I don't know how Ardyn is managing to pull this off either, he even uses Prompto's skillset in battle. The reveal itself is a little clunky and really fast, the intro description to chapter 12 was actually more enlightening lol. Bye Prompto, enjoy your DLC! Noctis's VA does well at getting his complete distress across.

We soon arrive at Tenebrae, or what's left of it. Aranea is here and officially on our side now, and we get a bunch of updates about the Empire and what's been going on. The Emperor is barely a footnote here, it's all Ardyn. Honestly this whole sequence was kind of 'off' to me, it feels like we skipped several plot beats and all the important stuff happened offscreen. Tenebrae itself isn't a very good area, it's intentionally bleak and there's one random lady at the end who just shoves some exposition at us and it's all feeling a little... weird, I don't know how else to describe it. The stuff about the nights getting longer is a really nice touch though, I had noticed it back in Cleigne but thought it was some weird regional thing not a plot mechanic. We find out in a flashback that Ravus is sorta on Luna's side after all. Hopefully he'll piece things together for us once we see him again, if he's still alive.

Next stop on the never ending train ride is Shiva's domain. She's already dead, which is a pretty neat concept, but we only really see her frozen head. Again there's barely any environment here, was the original plan for this whole post-Altissia area to be a big open world we could move around in? It feels wrong just rushing through this massive area with tiny stops here and there. There's only a handful of new enemies, too.

Reveal time: Gentiana is actually Shiva herself! No idea if this makes sense, but it's interesting. Shiva (of course she's just a regular naked blue lady as always lol) lays a bunch of background lore about the Six on us, and we see more of Luna in flashbacks again. We are seeing more of Luna's human side post-death than we ever did before, I wonder if that's intentional. Her doubts, her desires, her insecurities... if only we'd seen her be an actual flawed person 30 hours ago! Still it's cool to do it now, I wonder if she's more interesting on a replay.

I guess we're to take things at face value for the Six and there's not gonna be a big twist on that front, but we'll see. Shiva freezing Ardyn was pretty cool. He casually drops that he's immortal (and implies he killed Shiva), and his powers seem ridiculous and endless. What the hell is he? And why is he still helping us! It's getting a little tiring now, we need answers soon.

More than ever this game's script feels like an early rough draft with a bunch of pieces missing. There's some interesting stuff that we're learning, but it's all so scattered. Are we heading to the finale? It didn't feel like it before but it absolutely does now! Surely it can't be endgame when the suggested levels are only early 30s, I wonder what will happen to keep the game going. Don't get me wrong, I'm still having fun here, there's just some mood whiplash sometimes and nothing is getting a chance to breathe right now. We gotta get offa this train!

Chapter 13 next time, we've got to be reaching some kind of climax!

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andylt posted...

The stuff about the nights getting longer is a really nice touch though, I had noticed it back in Cleigne but thought it was some weird regional thing not a plot mechanic

I thought the same about this.

Also, I went through that whole Malboro dungeon slowly up to the boss to try to let Ignis keep up. Made it way more annoying, and I wish I'd realized sooner that it wasn't actually necessary.

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Did you rest in the Malboro dungeon? One of my fav parts of the game. One of my fav chapters overall. Really interesting emotions that you never get in games, let alone jrpgs.

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I also let Ignis keep pace with me but that's because he's the best and he deserves it

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andylt posted...

The stuff about the nights getting longer is a really nice touch though, I had noticed it back in Cleigne but thought it was some weird regional thing not a plot mechanic.

Yeah, the nights were gradually getting longer in every chapter, though I think it's sped up quite a bit in the last few. I think if you rest in the train car in Tenebrae, you end up getting up at sunrise around noon.

Next stop on the never ending train ride is Shiva's domain. She's already dead, which is a pretty neat concept, but we only really see her frozen head. Again there's barely any environment here, was the original plan for this whole post-Altissia area to be a big open world we could move around in? It feels wrong just rushing through this massive area with tiny stops here and there. There's only a handful of new enemies, too.

People have gone out of bounds and seen that there's roads around this continent, but it was probably cut because they ran out of time. Or it could be leftovers from when everything was on one continent, but got split up due to size issues.

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I'm sure they planned for all these areas to be as big as the main open world and they figured it was obviously doable in their 10 year development timeframe

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yeah ironically enough the train ride is the part where the game goes off the rails for me

i remember one of the chapters being literally just noctis fighting a couple random battles in a traincar

I always pair this with MGSV as examples of unfinished - perhaps too ambitious - games

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Yea those chapters always felt unfinished. At least with the Royal Edition they added in a couple exposition dumps but it still feels like there could be more.

Also don't think anyone has mentioned yet, but don't play Episode Prompto just yet either.

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foolm0r0n posted...

Really interesting emotions that you never get in games, let alone jrpgs.

I like this take on it, it was straight up unpleasant at points and it really made me as the player uncomfortable, pretty brave of them to write it that way.

BlackDra90n posted...

Yea those chapters always felt unfinished. At least with the Royal Edition they added in a couple exposition dumps but it still feels like there could be more.

Also don't think anyone has mentioned yet, but don't play Episode Prompto just yet either.

I'll have to look after I beat this and see what was added in Royal and how barebones the base game was lol. And gotcha, no DLC until I'm told otherwise!

Anyway, back to Resident Evil XV.

The car heroically sacrifices itself (RIP car) and Noct gets split up from the others and his powers. What follows is a long solo survival horror-ish sequence featuring: text logs filled with lore, hiding from zombies daemons in corridors, collecting keycards, and avoiding a big monster that follows us between rooms. Yes, this is an attempt at Resident Evil. It's a refreshing switch-up and I admire how boldly they throw us into this, but the gameplay mechanics don't quite work to make this a horrifying experience, especially with how overleveled Noct is. I do enjoy this switch-up, though it does go on a little too long probs.

I should note here that I'm given the option of controlling Noct or Gladio at the start. I pick Noct, and the game tells me I can switch to Gladio at the dormitories. I mistakenly take this to mean I can switch back and forth as I go, so I swap to Glad at the first chance but... that's it. No switching back! So I go ahead with Verse 2 until it puts me back in Noct's hands again, then reload my save and go through it all properly as Noct. At least I get to see both routes this way! I assume Verse 2 was added with Glad's DLC, maybe a bunch of players hated going through this sequence so they made it easier or more standard or something? I liked it though. Maybe it's annoying on repeat playthroughs?

Glad and Ignis do discover some things before Noct, namely watching Ardyn-as-Noct killing Ravus and seeing the Emperor in monster form. But otherwise they don't add much.

Noctis finally puts on the ring and immediately unlocks DEATH. I swear in any other game the gods+kings would end up being the bad guys here >_> Ardyn has devolved into chuckling villain in the shadows at this part, still seemingly helping the crew but taunting Noctis at every opportunity. What if he failed on one of these bits and died? What would you do then, Ardyn???

We learn that Ravus was fully helping Luna this whole time despite his reservations. Shame he's barely been a presence in the game, but they do wrap his character up well. We also find out that the humans have been transformed into daemons, up to and including the Emperor himself. After a lot of Resident Evil-ing, Noctis reunites with his bros and they go rescue Prompto, who promptly reveals that he was born the same way MTs are. It's a really nice moment seeing the bros automatically accept him and not take this as a big deal, but it's also super weird that the game breezes past this like it isn't a major plot reveal. This is a good piece of backstory, game, let it breathe for a sec! Hopefully we'll find out more in his DLC.

I realise with Prompto back that he is pretty easily my favourite of the gang. That's probably not a popular pick, but that's how I feel!

We kill the Emperor (what a non-character he turned out to be), kill Ravus at his own request, and Noctis agonisingly agrees to leave the gang again, just after they were all reunited and bonding again. Ardyn shows him to the crystal, and the game drops its big guns in a great bunch of scenes here.

Ardyn finally reveals himself as Ardyn Lucis Caelum. He was once a healer who took daemons into his body to save others from suffering, only to be cast out by a king and demonised, which is how he lost his morals and became a 'monster'. His goal is to end the crystal and king both, which he believes will finally redeem him. I don't quite understand that last bit, but I'm not sure I'm meant to. This is a pretty good backstory, and not one I was expecting at all! My secret theory after the Gentiana reveal was that Ardyn was actually Ifrit, still consumed by hatred for mankind. I was way off! Noct gets trapped in the crystal and Ardyn walks off like a badass after being shot by the gang.

Note: the sound mixing in this scene is atrocious. For some reason Noctis's grunts were given higher priority than Ardyn's dialogue and I had to read the subs to figure out exactly what he was saying. And such a good scene, too! Bah.

Inside the crystal Noctis meets Bahamut (!), who refers to Ardyn as the Immortal Accursed and tells Noctis he has to sacrifice himself to rid the world of the 'usurper'. The game appears to have laid down some of its cards for the endgame, but I'm still gonna hold out hope that there's another twist coming. I much prefer 'fight your fate/forge your own path' stories to 'fulfill your destiny and do wtv the gods tell you to' ones, and so does Final Fantasy normally! Don't get me wrong, I'm enjoying this whole sequence a lot! I'm also shocked to see Bahamut here, which makes Ifrit the final of the Six we will meet...

Noctis wakes up in darkness on some prison island with a bit of facial hair, and he takes a boat to the mainland as the quest title 'World of Ruin' appears. OK I got chills when that popped up, I figure it won't be the full expansive second world of my dreams but still what a cool reference! I leave it here because there's a lot to digest. Where+when are we now? What is the actual plan for Noctis, all this buildup and all of the guiding he's been given by Ardyn, Bahamut, Lunafreya, etc, how exactly is the King of Kings supposed to save the world? Maybe with some more super saiyan powers like before, but maybe not! And of course his friends must be the key to whatever he decides to do, will he sacrifice himself to save them in particular? And I still don't get exactly what Ardyn's plan is, or how it would redeem him in his own eyes. Excited for whatever is to come!

...Is Ardyn's hat immortal too?


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Chapter 13 is so good

Also Prompto is probably the number two fan favorite behind Ignis

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andylt posted...

This is a good piece of backstory, game, let it breathe for a sec! Hopefully we'll find out more in his DLC.

I believe you're at the point now where you can play Episode Prompto.

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andylt posted...

maybe a bunch of players hated going through this sequence so they made it easier or more standard or something

It's me, I'm a bunch of players.

Chapter 13 is horrible, I could see the appeal for people who like survival games but that's never been my thing. It was just so jarring, and tedious.

Good once the gang's back together and you get your weapons back, at least.

andylt posted...

I realise with Prompto back that he is pretty easily my favourite of the gang. That's probably not a popular pick, but that's how I feel!

Yessss

New yrp???

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yeah chapter 13 isn't very fun. It just goes on and on.

I was also super excited by the world of ruin twist.

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Yeah I am definitely the exception when it comes to loving Chapter 13 sadly

I just thought the atmosphere was off the charts

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I can see why people love/hate Chapter 13, the gameplay systems really aren't built for stealth survival stuff and it does go on for a long while, but it's also just really cool infiltrating a dead enemy base solo and discovering major plot beats like that.

pjbasis posted...

New yrp???

R=Rinoa, who is the Y? But yes, he's great!

BlackDra90n posted...

I believe you're at the point now where you can play Episode Prompto.

Awesome! Thanks, I might do that once I reach the next natural stopping point in the plot!

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YRP = Yuna, Rikku, Paine

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Make sure you stay at the campsite near Galdin Quay if you never stayed at the one in the Chapter 10 dungeon. There's a missable "recipe" there.

And yeah, Verse 2 was added as a teaser for Episode Gladiolus. Kinda pointless now with being able to switch to one of the other bros in normal gameplay, but that was the original intent.

And while forcing a survival horror game into these gameplay systems might not have been the best, it's much better than the other genre they tried to force these gameplay systems into.

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andylt posted...

who is the Y?

it's You :D


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pjbasis posted...

it's You :D

:D

Mewtwo59 posted...

Make sure you stay at the campsite near Galdin Quay if you never stayed at the one in the Chapter 10 dungeon. There's a missable "recipe" there.

Oh yeah I forgot to answer this sorry, I did camp back in Chapter 10. I don't recall the recipe but then I can't say I usually pay close attention to them.

Noct wanders around Galdin Quay killing an absurd amount of monsters, and we eventually get picked up by a grown up Talcott! Noct has been inside that crystal for 10 years, and the world has gone to hell. Ardyn is at Insomnia now, and most of humanity is stuck in Lestallum. The Empire as an entity is done, and we now live in a state of permanent darkness. Cool!

We reunite with the bros at Hammerhead, chat to Talcott for a bit (he blames himself for his grandpa's death =( ), and then the game tells us that leaving Hammerhead will take us into the final battle. Wait, what?! Final battle?! We just got here! I mean, I knew we probably weren't getting a new full open world section in this World of Ruin, but... that was it? Aw, man. Well maybe it's a super long final battle sequence (this game surely has 15 chapters after all!), but still that's a shame. Will we ever get a World of Ruin that isn't cut short?

Without anything else to do (I'm also sad we didn't see older Cindy, would've been funny to see how they aged her if at all) I head back to the past for the first time via Umbra. We get a new quest which leads us to meeting up with all our friends (aw!), and we investigate some quakes wh- jesus christ that WHOLE MOUNTAIN is an Adamantoise?!! What the fuck. That is amazing. I love it. And I will run far far away from it.

I have some more dungeons to do here if this really is our last chance for a breather, so I head to the one that only opens up at night, Castlemark. Jeez this area is brutal and long, the little bomb things and the Yojimbos are annoying but at one point we have to face THREE Red Giants at once because I messed up the maze a bunch >_> Thankfully the Ring of Lucii is ultrahax and they go down, as does the Jabberwock boss in a cool looking area. There's also still these locked doors we can't get into, I wonder when that will happen.

So I have a few other dungeons to do I think, then there's Episode Prompto, then I guess finish the main game? Should Ignis be done after we finish the game? When does Comrades fit into this? Guess I had better start preparing myself for endgame =(

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Comrades is more or less a monster hunter ripoff taking place during the time skip, you kill stuff to keep the power grid for the anti monster lights up. (well, that was the DLC version that got taken down. IDK if there's any changes to the standalone version.)

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Episode Ignis and Ardyn should both be done post-game.

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I believe the original FFXV had a short final sequence, but the Royal edition really lengthened it. There's a good bit to do once you leave Hammerhead. The Royal edition version is actually one of the better FF final areas, IMO.

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andylt posted...

Oh yeah I forgot to answer this sorry, I did camp back in Chapter 10. I don't recall the recipe but then I can't say I usually pay close attention to them.

Oh, it's just canned food. Nothing you'd ever want to make, but it's missable, so I thought I'd mention it.

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Oh I did get that canned food yeah.

Episode Prompto beat

A character-driven action adventure starring Best Boy as a stealthy well-dressed rogue escaping a snowy imperial base and processing his traumas while growing as a person and learning to value himself, featuring special guest Best Girl, a snowmobile, and some kickass music. Yeah this is way more my style than Gladio's, I had a great time with this!

OK there are flaws still- the stealth is pretty irrelevant, Verstael is one-note, we don't really learn much plotwise, and the 'wipe out enemies' sidequests seem weirdly numerous and pointless. But the vibes of this DLC are so good! I really enjoy the battles when Aranea is there, Prompto works best as a support and the simple OP gunplay was a lot of fun, sniper rifle da best. We rocked a Level 99 mech for pretty much zero reward at one point. The whole Episode felt a lot more substantial than Gladio's in every respect.

Prompto's development here is great and helps make the stuff with his return in the main game less jarring, he was already easily my fav of the bros but this solidified him as a great character in the series for me. I'm not really a fan of Ardyn here, much like with him taunting the others in chapter 13 it just feels weak and childish. As said Verstael is barely a character, but I always like finding non-chronological text/audio logs showing a person's downfall, I'm a total sucker for that stuff in any game.

Barbarus reminds me of a boss in another game but I can't quite place it. The actual final boss was just an on-rails setpiece but it was still fun. Who doesn't like shooting things!

I also really like the post-creds scene with Prompto and Noct. Though it feels like the writers forgot Prompt had to end this DLC in that torture chamber and they just threw it in last minute lol.

Man, and Ignis and Ardyn's episodes are supposed to be better than this? Can't wait! (Yes I know, main game first)

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Yeah, Prompto is good. I never played Episode Ardyn because I was so bummed about the rest of the DLC being canceled that I couldn't muster up the drive for it (plus not a huge Ardyn fan anyway), but Episode Ignis is indeed amazing.

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My one complaint about Episode Prompto was I kept failing the final sequence in the rail shooter section, where basically the boss takes up most of the screen and you need to rapid fire. I beat it fairly quickly once I thought to turn controller vibration off, which helped me aim better. Not sure if others ran into problems here.

I'll wait for your write-up but there's a non-zero chance you could convince me to go back and buy/play Episode Ardyn if it sounds interesting enough.

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I didn't have a problem with that, but I had boosted the snowmobile's power so maybe that helped. Or it's just a problem they've fixed by now!

Back into the present, it's time to begin our assault on Insomnia. I didn't realise this would be a big open area with sidequests, so I'm pleasantly surprised by all there is to do. The general writing here is a bit bland, it's weird that the gang hasn't had a real convo about Noctis being in the crystal for 10 years or how he ended up on that island. And things seem a little rushed (they didn't have time to make older models for any of the women, I see >_>) but still fun. I see Omega wandering around, and Gentiana pretty much warns us that it's a postgame superboss. Level 119, oh dear.

Noctis starts summoning Leviathan in random battles in the city, so I guess now's a good time to ask what exactly the deal is with summons. Until a few days ago I had only ever summoned Ramuh, to the point where I assumed he was the only one we could actually get. Then I did that XIV quest and Garuda started to pop in, and now in Insomnia Leviathan shows up for the first time! Sadly her animation isn't all that good compared to Ramuh's. But is there a location trigger with these or something? I haven't ever gotten Bahamut, Shiva or even Titan despite him being the first one we acquired!

I've done the sidequests so next up we're to head to the Citadel. I think I'll probs finish the main game this weekend, exciting!

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andylt posted...

Noctis starts summoning Leviathan in random battles in the city, so I guess now's a good time to ask what exactly the deal is with summons. Until a few days ago I had only ever summoned Ramuh, to the point where I assumed he was the only one we could actually get. Then I did that XIV quest and Garuda started to pop in, and now in Insomnia Leviathan shows up for the first time! Sadly her animation isn't all that good compared to Ramuh's. But is there a location trigger with these or something? I haven't ever gotten Bahamut, Shiva or even Titan despite him being the first one we acquired!

Summons in XV are really weird - they're largely conditional but also partly location-based. Titan for example only really shows up if your party members are down and stay down, which... doesn't really ever happen! Ramuh, Garuda and Shiva have the easiest conditions so outside of freak occurances those three are mostly the only ones you'll ever see. (Ramuh is battle length, Garuda is Noct in danger with no party members down, Shiva is literally anything but is rarer than the other two AFAIK)

Summons are a bit more likely to show up when they're in places where it makes sense for them to be, i.e. Titan gets a boost on flat plains and Leviathan near water, but it never really made any of them notably more reliable in my experience.

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They locked most of the conversations behind staying at the trailer in Hammerhead. Which is something I'm sure not many people thought of doing.

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Thanks, I went back and got those convos!

The first of many boss fights today is Cerberus (hey we saw you in Kingsglaive!), who looks pretty cool as always. He's not too difficult, especially once Cor joins the fray. I thought for sure Cor was getting a heroic sacrifice here but thankfully he's just injured, presumably to give him a reason to not come with us into the Citadel.

All the summons show up (about time, Titan!) to help us break the wall, along with Luna somehow. Inside we finally meet Ifrit, who doesn't bother wasting a single line of dialogue on us. The first phase of this fight is incredibly badass. It's super easy but having Ifrit sat down, barely lifting a finger to swat us away like flies while the music soars is very cool. Bahamut shows up and makes him vulnerable I guess, then it's a proper fight. I'm still pretty overleveled for all the fights here but this is one of the most fun ones, right up until Shiva shows up to ice her beloved. I kinda wish they'd done more with Ifrit after all the buildup and his backstory, but hey it was a cool fight and he got to be the final summon fought for once.

Then it's time to fight the old kings, each one to be taken down by one particular member of the party. Pretty cool idea, though I imagine those who hadn't played the DLCs or unlocked the party swapping abilities would be a bit flustered by the sudden forced swaps lol. Gladio takes down Fierce, Prompto Rogue, Ignis Mystic, and then we fight Mystic again (ran out of designs?) with everybody getting a final blow. I like what they did with these fights. I know the game wasn't originally designed for party swapping but I kinda wish it was, the way they tailor the enemies to make them easier to kill with each person is nice.

Before we face Ardyn we get the toughest choice of the game by a long shot- which photo Noct will take with him. I love this, the gang had way more comments on different photos than I expected and it was just a sweet lil thing to add. I particularly lol'd at the responses if you try to take a picture with just one of the party. I wonder how many people had their ending ruined by picking a shot of Cindy's boobs or something.

Then it's time for the final fights with Ardyn, and I have to say they're a bit disappointing. The whole game is about the friendship and bonds between these four guys, then 3 of them get immediately OHKO'd and the final fight is a 1v1. I guess that's why they gave the others their own personal moment with the previous fights, but still meh. The first part of the fight is fun, especially as Noct actually summons Titan in the middle for the very first time! Maybe this was scripted, but it didn't seem like it. I guess from Xiahou's post that the game treated it as if the other 3 were all out of commission.

The second part is another Super Sonic style fight, though not as badass as Leviathan's. I have to say I'm a bit disappointed Ardyn had nothing else up his sleeve. He set this whole thing up across who knows how many years, personally helping Noct every step of the way specifically leading to this one particular showdown, and then he has nothing else to offer? No contingency plan, no new form or superpower beyond the one we already have? A shame. Hopefully Ardyn's DLC will give him better closure.

Noct kills Ardyn then says a rather tepid goodbye to his friends before going off to sacrifice himself. Makes sense I suppose, he wouldn't want to get choked up and lose his nerve. I like the character detail of Regis refusing to look at Noctis, not able to bear seeing his son do this thing he's specifically been chosen to do. We then move into the... afterlife? It looks the same as the inside of the crystal did but that's probably where we are? Anyway, Noctis does one final killing blow on Ardyn with the help of all the past kings. The best thing about this scene is Luna grabbing Ardyn's arm for a sec, I liked that, otherwise it's pretty generic.

Then the credits come, and these photos and the song feel way more impactful than everything that just happened. After they're over we see dawn finally return to the land, and I particularly like the Prelude playing over the shot of the last campfire. Then the main theme comes sweeping in as Luna creates the XV logo, now joined by Noct! I love a good logo reveal.

This would all be a 'fine' if not particularly well done ending (much like the plot at large!), but there's a scene in the middle of the credits that completely floors me. We flashback to the last campfire and Noct tries to get his feelings off his chest. There's few words, no music, nothing poetic or complicated about the scene at all, but it's so damn powerful. It feels so human and real, this is easily the most emotional moment in the game for me. Noct's VA does a particularly exceptional job here. It's the game at its best- stripped to the core, a simple moment of doubt, sadness, anxiety, and love between friends. I really really loved this.

So... that's the game! Of course I have plenty more to do between the DLCs and all the sidequests so this isn't a proper wrap up, but the main plot is over. There were no extra twists and everything gets played straight, you all know how I feel about all the kingly stuff by now and Noctis having to do what the gods want him to, I'm still a bit disappointed by that. But this is a good game, and I wonder what could've been if we'd had more than a rough first draft of a plot outline. That campfire scene ranks right up there with anything the series has done, and the credits themselves will stay with me too. I will miss the gang when it's all over, for sure.

Well, what can I say? You guys... are the best.

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andylt posted...

Well, what can I say? You guys... are the best.

This line absolutely devastates me and is probably the single best read Ray Chase has ever given in his career. Glad you felt its impact too!

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The ending nails it so damn perfectly (except the bland Ardyn fight but still), it actually makes the whole game worth playing. I've never had my opinion change so hard in the last 2 hours of a game. Those 4-5 perfect are worth the whole unfinished messy slog.

I do wonder what the game would've been like if they really finished it, but moreso I wonder if they just focused on those really powerful moments and built those out. Instead of trying to make these huge open world areas. Could've been a masterpiece. I guess FF7R is that.

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foolm0r0n posted...

I do wonder what the game would've been like if they really finished it

I legitimately think that if this game was actually finished it would have a chance at being my favorite game in the series. It ultimately turned out to be such an unfortunate mess, but holy hell those highs are so high.

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Yeah, Noct saying farewell to all the guys is an emotionally powerful moment.

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the final boss is so bad but yeah, the ending is pretty good

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I'll just echo that what the game does well it does really well.

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Glad others were hit hard by that scene too! And glad I'm not the only one disappointed by the final boss. It's weird, this game usually excels at creating a sense of atmosphere around major fights. Even Cerberus+Ifrit+the Kings do well at it, but then Ardyn himself, who has been around since pretty much the start of the game and has so much buildup, has the most boring anticlimactic boss fight in the whole thing! Really bizarre. He could've at least, I dunno, junctioned himself onto Ifrit or something >_>

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One thing I have to point out, granted it's been a good 4 or so years since I played it but from what I recall the non-Royal Edition Insomnia is literally:

-Walking a bit in city (and a hallway in an underground subway area?) with random battles, no sidequests, boss fights or superbosses
-Ifrit two-stage boss fight same as you had, and that's it - into the building, picking picture, Ardyn final boss sequence

So, sounds like they really did flesh it out, geez... though I think I bought Royal Edition when it was on sale a while back so I guess I'll see it and all the new free update content that came out after the time I stopped playing it.

After you play the Ignis and Ardyn DLC, go read the plot summary write-up for "Dawn of the Future"... might read like some real Kingdom Hearts shit by the end but would've been interesting to actually see it play out as DLC.

Also looking forward to postgame commentary. Some of the best hunts are post-game, there's one in particular that comes to mind I didn't see you mention yet, and of course the Adamantoise. Also need to hear your journey through that dungeon.... a true hell on earth.

Also just realized nobody nominated Omnis Lacrima for the music contest, ah... I probably should've done that instead of Divine Love.