Here we are, at the end of our strange love affair. Oh, and also here's the last part of my Final Fantasy XV writing review.
We're back on the train and headed straight for the empire capital city... but not before another detour! Noctis wants to visit Luna's hometown of Tenebrae. Gladio protests but relents after Noctis showed his resolve during the last detour. If it helps him move past it, Gladio is okay with making time for it.
We're back on the train and headed straight for the empire capital city... but not before another detour! Noctis wants to visit Luna's hometown of Tenebrae. Gladio protests but relents after Noctis showed his resolve during the last detour. If it helps him move past it, Gladio is okay with making time for it.
With the nights getting longer, the train gets ambushed by daemons that are controlled by the empire. It's all hands on deck as the boys get trapped at a checkpoint and have to fight off the empire while guarding the train too. Ardyn shows up too and we get into a surreal chase scene where Noctis tries getting revenge.
About halfway through the chase, it became painfully obvious that this was a trick. Ardyn reveals later that he used to magic to switch appearances with Prompto. So that whole time Noctis was chasing Ardyn, it was actually Prompto he was threatening to murder. This results in Noctis accidentally shoving Prompto off the train with Ardyn pulling the curtain on his magic trick.
Just when you thought it couldn't get worse; you attack your best friend, shove him off a train, and have to go pay for DLC if you wanna see what happened to him while he was gone. When it rains, it pours.
On a more serious note; Noctis unknowingly said some pretty harsh things to Prompto during his frenzy. It's a cruel blow to your kindest party member who's already admitted he doesn't think very highly of himself. If the game hasn't gotten you to feel something at this point, then I'm assuming the pace of the plot is becoming too abnormal to ignore.
Unable to stop with the empire on their heels, the boys are forced to keep trucking until they arrive at Tenebrae with a train full of scared civilians. They shake the empire thanks to Noctis summoning Leviathan and find sanctuary with Aranea's mecernary band turned good.
Tenebrae was attacked with Aranea by daemons and her band there to help deal with the aftermath. We're getting a good idea of what the world is going through and how the source is stemming from Niflheim's twisted daemon experiments. Unfortunately, you don't actually visit Tenebrae. All you do is stare from a far off cliff, fifty feet from your train, as it burns.
This section of the game is where the cut content becomes obvious; what should be full open areas are just pretty viewpoints you can't explore. The pace of the plot is picking up as we speed to the end and a lot of characters are left behind. We don't ever see Cindy, Iris, Cid, Cor, or Aranea again after this.
I'm not saying being able to walk around a burning Tenebrae would've made things better. But it would've been a nice touch in a game that otherwise doesn't seem like it has a lot time left right now. You do, however, get to talk to the survivors and they've got amount a good amount on their minds as they run scared.
Nothing they say is all that memorable but it helps contextualize what's going on and how high the stakes are. The empire has no idea what they're doing and have started executing incompetent members of their military; like Ravus (Luna's brother).
On that note, I think it's time to talk about Ravus. Ravus is Luna's older brother. During the first leg of the journey, we find out he switched sides to the empire and is adamant on ensuring that Noctis fail his mission. We don't know why he does this but he's also in possession of Noctis' father's Royal Arm, leaving a vengeful taste in our mouth. We get a few flashbacks with Ravus and Luna arguing calmly in a field at some point. What I can ascertain from this is that Ravus believes Luna is fated to die if she continues to help Noctis. The plot never confirms this as being the case but she died regardless at this point so maybe he was right?
Here's the thing, if what this is implying is true, then the subplot of people getting really rebellious with the gods' demands are substantiated. This hair-brained convolution of traditions is way too ridiculous to follow and I don't blame anybody that's tired of it because quite frankly, I'm tired of it too. These gods only seem to care about their precious royal bloodlines. Sure, the world is at stake, but they could choose anybody to save it! They're the ones who gave the royal bloodline the magic ability to save the world in the first place; just give it to someone else!
But then Ravus was apparently going to change his mind and help you at some point; it's not clear.
Part of why I liked the original Final Fantasies is that they could leave room for anyone to feel like they could contribute to the plot or save the world. If you were some clueless athlete, a naive priest, a no-named soldier, a science experiment gone wrong, or just some knight who wants to help; you could save the day. But here, it all rests on Noctis. It's still inspiring but it's forcing us to ignore a larger part of the world that is understandably frustrated.
On that note, I think it's time to talk about Ravus. Ravus is Luna's older brother. During the first leg of the journey, we find out he switched sides to the empire and is adamant on ensuring that Noctis fail his mission. We don't know why he does this but he's also in possession of Noctis' father's Royal Arm, leaving a vengeful taste in our mouth. We get a few flashbacks with Ravus and Luna arguing calmly in a field at some point. What I can ascertain from this is that Ravus believes Luna is fated to die if she continues to help Noctis. The plot never confirms this as being the case but she died regardless at this point so maybe he was right?
Here's the thing, if what this is implying is true, then the subplot of people getting really rebellious with the gods' demands are substantiated. This hair-brained convolution of traditions is way too ridiculous to follow and I don't blame anybody that's tired of it because quite frankly, I'm tired of it too. These gods only seem to care about their precious royal bloodlines. Sure, the world is at stake, but they could choose anybody to save it! They're the ones who gave the royal bloodline the magic ability to save the world in the first place; just give it to someone else!
But then Ravus was apparently going to change his mind and help you at some point; it's not clear.
Part of why I liked the original Final Fantasies is that they could leave room for anyone to feel like they could contribute to the plot or save the world. If you were some clueless athlete, a naive priest, a no-named soldier, a science experiment gone wrong, or just some knight who wants to help; you could save the day. But here, it all rests on Noctis. It's still inspiring but it's forcing us to ignore a larger part of the world that is understandably frustrated.
With little in the way of options, our remaining heroes continue to Gralea; where the empire is seemingly cooking up their evil schemes. There's no word on Prompto but he's got a phone, it's only a matter of time before he gives us a call, right? The boys hope they meet him along the way but their train gets stuck in the frozen tundra for another detour.
And in comes the fourth god to join our arsenal. This review is getting lengthy (like the game at some points) so I'm happy to report that this part is crazy short. You get off the train, fight a random boss, and the aforementioned messenger of the gods (the one who likes photobombing) reveals herself to be Shiva; another member of this pantheon. Shiva is one of the gods that likes humans so she's cool (AKA she has ice powers).
There's a weird segment where Ardyn presses a button. We don't know what it did until later.
I feel like I'm speeding through this out of spite for tedium but the game's doing it too so I don't feel as bad. Noctis, Gladio and Ignis drive the Regalia through the last stretch to the city of Gralea. It's a hectic car section where fireballs are raining down from the sky; you're racing for your life to get to the source of the empire's evil and retrieve the crystal. The Regalia breaks down for the count after it delivers our heroes to where they're meant to be. It's supposed to be an endearing and emotional goodbye. I know it's just a car but I can't help but feel a pang of remorse in response; that car got us through us some fun and rough times. I pour one out for you, Regalia! You were the hero we needed.
The gang gets separated by Ardyn in Gralea, where all hell is breaking loose. We find out his little device disables the power of our crystals so Noctis can't use his normal weapons. Finding his resolve, he finally puts on his father's ring and gains access to the OP magic of his forefathers. I wish regular magic in the game worked like this cause it's really fun and beats the heck out of dumb flasks I have to keep making and breaking at foes.
Alright, so up next comes chapter 13 of this game. And it's not great.
It's not overly offending but I did not enjoy my time in it. It has the same level design problem that Final Fantasy XIII had where it's just one long, tedious corridor. Occasionally, there's a stealth section but I found it easier to just run through it all once you get past the decent tension they build up.
There's no amazing vistas of the empire city; just the interior of grey and beige walls that are identical and filled with Ardyn's taunting. It almost ruined Ardyn's entire character for me but thankfully he gets saved by the end of this chapter through exposition.
But first, let me catch you up to speed on what basically happens cause it's a mouthful. Apparently there's a magical minority in Eos that I've never been aware of until now. Maybe I wasn't paying attention or maybe the game never had time to delve into this dynamic. It wouldn't be the first thing the game couldn't make time for. But apparently, Prompto is one of these minorities. We find him in a holding cell and he realizes the bar code on his arm (which he never brought up!) is a sign that he was born to this magical minority of people who have been experimented on. He has self-esteem issues and the gang reassures him that he's still their brother in arms.
I know what the writing is trying to do here but because I have no idea what they're talking about, I basically have no idea what they're talking about. So, there's not a lot of room for me to feel emotional over what should be an important character moment.
But the gang is whole again, thus catharsis is reached and I've never felt more powerful than with them back. We find Ravus' dead body, retrieve daddy's sword, and fight zombie Ravus who's been infected by a magic disease related to daemons. Because it turns out daemons are just people who get sucked into darkness by a strange medical affliction. And now you start to see how the wheels are turning in contrasting directions where it's everybody's turn for a revelation thus making it so loud that I can't tell who I'm supposed to be listening to.
In case, you're feeling inundated by my wall of exposition, you should take a break now because here comes another one. Through various heroic actions the gang helps Noctis reach the stolen crystal (about the size and shape of a Goron from the Legend Zelda series to be honest). Ardyn shows up, brimming with dark, diseased pools of shadow all over his body. The visual story told is that Ardyn is some kind of personification of the literal darkness sweeping the land. What I could imply at this point is that he's probably some Joker-like agent of chaos that just wants the world to burn. And I wasn't far off.
As Noctis gets sucked into the crystal (yes, you heard me right) the fifth god, Bahamaut, appears in a magic void to explain Ardyn's backstory through a fairy tale. Maybe it was the two hours of grey corridors but this was music to my ears. Finally, someone was sitting me down and just talking in a way I could understand.
It's a very dramatic story where not much is actually revealed but it's just enough to make a good Disney film. Turns out, Ardyn is also a descendant of the Lucis line of kings from centuries in the past. His full name is Ardyn Lucis Caelum. A long time ago, Ardyn wanted to help those suffering from the dark affliction currently messing things up. But the actual king of the time discredited Ardyn and made him out to be some snake oil villain. So, what does Ardyn do but inherit the power of this darkness along with his bloodline crystal abilities and become the villain he was claimed to be out of spite.
His whole mission was to mess up the world, make Noctis take up the role of king so they could face each other in spectacular one on one combat to prove who is the true king. It sounds really dumb, because it is, but the visuals and the emotion through which Noctis responds, saves the whole ordeal. He's a real character who is just plain tired of what's been going on and wants to do his duty as king. Bahamaut tells him that in order to save the world, he must restore the crystal to Lucis and give his own life force to power it back up.
After coming to terms with his impending, destined death, Noctis tumbles through the magical void and arrives ten years into the future off the coast of Lucis.
I'm just gonna let that sink in for you. I'll wait.
... ... ... ... ... ...
Okay, you good? Because I am equally as baffled. On the one hand, the land has been eclipsed with no sun to speak of so visual is perfect for the end of the world climate is perfect for a Final Fantasy final battle. The contrast in the character's ages and appearances is meticulously drawn out and I'm tossed into a realm of pity and sorrow as a I think about the decade these characters lost out on because Noctis was stuck in his time warp. While he was playing Doctor Who, his friends have been battling the end of world every day of their bleak lives. We get some blanks filled in with side characters but never see them, just hear about their new exploits.
Apparently, Iris became a super bad ass daemon hunter and I'm super salty I can't see that. I don't understand the need for the time jump. After hours of plowing through the game, I'm not sure what I expected to happen or even what I wanted to happen but it wasn't this. There's nothing wrong about this move, I just don't understand it. It conveys an apocalyptic tone but it felt like things were headed that way anyways so why push it? But there's a lot about this game I don't understand; sometimes that's okay but other times I turn off the game because I'm too tired of filling in the blanks.
You're reunited with the boys for the final chapter and make your way to the capital city where Ardyn has been waiting for you. But not before one last night in camp. It's bitter sweet and the boys know that Noctis will die in order to save the world. It's hard, Noctis is on the verge of tears, not because he's afraid but because he doesn't want to lose his friends. You cook one last meal and savor the calm before the storm.
After Gralea, this final level is fantastic; it's pouring beauty with every destroyed piece of Lucis architecture and our characters have these new, sharp, and slick outfits they saved for when they were supposed to return from Noctis' wedding.
Ardyn has the last god guarding the castle. Ifrit totally hates humans and is on fire all the time; that's basically his character but it's a really good fight. You get to summon in the other gods to help and these amazing cut scenes start up where gods are putting the smack down on one another! It makes me hope WWE has a god/goddess plot line somewhat similar to Jacob's Ladder; it's wonderful.
And so we arrive at the end; the entrance to the throne room and my favorite moment in the game. Noctis turns around and asks to see Prompto's photo collection. Noctis wants to pick one to take with him when he dies. I don't even care how much that doesn't make sense. The game let's you choose a photo from the many you've accrued and god help me, I was on the verge of tears. No matter what I may think of the disjointed main plot, these characters and this road trip was refreshingly tender, sincere, and simple in scope. The visual medium of all the awkward, endearing, dumb, and kick ass photos encapsulates everything this story was really about; bonding with your best friends.
Noctis grabs the photo and heads off the face Ardyn. There's not much else to reveal or say at this point. What follows is the culmination of Noctis taking the world on his shoulders and fighting for every living soul that he's ever encountered. He fights, he suffers, he saves the world and dies. He takes his place upon the throne and has the ghost of every former king strike him down with their royal arm, even his own father. His father hesitates but Noctis, god bless him, tells him he's ready and to believe in him do his duty. And so he does.
The world is saved, the credits roll, and a montage of all your pictures appear to remind you of the memories you made along the way. At the end, Noctis is sitting on a throne in heaven with Luna and in his hand is the picture you chose.
It was a long, tiresome road but here we are at the end. I appreciated what FFXV tried to do and I think it stuck its landing. It was a bumpy ride but save for some touch and go moments, I'm taking away some valuable memories and savoring the characters that made those memories worth keeping.
As for the series as a whole, I hope this gives the next entry some footing to stand on. After FFXIII, the series felt like it had one foot in the grave and this game feels like it managed to loose that doomed foot. I look forward to the next one and hope it doesn't tread the same mistake filled waters that dampened what fun I had here.
Now if you'll excuse me. I have to go reload my save and choose a zoomed in picture of Iris at the end so I can show it to Luna and tell her Noctis has found somebody else worth his time.
See you guys around!
- Gabriel Franco
Writer, Let's Player, and Proud Member of Huffle N' Stuff
And in comes the fourth god to join our arsenal. This review is getting lengthy (like the game at some points) so I'm happy to report that this part is crazy short. You get off the train, fight a random boss, and the aforementioned messenger of the gods (the one who likes photobombing) reveals herself to be Shiva; another member of this pantheon. Shiva is one of the gods that likes humans so she's cool (AKA she has ice powers).
There's a weird segment where Ardyn presses a button. We don't know what it did until later.
I feel like I'm speeding through this out of spite for tedium but the game's doing it too so I don't feel as bad. Noctis, Gladio and Ignis drive the Regalia through the last stretch to the city of Gralea. It's a hectic car section where fireballs are raining down from the sky; you're racing for your life to get to the source of the empire's evil and retrieve the crystal. The Regalia breaks down for the count after it delivers our heroes to where they're meant to be. It's supposed to be an endearing and emotional goodbye. I know it's just a car but I can't help but feel a pang of remorse in response; that car got us through us some fun and rough times. I pour one out for you, Regalia! You were the hero we needed.
The gang gets separated by Ardyn in Gralea, where all hell is breaking loose. We find out his little device disables the power of our crystals so Noctis can't use his normal weapons. Finding his resolve, he finally puts on his father's ring and gains access to the OP magic of his forefathers. I wish regular magic in the game worked like this cause it's really fun and beats the heck out of dumb flasks I have to keep making and breaking at foes.
Alright, so up next comes chapter 13 of this game. And it's not great.
It's not overly offending but I did not enjoy my time in it. It has the same level design problem that Final Fantasy XIII had where it's just one long, tedious corridor. Occasionally, there's a stealth section but I found it easier to just run through it all once you get past the decent tension they build up.
There's no amazing vistas of the empire city; just the interior of grey and beige walls that are identical and filled with Ardyn's taunting. It almost ruined Ardyn's entire character for me but thankfully he gets saved by the end of this chapter through exposition.
But first, let me catch you up to speed on what basically happens cause it's a mouthful. Apparently there's a magical minority in Eos that I've never been aware of until now. Maybe I wasn't paying attention or maybe the game never had time to delve into this dynamic. It wouldn't be the first thing the game couldn't make time for. But apparently, Prompto is one of these minorities. We find him in a holding cell and he realizes the bar code on his arm (which he never brought up!) is a sign that he was born to this magical minority of people who have been experimented on. He has self-esteem issues and the gang reassures him that he's still their brother in arms.
I know what the writing is trying to do here but because I have no idea what they're talking about, I basically have no idea what they're talking about. So, there's not a lot of room for me to feel emotional over what should be an important character moment.
But the gang is whole again, thus catharsis is reached and I've never felt more powerful than with them back. We find Ravus' dead body, retrieve daddy's sword, and fight zombie Ravus who's been infected by a magic disease related to daemons. Because it turns out daemons are just people who get sucked into darkness by a strange medical affliction. And now you start to see how the wheels are turning in contrasting directions where it's everybody's turn for a revelation thus making it so loud that I can't tell who I'm supposed to be listening to.
In case, you're feeling inundated by my wall of exposition, you should take a break now because here comes another one. Through various heroic actions the gang helps Noctis reach the stolen crystal (about the size and shape of a Goron from the Legend Zelda series to be honest). Ardyn shows up, brimming with dark, diseased pools of shadow all over his body. The visual story told is that Ardyn is some kind of personification of the literal darkness sweeping the land. What I could imply at this point is that he's probably some Joker-like agent of chaos that just wants the world to burn. And I wasn't far off.
As Noctis gets sucked into the crystal (yes, you heard me right) the fifth god, Bahamaut, appears in a magic void to explain Ardyn's backstory through a fairy tale. Maybe it was the two hours of grey corridors but this was music to my ears. Finally, someone was sitting me down and just talking in a way I could understand.
It's a very dramatic story where not much is actually revealed but it's just enough to make a good Disney film. Turns out, Ardyn is also a descendant of the Lucis line of kings from centuries in the past. His full name is Ardyn Lucis Caelum. A long time ago, Ardyn wanted to help those suffering from the dark affliction currently messing things up. But the actual king of the time discredited Ardyn and made him out to be some snake oil villain. So, what does Ardyn do but inherit the power of this darkness along with his bloodline crystal abilities and become the villain he was claimed to be out of spite.
His whole mission was to mess up the world, make Noctis take up the role of king so they could face each other in spectacular one on one combat to prove who is the true king. It sounds really dumb, because it is, but the visuals and the emotion through which Noctis responds, saves the whole ordeal. He's a real character who is just plain tired of what's been going on and wants to do his duty as king. Bahamaut tells him that in order to save the world, he must restore the crystal to Lucis and give his own life force to power it back up.
After coming to terms with his impending, destined death, Noctis tumbles through the magical void and arrives ten years into the future off the coast of Lucis.
I'm just gonna let that sink in for you. I'll wait.
... ... ... ... ... ...
Okay, you good? Because I am equally as baffled. On the one hand, the land has been eclipsed with no sun to speak of so visual is perfect for the end of the world climate is perfect for a Final Fantasy final battle. The contrast in the character's ages and appearances is meticulously drawn out and I'm tossed into a realm of pity and sorrow as a I think about the decade these characters lost out on because Noctis was stuck in his time warp. While he was playing Doctor Who, his friends have been battling the end of world every day of their bleak lives. We get some blanks filled in with side characters but never see them, just hear about their new exploits.
Apparently, Iris became a super bad ass daemon hunter and I'm super salty I can't see that. I don't understand the need for the time jump. After hours of plowing through the game, I'm not sure what I expected to happen or even what I wanted to happen but it wasn't this. There's nothing wrong about this move, I just don't understand it. It conveys an apocalyptic tone but it felt like things were headed that way anyways so why push it? But there's a lot about this game I don't understand; sometimes that's okay but other times I turn off the game because I'm too tired of filling in the blanks.
You're reunited with the boys for the final chapter and make your way to the capital city where Ardyn has been waiting for you. But not before one last night in camp. It's bitter sweet and the boys know that Noctis will die in order to save the world. It's hard, Noctis is on the verge of tears, not because he's afraid but because he doesn't want to lose his friends. You cook one last meal and savor the calm before the storm.
After Gralea, this final level is fantastic; it's pouring beauty with every destroyed piece of Lucis architecture and our characters have these new, sharp, and slick outfits they saved for when they were supposed to return from Noctis' wedding.
Ardyn has the last god guarding the castle. Ifrit totally hates humans and is on fire all the time; that's basically his character but it's a really good fight. You get to summon in the other gods to help and these amazing cut scenes start up where gods are putting the smack down on one another! It makes me hope WWE has a god/goddess plot line somewhat similar to Jacob's Ladder; it's wonderful.
And so we arrive at the end; the entrance to the throne room and my favorite moment in the game. Noctis turns around and asks to see Prompto's photo collection. Noctis wants to pick one to take with him when he dies. I don't even care how much that doesn't make sense. The game let's you choose a photo from the many you've accrued and god help me, I was on the verge of tears. No matter what I may think of the disjointed main plot, these characters and this road trip was refreshingly tender, sincere, and simple in scope. The visual medium of all the awkward, endearing, dumb, and kick ass photos encapsulates everything this story was really about; bonding with your best friends.
Noctis grabs the photo and heads off the face Ardyn. There's not much else to reveal or say at this point. What follows is the culmination of Noctis taking the world on his shoulders and fighting for every living soul that he's ever encountered. He fights, he suffers, he saves the world and dies. He takes his place upon the throne and has the ghost of every former king strike him down with their royal arm, even his own father. His father hesitates but Noctis, god bless him, tells him he's ready and to believe in him do his duty. And so he does.
The world is saved, the credits roll, and a montage of all your pictures appear to remind you of the memories you made along the way. At the end, Noctis is sitting on a throne in heaven with Luna and in his hand is the picture you chose.
It was a long, tiresome road but here we are at the end. I appreciated what FFXV tried to do and I think it stuck its landing. It was a bumpy ride but save for some touch and go moments, I'm taking away some valuable memories and savoring the characters that made those memories worth keeping.
As for the series as a whole, I hope this gives the next entry some footing to stand on. After FFXIII, the series felt like it had one foot in the grave and this game feels like it managed to loose that doomed foot. I look forward to the next one and hope it doesn't tread the same mistake filled waters that dampened what fun I had here.
Now if you'll excuse me. I have to go reload my save and choose a zoomed in picture of Iris at the end so I can show it to Luna and tell her Noctis has found somebody else worth his time.
See you guys around!
- Gabriel Franco
Writer, Let's Player, and Proud Member of Huffle N' Stuff
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