#the only DLC I did not play was Episode Ardyn

[hypaalicious]

Did you ever play the DLC for FFXV? Ignis' episode? Also, was Ignis not absolutely fine with that pompadour and scars cuz PLEASE I cannot get enough of that look

Not only did I play it, I actually predicted the events of what would happen in Episode Ignis before it dropped LMAO!! Gift of prophecy or whatever. Or just too much obsession. But it was lit!

And listen, there were too many horny posts I made seeing Ignis all purple eyed from the Ring of Lucis in that DLC. I am not embarrassed at all. I also still remember this gif of him post time skip:

And I will never delete it! Because this man KNOWS he is fine!! HE KNOWS IT!

I wanna sit on his face. 🥺

[captainadwen]

Finished episode prompto. It was good though not my fave of the three DLC (thats still ep ignis) and honestly the robot monkey was more menacing than finding out the ultimate weapon of the mad scientist is a giant robot sandworm... snow worm....

Also I think it was a missed opportunity to not have Prompto VA also voice Besitihia. Maybe he couldn't get the Old Dude voice right?

That aside things I really liked:

- Prompto's combat even tho I hate FPS, so less about playing and more just the concept. Specifically I liked that he has close range option even tho never seen in game... it makes sense. Stealing weapons never got old either.

- that scene where Prompto is full on spiraling and shoots that MT in the face? 10/10

- also the burn the barcode option that was good

- ARANEA my beloved. Love how she calls him a kid. She's got to be over 30 me thinks, which is good because this game desperately needs more female characters....

Things I liked but exasperated me:

- Ravus was the one to propose and plan the invasion of Insomnia. This literally never gets mentioned elsewhere? Same "tf game.why is this optional content and not a major conflict" as Ravus being put in charge of Insomnia after it falls and then repeatedly ditching his post

- Ardyn being a major force behind the MT process is... I'm not against it per say, but I'm generally not fond of narratives trying to pin All The Evil on This One Dude. I liked it much more when I thought Ardyn had just pointed Besithia in the correct direction a little bit, but Besithia did most of the work. Which is still a valid reading of the situation I think. I just really loved how Besithia began as just traumatized by seeing his comrades die and trying to find a way to stop that, only to go fully insane.

Things I wonder about:

- this is a huge area. I can't help but wonder if we were originally supposed to go through it in the main game.

- I haven't yet rescued prompto in main game so I'm very curious if the credits convo with noctis is dlc exclusive. It's good I really like it also prompto looks Rough

Things that amuse me:

- ardyn literally just scattered around all the relevant records in our path so I'm going to imagine that before this he spent a while listening to every report to find the most relevant ones to Prompto, Besithia Insanity ASMR

- Prompto you just took the snowmobile and left Aranea behind huh

- also he and Aranea just chilling at vending machines like a pair of loiterers is kinda funny

Overall fun time I guess. Wild to think none of these DLC were available at start of game. What in the world did people think prompto had gone through???

Also I genuinely thought MT were prompto clones themselves not just the prompto clones being robot fuel....

[cadburied]

Long rant be warned lol

Been playing final fantasy xv a lot lately and honestly I think it missed the mark. The combat is clunky and feels like I'm just holding down the dodge button until I can get some good hits in or I just instantly melt things with magic. Meanwhile my weapons feel like pool noodles even with using things they're weak to.

Speaking of magic the need to craft your spells is an interesting concept but again it's clunky and just not in the spirit of final fantasy. I feel like I've spent more time in menu's or driving around the rather barren (but pretty) landscape while bouncing between two or three locations in the map.

I feel like they tried to improve on ff xii (the last good mainline final fantasy) but just straight failed. Ik it was in development limbo for several years and switched project directors halfway through.

Thus far most of the set piece battles have been absolutely lackluster (titan my beloved I don't mean you) but going Into the powerplant in Lestallum (what a disappointing "city") to clear it of fiends and just having to deal with several level 7 goblins and like three other monsters was disappointing. Not to mention their excuse for random battles is dropping in enemies at least 10+ levels above me right on top of me while I'm trying to do hunts/sidequests breaks the gameplay loop so much I literally have just been blitzing through the story.

One of the redeeming qualities is probably the characters. I enjoy the banter between the boys and them taking moments to have sode discussions with Noctis, however Ignis repeatedly telling me it's dangerous at night is getting on my nerves. I really enjoy the dynamic Ardyn has with the party and I like getting guest party members to take around with you (Aranea my beloved you can kick me into the pavement anytime). While I've not yet gone to Altissa and met Luna in person I find her rather flat as a character (even more than Noctis) and literally only in the story to advance Noctis story which is just ughh. Ravus what are you up to how're you doing what's wrong with you (affectionate)

The chocobo gameplay is rather fun and a lot more engaging than holding R2 to drive however if you're going to make me gather ingredients and things let me do it on the mount for Christ sake.

Also I was really irritated that Gladio just ran off and came back and didn't even mention what he did. Ik he went to do episode Gladio stuff but I just think we could've gone and done that in the main game instead of getting a "several days later" black card. But for literally anyone who doesn't buy DLC his new scars (boy who fucked you up so bad?) Just go without explanation.

Anyway rant done lol bye

[zestria13]

Final Fantasy 15 Thoughts (Spoilers!)

So, I just finished playing Final Fantasy 15 Royal Edition and I have many feelings about it. As I understand it, I have avoided many of the basic gameplay and story problems by buying the Royal Edition, which has all of the patches, dlc's, and fixes many of the bugs encountered when FFXV first came out. Oh, and I have watched the brotherhood anime and the Kingsglaive movie. Overall, my first experience with FFXV is much more complete than it was when the game was initially released (that is my understanding anyways). To be clear, I enjoyed playing FFXV (at least a good portion of it), but I have many issues with it too. One of my main issues with FFXV is the plot, especially the plot following the rite in Altissia. I have read many complaints about how dark FFXV gets after this point and how it becomes a very narrow, plot driven narrative as opposed to its earlier more easygoing and open world setting. To some extent, I agree with these complaints. This change in the game feels very sudden and forced to some degree. However, I personally tend to play heavily narrative games because I like deep, complex plotlines. This turn into a plot driven narrative is not my main issue, though it was, in my opinion, too abrupt a change in the game. My main issue following the events in Altissia, simply, is that the game wasn't as much fun to play after that point. For a game promoting the concept of brotherhood and comradery, that pretty much disappeared after the events in Altissia. Don't get me wrong, I understand the events in Altissia were traumatic for all of the characters and that caused most of the tension, but it was like we were playing with a different group of characters than we started with. All of the comradery seen previously in the game, from the pep talks, to characters interactions, to the short quips in battle (My fav was between Noctis and Ignis, the "You got my back" and "Always" in reply) had created this atmosphere of a team, of a brotherhood that was connected not just by duty, but by genuine friendship. 

But then Altissia happens, and the group just...completely falls apart. There is such an emotional whiplash between the first part of the game and the second part of the game, and its jarring. I honestly felt uncomfortable playing the game after the events in Altissia because the atmosphere was tense and strained, and the comradery present in the first half of the game became nearly nonexistent. Frankly, the game never recovers from this mood shift, and the rest of the game has a sort of sullen, discomforting feel to it. And I know people would argue that the brotherhood comes back together at the end of the game, but I would argue that true reconciliation never happens between the characters, instead making their comradery at the end a byproduct of their circumstances. They never truly deal with the problems created by the events in Altissia and afterwards. They just push them aside because they need to do so in order to work as a team and save the world. Now, is it possible that the remaining trio living in darkness may have dealt with their issues and figured things out, but we wouldn't actually know because we aren't privy to anything that happens during those 10 years. Maybe the game wanted you to understand Noctis's perspective in this way (though they don't really touch on how incredibly disorienting that time skip must have been for Noctis). However, the point stands that there was never really time at any point in the rest of the game following Altissia for the group to reconcile and come back together as a cohesive unit.

That leads me to another huge issue I take with the plot of this game. The ending. I know, already, there are people who will comment and say that "Not everything has a happy ending" and "The sacrifice was necessary to save the world", and so on and so forth. My issue with the ending comes back to the question of why. Especially after having watched Episode Ardyn, I just don't feel that the game gives us a clear cut reason as to why any of the ending needs to happen the way it does. Ok, so the sun goes down and doesn't come up after Noctis is pulled into the Crystal, which means demons have pretty much free reign and everything is much more dangerous. Got it. But why did the sun disappear? I know the game explains that there are organisms infected with the Starscourge that release a light-absorbing miasma, which are the cause of the lengthening nights (though you need to be fairly thorough in your examination of items to learn this). It also mentions the idea that the Oracle dying is related to the longer nights and the disappearing sun, though it never really explains why besides the fact that the Oracle can heal the Starscourge. While I understand that her healing those with Starscourge helps to limit the amount of miasma being put into the world, it seems rather unlikely that one person can ever hope to keep up with that demand. Also, we only ever saw Luna heal people who had not fully turned into demons yet, and I would assume that those people aren't giving off the same level of miasma as fully turned demons. And, we know those fully turned demons exist, in the form of demons the party runs into and the MT's that the empire uses. I'm just not sure it is believable that the Oracle, by themselves, is actually healing enough people to actually prevent the endless night in the first place. As for the other part of the explanation, how did those organisms proliferate to the point where it caused an endless night? Based on what we hear from characters in FFXV and read in the research notes, the appearance of the longer nights was incredibly rapid, which begs the question of why those organisms suddenly started infecting creatures and producing this miasma so quickly in comparison to any other time in the history of this world (as far as we know). All in all, I can't think of a solid reason given in the game as to why the endless night even happens, or perhaps, why it hasn't happened already. 

Moving on, after Noctis is absorbed into the Crystal, we do a ten year time skip. Back to my question of why, why did Noctis have to be in the Crystal for 10 years? I know he went in to gain the power of providence, but 10 years seems a bit excessive. Maybe that’s just me. Ignoring the fact that almost all of the living things in the world would have died without 10 years of sunlight, the fact remains that, in all likelihood, most of the creatures living in that world would have perished, either by being killed by demons or due to a lack of resources. In all honesty, there probably aren't many people alive by the time Noctis returns, and it’s hard to say if a civilization would actually be able to recover from that kind of devastation. Anyways, let's move on to what is my biggest contention with the plot. The prophecy. I have to say, I really, really dislike this plot point in the game. For one, it makes no sense. The true king, in this story, exists to purge their star of the darkness. Ok, cool, love the vague terms. But again, why? The darkness, which basically refers to the Starscourge, has existed for at least 2000 years at this point in the world. If the gods were so invested in this issue, why didn't they address it earlier? Why wait for a so called chosen king after at least 2000 years of this darkness ravaging their world? And what makes Noctis the chosen king? Simply because the gods said so? If that is the case, why didn't they choose a chosen king earlier? I know, after watching Episode Ardyn, that Ardyn was also a chosen king with the ability to absorb Starscourge from other people into himself. An ability, I might add, granted to him by the gods. But when Ardyn tries to ascend to become a king, the Crystal, where Bahamut resides, suddenly rejects him because of his ability (which, again, was given to him by the gods), and so he is rejected basically by the gods via the gift they gave him. Which makes no sense. As we know, this action leads to the circumstances we see in the game. 

To me, at this point, it seems that the gods on Eos are incompetent and create this prophecy in order to fix the problem they created. This seems to become more glaringly obvious when Bahamut tells Ardyn (in Episode Ardyn) that he literally is a pawn in their game to fix the problem they created. At its core, that is what makes me so very frustrated with this prophecy plot line. It seems that the characters in this game are no more than pawns being made to do what the gods tell them to do, and that everything in this world is preordained. Not only does that rake against my own beliefs as an individual, but it ruins the purpose of the game for me. If everything is preordained, then what is the point? It also hurts my perception of the characters as well because the characters, except for Ardyn maybe, never think to go against the determinations made by the gods, they just go along with it. They never stop to consider trying to find another way and instead simply accept their fates as is. I understand there is something inherently powerful and moving in sacrificing yourself to save others, but making it fate instead of an active choice lessens the impact. Noctis doesn't choose to sacrifice himself to save Eos, it is forced upon him. There is no sense of choice here, merely one of acceptance. The cruelty of Noctis' preordained fate disturbs me. Not only is Noctis just randomly chosen to die to save the world, but the gods see fit to inform his father of that when Noctis is 5. I cannot truly imagine the depth of sorrow and helplessness probably felt by Regis in being told that his son is basically a sacrifice. Undoubtedly, knowing that weighed heavily on Regis and I'm sure at times that knowledge put a dour edge on his time with Noctis. One of the saddest things about Noctis' fate is how little time he actually gets to live. I know he is technically 30 at the time of his death, but he really only lived 20 years. Not only is his life cut short, but he actually loses a third of it in the process of becoming the ideal sacrifice for the gods. To me, Noctis' fate is just unbearably cruel. And don't misunderstand, I actually like games that have darker themes and angst in them, but I think there is a balance in crafting stories and this story didn't quite find a balance. And the thing is, I think the creators of the game have acknowledged that too, as they have now created 2 alternative storylines where Noctis doesn't die and his fate is subverted in some way. Personally, I prefer the message given in the Final Fantasy 7 remake where the characters actively fight against a pre-determined destiny, instead of simply accepting their destiny as is. I have more thoughts on the subject of Final Fantasy 15, but for the moment I will end my writing here.

[icharchivist]

Okay so done with Ardyn and Ignis’s dlcs, meaning i am done with the game for good! what a ride! what a blast! i had so much fun with everything, i don’t have anything i’m disappointed about so DLKJFDF a good ride for me.

Starting with Ignis, i really liked his DLC. 

The first part, which mostly just talks about how he got his eyes injury, was very fun to play through. Compared to how much i struggled with Gladio and Prompto that was a blast to play through ahah. I liked the gameplay and i liked being back in Altissia.

It was nice also to see Ravus’s actual turn around in game, since his whole part in the main game was... all over the place. So it was nice to see his actual motivations being laid out, and his teaming up with Ignis was pretty neat, they worked out well with one another, both as Guardians, and working as parallel to one another, with Ignis wanting (originally) for Noctis to see his goal through while Ravus wanted his sister to be freed, and in the end after Luna’s death, Ignis joining Ravus in not wanting to lose Noctis just to “his duty and fate”

The way Ignis got blind had me yelling. Putting on the ring of Lucii to try to protect Noctis, a ring that famously burn off anyone who tries to use it and isn’t of royal blood. Lowkey wondering if it works in a “truth from FMA” way where the people who ended up burnt by the ring all lost part of themselves that were important to them. Nyx wanted to live as a hero and he had to die as one. Ravus was the arm of revenge for his family and he lost his arm to it. Ignis was the analyser, the one who looked after Noctis and looked for his future, and his eyes were burnt. Like a way to prevent them all from even fighting destiny again. 

Anyway the whole canon complient part was so fucking sad and the goodbyes with Ignis and Noctis had me cry so hard i couldn’t look at the screen anymore. It was so sad and intense to me my heart is still broken.

So jumping on the fixit future just afterward, well, to me was kind of healing lmao. The whole thing, how Ignis even manage to win protecting Noctis, doesn’t really make any sense but it doesn’t have to, it’s just a happy ending that was sorely needed after all this mess, for me at least. 

It also made me cry to see Noctis’s resolve being that he would not let himself be separated from his friends. Makes me wonder if it has to do with the fact the alternative timeline pretty much therefore prevents the train incident from happening, meaning Noctis didn’t hurt Prompto, and didn’t have to play Ardyn’s mindgames about Prompto back then. Regis and Luna’s death were symbols of stuff Noctis couldn’t have protected. But hurting Prompto was Noctis ealizing that he would be harming his friends if he tried to end Ardyn. With the way Ignis’s ep goes, Ignis is another “stuff Noctis couldn’t have protected” so instead of fearing hurting his friends he’s more dedicated than ever to not let them go this time. Kinda liking this.

The alternative ending wasn’t as detailled as i expected (i swEAR i thought i’ve seen something about Luna surviving which?? i didn’t see at all so??) so i’m kinda happy with it? The gist of it is just “even if Noctis spent ten years into the Crystals his friends stayed together (which they didn’t in the ten years in canon) and once they were reunited they never let go of one another again”. I’m fine with that!! v good with that!! and i’m just happy Ignis can feel like he protected Noctis to the end, like he was meant to do. He’s so happy at the end i am tearing up just thinking about it.

so i really liked episode Ignis personally.  The alternative ending is just that, an alternative ending if we want to indulge in it and i’m happy with it, meanwhile the rest of the episode was pretty good to me. 

my only problem with the DLCs (and that is all of them) is also kinda just, the reason they had to exist, is that well. Honestly i’m not against dlcs and all but those were really scenes that would have benefited from being clearer in game. Not knowing how Ignis’s injuried himself really didn’t sit right with me, not knowing where Gladio was gone to was bothering me. Prompto’s ep itself wasn’t something i expected, wasn’t a gap i thought needed to be filled, but they filled it with more clarification about the magiteks in a way that i think is sooo much more impactful than just the game. 

I guess what i mean is that, they are filling holes that were in the games that bothered me, and on one hand i’m thrilled to have complete stories that specifically addresses them, on the other, i just kinda wish i didn’t have to wait until the end of the game to have those answers. 

Ardyn’s dlc has a huge lore dump at first which, imo, should have been clearer in the game too, but as it is i like how it’s done in the Ardyn’s dlc. In the end it just really gives the feelings the dlcs are course correcting DLKFJDLKJFD

ANYWAY Ardyn’s DLC. It was a blast to play through, the whole game itself was pretty fun. I really wanted to explore Insomnia (i also really want to explore the royal palace  but well that won’t be...), so even if it was by fucking around and finding out, it was hella fun.

Plotwise i am glad it makes Ardyn’s motivations very clear and in the end well, Ardyn is a really tragic figure and i’m really sad for him even if i remain angry at everything he has done. It’s just, what other choices did he have when he was doomed from the start?

It was sad to see how nice of a guy he was, how he just wanted to heal and help people, only for the gods and his brother to betray him. Somnus is such an ass bc of that lol. Originally i wondered if the recalling at the begining was Ardyn being an unreliable narrator but the final fight with Somnus confirm that Somnus did betray Ardyn because he was jealous of him, and even if he grew as a leader to see the horror of the daemons, he still fucked his brother’s life up for all of this man.

As for the Gods... wow major, major fuck you. The starscrouges is a Gods’s thing and they had a family line try to “fix it” and they made Ardyn the hero to fix it..... and then the moment he did, they made him the bad guy, refused him salvation, just so in the future the Lucii line will be able to end properly once the Chosen King will clean Ardyn. The Gods really set both Ardyn and the Lucii to fail to start with. The Gods wanted more for the “Chosen King” to have a painful sacrifice than they wanted to clean Ardyn’s up and Ardyn was just a tool in all of that, not allowed to fight his fate. No wonder he ended up embracing it and did the worst he could with what he was given.

That does bring home how much technically Ardyn won,  he got all he wanted. He destroyed the world that forsaken him, he spited the Gods ‘till the end, he ended the Lucis family line, and he finally was allowed to die. The Gods also got what they wanted since they WANTED Ardyn to spread darkness onto the world to set up their champion. That fucking blows.  The Gods are the real bad guys there. Noctis deserved better so i welcome Ignis’s dlc even more.

so yeah i’m leaving Ardyn’s dlc extremely bitter against the Gods and how they didn’t leave neither Ardyn nor Noctis a choice in all of this. They had their plan from the start and just expected them to play their parts. 

fucking tragic.

but with all of that i’m done with FF15 and i loved it. I had a blast. It was fun to play through, the gameplay was so fun and fantastic, i love the four guys with so much love that just thinking about them makes me want to cry. I like the original ending, in a “i love to suffer” way, and i love the alternative ending in a “now some healing” way. I liked what all the dlcs brought to the story, and i’m glad i played through all of this. 

I think it’ll take me some time to think about replaying the game and if i do i’ll probably try to ignore chap 8 and onward lmao. But i’m really glad i gave it a chance in the end. 

eff u Peten for making it happen though it’s all your fault. 

so yeah, i had tons of fun that’s for sure!

[idontfindyouthatinteresting]

I came here for Hannibal but I’m so happy you played FF15 what did you think?

tbh I don’t even know what’s going on anymore, but I am playing a LOT of video games. Everything about gaming related is tagged with #gaming if you want to mute.

I played FFVIIR because it looked pretty, and I knew it was real time combat (and tbh I’m not sold on the turn based thing) and everyone seemed to really enjoy it so I played that and LOVED IT! I loved it so much more than I expected, I thought I’d play through it and it be an experience but BOY, I am far more into it than I thought (I killed Sephiroth on Normal mode first time super proud of myself!) It’s my second favourite game released this year only to Ghost of Tsushima, but I definitely preferred it to TL/OU2.

From there I wanted to play other FF games, but avoiding the turn based combat for now, so of course FFXV happened and I LOVED IT TOO! I got the platinum trophy I loved it so much and I don’t have many of those at all so that means a lot. The combat was loads of fun, the story is brilliant and engaging, the characters and their relationships with eachother are great, the unique mechanics were FAB, I loved the Regalia, I loved how you had to think about petrol, and servicing and having somewhere to sleep and eat as well as all the usual stuff, the aesthetic is very much up my street *cue Sparkly 30yo Noctis*

The only things I didn’t like was that firstly the enemy AI spawning was SO aggressive, I was like, level 25 and I was doing a side quest and I had 4 ships of level 47 assassins dropped on me one after the other and this sort of thing happened fairly regularly, so I don’t know if it’s a fault that other people saw or whether I had like no luck at all but it was relentless and it made in-story exploration almost impossible, I had to do most of my side questing post-game where it was less aggressive/I was strong enough it wasn’t a problem.

Also a couple of the boss fights were dull/poorly written. The Titan fight was stupid and the Adamantoise was boring af but the Leviathan fight is hands down one of the best boss fights I’ve ever done and Ifrit was great once you get in the flow it’s a lot of fun so the rest of the boss fights being great made up for the sucky ones.

In comparison to how much I loved the game my complaints are minor, I kinda view platinum trophies as stamps of approval on the game, I really don’t bother if I don’t adore the game (I don’t have Death Stranding’s because of those hard mode deliveries, I’ll get it some day I’m sure!) so the fact I bothered to get it means a lot. 

I got the season pass and am working my way through the DLC which I’m really enjoying too! I’m currently playing Prompto’s episode and I think I’ll get Ardyn too in the end (though I HATE Ardyn, I’d happily punch him in the face forever.)

But yeah, I’ve had such a good time with Final Fantasy games recently, I got VIII for PS3 for my birthday, which I’m hesitant about playing but I’m determined to give it a go. I’m presuming that VIIR will have a part 2 which I’m looking forward too.

It’s much easier to keep up with my gaming stuff on twitter I’m @/ IDFYTI on there (for now, that might change) I live tweet my gaming there and you can vote on what I play next and see shares from PS4. I occasionally stream on twitch (I was gunna stream my Adamantoise Platinum fight but it was SO boring I’m glad I didn’t!) but twitter is the easiest way if you’re interested in what I’m playing and my opinions on it.

Hope that answers your question!

[boybandsim]

leafeana replied to your post: 

WAIT i was just scrolling through your blog cause im hungry for content and saw this again and realized you asked what version i was playing? which i dont remember answering whoops

im playing it on pc! which is great bc then i get to mess around with mods (like the one that gives cindy some real clothing lol) but its also got its downsides since my computer is definitely not a gaming computer, which means graphics take a serious hit and lagging isnt uncommon

im...not sure if its royal edition?? I think windows edition has all the features of royal edition, although im not completely sure. I think luna has a cutscene in Insomnia thats only in royal edition, so once im there ill be able to tell. technically im in Insomnia now but ive time traveled back and it might be a while before i push on to the finale. after dealing with Altissia --> the start of Insomnia linearly i wanted some time to chill with the bros and pretend

everything is fine for a while. it has been a WILD ride for sure and yeah I haven't even started up any of the dlc yet! theres so much content!! ive been practicing playing as the other bros during medium-hard combat which has kept it feeling really fresh too. also its hilarious just blasting bad guys with a bazooka while the other people are in there swinging around swords and knives. and i haven't done any of the crossover quests yet, which seem big and exciting!

ill be forever sad that i missed the assassins festival but theres definitely plenty to do that I'm excited for. and im getting really into the fishing!! charmed is definitely the right word like..its not perfect at all but this game is so genuinely endearing with its characters personalites and development and its themes and music as well and it really does some things SO well.

god okay this is a lot of words. sorry for rambling and for the late reply! no one i know plays this game or has much interest in it so youre getting all my bottled up enthusiasm

PLEASE DO NOT EVER APOLOGISE FOR RAMBLING SEND ME AS MUCH AS I LOVE WORDS AND THOUGHTS AND TALKING ABOUT FFXV DUDE <3333 also literally no worries about late replies or replying at all im forever shit at them myself i get it bro nw nw nw

hell yeah pc is royal edition with a bunch of other shit and the dlcs (bar ardyn) incorporated, dont worry, also i would die for that one cindy in a decent outfit mod i know the exact one youre on about LOL (also i can recommend you some other mods if u like!!)

if i can share some knowledge with you right quick cuz i had the same problem and wouldve died to have someone tell me i went from barely 20fps on a good day to being able to run multiple programs with ffxv in the background; specialk is a very quick install and majorly helped with multithreading; otherwise for the in game options are using low resolution texture pack (assets option); shadows look near visually identical on the lowest option compared to the highest; all nvidia effects can be turned off with no significant graphic change; turning off anti aliasing entirely genuinely makes the game look better for me; i can post my full settings if itll help you and ive also read through a few tutorials for modding around lag so i can try and help you with that, i do get pretty major lag spikes though and frequently find it near impossible to stream/record, but i manage to nail that 60fps on average if im solely running ffxv with a few cut corners like those

also dont blame you with altissia, ngl i boiled through the story rollercoaster right quick after exploring most of the open world before even touching altissia and ended up ignoring all postgame content for starting a new save immediately and replaying just to get that hangout time in the open world that wasnt just go-back-in-time-through-magic-dog. but i feel you so hard dude i just want more of them chilling. literally i have 300 hours in this game already and i know half of those have been using the car listening to tunes LMFAO

yeah the crossover quests are funnn the one with terra wars is sweet and the ffxiv one is SO funny its literally hysterical i was roaring with laughter a couple times!!! and good on you practising i didnt touch any of the extended combat until my third save and yeah honestly if you want to do the postgame menaces those skillsll come in useful, its funny because the maingame bosses arent that hard but the postgame is mental. but yeah i love blowing shit up with proms bazooka it fucking rules nerds can keep their swords

ALSO SAME... i wanna play the promptis date so bad!! i wanna play episode duscae so bad!!! wanna play the platinum demo with baby noctis so bad!! knowing theyll never be ported kills meeeeee. sad & upset but as you say theres so much to do and the dlc honestly offer so much im still finding shit i havent done and ive spent a year playing already

honestly so much of this game for me is literally just booting it to go hang with the guys its really relaxing lmfaooo... hiking around with these goofy dudes. sometimes i just wanna chill with the anime boys. YEAH literally its sweet and charming and then fucking heartbreaking and even though the writing is hammy as hell im honestly so willing to forgive it. not only for the clear amount of care and love that went into specifically building the guys relationship (which anyone knows is the best and most realised part of the game) but the details and amount of lore you can uncover if you take a step and interpret a little. maybe thats too generous a statement for what was an executive nightmare and critically underdeveloped but i grew up on ffxiii and knowing the versus 13 lore and that ffxv was part of that extended canon im satisfied with it being another side to that story and running with that. i think supplemented with its additional content years after release ffxv isnt a complete experience but enough of one to leave an impact or at least it did majorly for me! ive been obsessed.

OMG sorry im nerding too its all good lol just genuinely i love this game and its hard to find people talking about it these days but i really had such a good time and still am continuing to and i love it fuck it ball hard

real shit though it has the best fishing minigame of all time hands down nothing has come close fuck the haters

[oveliagirlhaditright]

What are all of the FFXV things? I’m trying to remember.

I’m just going to put FFXV: Royal Edition in place of the base game: this includes all the free story updates they gave us (like about the war of the Astrals), as well as the new stuff that Royal Edition added in

And then there was Brotherhood...

Kingsglaive...

A King’s Tale...

There was the dumb Final Fantasy XV: A New Empire phone game, that I might have actually been interested in, if it wasn’t a gacha one--since it seemed to have an AU story, and the new cinematics they made for it were nice.

There was the dumb “Monsters of the Deep” fishing VR game, that was originally going to be us playing as Prompto versus the Behemoth... why, oh why, did we not get that?

Noctis was in Tekken...

There was a Final Fantasy XIV DLC episode in XV

And wasn’t there a Final Fantasy XV episode in FFXIV?

I guess I should include all the DLC stuff...

Episode Gladio

Episode Prompto

Episode Ignis

Episode Ardyn, that also had an anime prequel to it ala Brotherhood

And there was supposed to be the “Dawn of the Future” DLC, that’s now a novel. Out of all of the FFXV content we got, I’m still mad that this is the one they chose to cut.

There was the Moogle Chocobo Carnival

The Assassin’s Creed Festival

The FFXV crossover with Terra Wars

Oh! I guess I should include the Platinum Demo

And the Episode Duscae Demo (that’s a little bit different than what we got in the final product)

And the Mystery Disc Demo, that only Japan got.

Not counting the Judgement Disc demo, because that was just the opening of the game

And I guess we’re getting another AU phone game soon?

Am I forgetting anything?

[chibi-jing]

Is Somnus truly such an asshole?

Hear me right, everything Somnus did in Episode Ardyn was absolutely despicable. But I can’t stop thinking that it was maybe way too despicable to be true…

 FFXV has a very realistic tone and his characters are all complex. Nobody’s perfect, the “good” guys are making mistakes and the “evil” ones all have strong inner motivations for what they did and aren’t completely manichaean (except maybe for Caligo who is definitely an asshole, period XD). To summarize, they’re all desperatly humans.

 But in Episode Ardyn – Prologue, Somnus is shown only as pure evil. He kills hundreds of innocent people and desires the throne so badly that he betrays and murders his own brother without batting an eyelid. Moreover, if Ardyn truly was the one chosen by the gods, then Somnus is defying them and lying to his people with an uninhibited ease solely on the basis of his personal gain…

This gives us two options. First, Somnus IS pure evil. All the Lucis Caelum are the heirs of the founder king’s sins and they contributed to plunge the world into darkness until the last of them, Noctis, finally washes away his family’s sins and frees Eos from corruption. Or second, Somnus is hiding something and only PRETENDS to be evil.

---

In the first case, if the founder king was a bad person it changes the position of the entire Lucis Caelum royal bloodline, making it illegitimate because it has been built on a lie. And that’s entirely possible: as many people reminded me these last days, Regis wasn’t such a good monarch. He’s shown as a good father and a noble man, and you feel sorry for him when he dies in Kingsglaive. But despite this good image, Regis was also the one who shut down Insomnia’s frontiers during the war, letting countless people defenceless against the Niflheim outside his magic wall, and he also let Insomnia fall on purpose only to give a chance to Noctis. So even if he acted with the best intentions, Regis has blood on his hands.

Regarding Somnus, it’s even worse. His decison to rule and to get rid of Ardyn condamned Eos to centuries of darkness: when Somnus kills his brother in the anime a big cloud of darkness is released in the atmosphere, annihilating Ardyn’s months or even years of work. By doing so, Somnus is contaminating even more their world in addition to all the people he already burned and to all the humans who can no longer be saved by his brother. As Ardyn explained to Noctis by talking about himself: “His body would come to host myriad daemons, that countless lives be spared. But a jealous king […] ostracized and demonized this healer of the people.” or even clearer in French: « Meanwhile the king […] decided to eliminate this man who was however the only one who could save his people. », by murdering him Somnus willingly deprived his people of their only known remedy against the Starscourge.

Do you remember how FFXV begins? No, not the Regalia’s malfunction, not the first cinematic either, no, before. Before we even play. The title screen.

The first time FFXV is launched, the title screen appears on a night sky accompanied by “Somnus – Instrumental”. And when the game is finished, the title screen features Noctis next to Luna on an aurora sky accompanied by “NOCTIS”. It’s very clear that FFXV’s story is to go from the dark to the light. You can also remark that in the letters of the logo the discrete white coming from their bottom begins to expel the black, emphasizing the players’ course and Noctis’ quest.

“Somnus” was composed for Versus XIII which was supposed to be a very dark game with heavy thematics such death, also explaining why the Lucis’ iconic color is black. I’m not sure Square Enix knew about Somnus’ character from the time Versus XIII became FFXV, but when they had to create him they surely wanted to remain coherent with what was done in FFXV. So I believe that if they chose to give to Ardyn’s brother the name “Somnus”, it’s because it was relevant. They knew about the song, about its meaning, about its origin. So they gave Somnus this gloomy backstory which accords with the game’s main theme: the world is dark, dying, corrupted and only the King of Light can put an end to all of this and cleanse the world sins, in conformity with what Takefumi Terada said about Somnus: “he became someone opposite character to Noctis”. Instead of providing Light, Somnus is spreading darkness.

 ---

With the second hypothesis, Somnus is undergoing the same tragedy as Ardyn and Noctis: life is playing with his fate and dictates him what he has to do even if he doesn’t want to.

As I said before, the antagonists of FFXV all possess something relatable. For example, before being a mad scientist, Verstael was a loyal soldier who desired to help his homeland the best he could. And we know Somnus isn’t born evil either: in the Q&A video, Toru Osanai revealed that the two brothers were in good terms when they were younger, Ardyn protecting his little brother and Somnus admiring his elder. Besides, he also adds that “Somnus does not really hate or despise Ardyn” and that his ambition is to save the world. So despite being a “realist and severe king”, Somnus isn’t portrayed as a bad guy at all.

Some particular shots from the anime support this theory. For example, Somnus takes no glory for burning hundreds of civilians or after murdering his brother. He doesn’t seem to enjoy what he’s doing but to solely execute some orders. If he truly despised Ardyn or wanted the throne so badly, he would have exulted after killing him, exactly like on the frame where he smiles before attacking Ardyn. But nope, he stands calmly in the empty room, watching the light on the horizon with no satisfaction at all. In the same vein when Ardyn turns into a daemon, Somnus is appalled by his brother’s metamorphosis. It’s like he knew Ardyn would became a monster, but isn’t actually proud at all to unveil it.

So why does Somnus appears so sadistic when he attacks Ardyn or despicable when he says Aera was a foolish girl after murdering her? Probably because he’s acting all along.

Somnus’ attitude in front of the crowd reminds a lot Ardyn’s attitude in FFXV where we all know Ardyn is playing a role. Somnus doesn’t only reveal that the gods chose him to the people, he’s also overacting: broad movements, loud voice, elegant argument, everything is meant to be convincing. The smile on his face when he attacks his elder is part of this role too, because why would Somnus be happy to confront his brother if he doesn’t despise him as Toru Osanai said? Because he wants the throne so badly he’s happy to get rid of his elder? If it was the case, Somnus would have had a triumphant attitude after defeating Ardyn but we saw that he hadn’t. Maybe he wants to measure himself to his brother’s skills? I don’t think either, because if Somnus wanted a fair fight against Ardyn he wouldn’t have smiled when his elder had to interrupt himself due to his illness. No, in reality, Somnus is posing as the bad guy on purpose. Each time he’s in public or talking to Gilgamesh, he behaves like Ardyn is the source of all the problems. And when he’s in front of Ardyn, he deliberatly shows his worst face by undermining him and his lover, to the point where Ardyn finally loses control. But once Ardyn dead, Somnus remains all alone in silence like an empty shell. He has no reason to pretend anymore. He did his job and that’s all.

We understand through the interview with the guys from SE that there are a lot of things that are still secrets but will be revealed in the future DLC. It’s obvious something happened between the two brothers before the beginning of the anime, something that can answer why Somnus is hunting Ardyn, or why is he in power while Ardyn is some kind of poor outlaw despite them coming from the same noble family? Why Gilgamesh is helping him? What are the links between the Lucis Caelums and Bahamut? Why Somnus had to act as he was pure evil and expose the worst of his brother? And even if for now we can’t know what happened we can guess that it probably changed Somnus radically, leading him to behave the way he does in the anime, a way that maybe doesn’t reflect his true self at all.

 ---

To conclude, I’m like everyone with this anime: I don’t know who says the truth, if it was Ardyn or Somnus who was supposed to be chosen, if Somnus is just a cold-hearted man or if he has a backstory that explains his attitude like this anime excuses in some way the hatred Ardyn has towards his family during FFXV, or a mix of these options, honestly I don’t know. That’s why I’m making up these theories, to try to understand the story until the DLC will (and I really hope) finally answer all our questions about the Lucis Caelums and their destiny.

[siren-dragon]

FFXV Observation -- Episode Ardyn *Spoilers!*

Hello Everyone!

With the release of Episode Ardyn and the official completion of content for FFXV, I wanted to write my thoughts about the dlc down. And since the episode only came out today, there will be spoilers and everything will be beyond the cut.

Now be warned: this is just my personal thoughts and opinions of the new DLC content. If you don’t agree with it, that is fine; I only ask that you be respectful in your comments. Now then, let’s get started!

First of all, I just want to say that this Episode was beautiful and tragic, and I really loved it. While I didn’t get as much lore as I wanted (and I wanted the dlc to be WAY longer!) I did appreciate what we got. I have to say though, two really big highlights in Episode Ardyn has to be the music and the fact that we get to see a shirtless Ardyn. However, there were a few things with the story I found interesting and that was what I wanted to talk about.

Somnus Lucis Caelum:

Yes, the first thing I wanted to talk about was Ardyn’s “dear” younger brother; but please hear me out. In complete honesty, I really dislike this blatant hatred for Somnus. Don’t get me wrong, he did a lot of bad things- but we also have to look at it from his perspective too. In the Ep. Ardyn, Somnus actually tells Ardyn that he was jealous of him which is quite a feat for a prideful person. Now, as someone who has three siblings, I can kinda understand where Somnus is coming from. Even now, I sometimes feel pouts of jealous from my siblings despite us all being older. I can’t imagine how inferior Somnus felt when his older brother was literally the golden child of a entire nation.

However, this does not excuse his actions in regard to his treatment of Ardyn; what he did was cruel. What I do think is that Somnus did not know the the true burden of being king really meant. I feel like he wanted to have a chance to shine and show his people that he too wanted to protect them, even if it was in an extreme manner (*cough burning people alive *cough). But when Aera said that Ardyn was chosen to be king, I think that was the final push that sent Somnus over the edge. Even though they were meant to rule together (as talked about in the Datalog about the two blades being used together to symbolize their combined rule), Somnus finally had enough.

Yet when he was finally bestowed the Crystal and Ring, Somnus then understood the extent of what the calling of the king was and what Ardyn was meant to truly be. Somnus realized that he was never going to be the “True King” as that calling was for Noctis, and instead he pushed the only family he had left and was left with nothing but the guilt of what he did for 2000 years as his soul resided within the Ring of the Lucii. I’m not saying that Somnus was a good person and that he didn’t do bad things; he even says that he doesn’t expect Ardyn to forgive him as he knows he did terrible things. But let’s not forget that the two were once brothers and that once upon a time, they did not hate each other.

       2. Aera Mils Fleuret:

Now then...let’s talk about Aera. Okay, so here’s the thing: I’m kinda on the fence about her. She is a very cute character and it is sweet that she loved Ardyn, but I don’t think she is as perfect as some make her out to be. To be fair, no one in this game is perfect and everyone has their faults, some bigger than others, but there is some information about Aera that I wanted make known. First of all, Aera is the Oracle- the First Oracle; who was chosen by Bahamut himself to represent the will of the gods on Eos. The actual quote from the Cosmogony is this: “In the distant past, Bahamut, the Draconian, descended to the mortal realm and graced the people of Tenebrae. From among them, he handpicked a pious maiden and bestowed upon her the power of the Stars and his trident. Using these gifts for the good of all, she became the first Oracle—she who joins heaven and earth”

I don’t doubt that Aera loved Ardyn, but that is the key word there. I think that she loved him, which is evident by when she died to save him- but I believe that when Ardyn became recognized as the Adagium, she put her love for him aside. She betrayed Ardyn and told Somnus information that was, for lack of better term, meant to be classified in regards to the prophecy and who was too be king. Granted, she felt guilt for that, but Somnus did not manipulate her into to telling him- she did it of her own free will. Also, we need to take into account Aera’s own calling as well: she is the Oracle and is known to be a pious maiden. What’s interesting there is that pious actually means to not only be “devoutly religious”, but it also means “making a hypocritical display of virtue”, or to be self-righteous. In the more archaic definition, it means to be dutiful or loyal, in this case; Aera’s loyalty to her calling as the Oracle and to the Astrals. She actually forsakes her love for Ardyn and regards him only as the Adagium and that he will never escape his fate. She puts the needs of others before that of the one she loves most in the world, which is brave of her to have done but also a horrid betrayal to Ardyn too.

While I truly wish we got to see more of Aera’s relationship with Ardyn and how they grew to love each other, she is not perfect. She choose her duty over the love of her life and forsook him when he became a “monster”. Now, that is a difficult choice and I commend her for choosing it to do what is right for the world, but I don’t believe Ardyn will ever fully love her again after that (based on that ending where he kills her and Somnus)- her actions put in motion events that had damaged A LOT of people’s lives just as badly as Somnus did. I understand that she was called to be the Oracle, but she still made a choice and has to live with it too.

        3. Bahamut and the Astrals

Firstly, that title I just wrote sounds like a band name and it’s kinda of funny. But for heaven’s sake Bahamut, what the hell man? I admit, the dragon is a kind of a dick in the game, and that Ardyn definitely gets the short end of the stick with this. However, I can see some of where Bahamut is coming from.

They had a unknown illness that was ravaging the entire planet and the Astral’s didn’t know what to do and didn’t have the power to deal with it. And the Astral’s are sworn to defend the star at any cost, even if they must fight each other. So, I can see why they choose mortals to do their bidding for them, because humans are far stronger than we’re given credit for. Yet Bahamut’s folly was in not telling Ardyn that he had been chosen to bear the burden of darkness just as Noctis was meant to bear the burden of light. Ardyn simply wanted to help people, but Bahamut doesn’t explain that by containing the scourge within himself, he will eventually help the entire planet. Instead, he expects Ardyn to just suck it up and deal with what’s happened because that’s just the way it is.

I definitely think Bahamut is being very cold to Ardyn about everything, but you have to understand that what he says is that “so it has been ordained” meaning he too has no control over this. Bahamut even feels some pity for Ardyn too when he calls him a “pitiful creature” and I believe he knew that he was once a good man. But sometimes we have to do things that are unsavory because there is no other option- and Bahamut likely had no other option. It’s true that Ardyn was put through literal hell due to the calling he was given, but the Draconian actually compromises and allows Ardyn not only his revenge upon the royal family, but the reprieve of death too. He even warns Ardyn that if Noctis doesn’t kill him, he will just suffer forever in darkness and shadow; unable to die. If he truly didn’t care, Bahamut would have allowed the royal family to continue their existence and just have Noctis vanquish Ardyn with no consequences.

         4. King Regis and the Crownsguard

So, one bit of information I found interesting in the game was that the royal family actually knew of Ardyn’s existence. Which mean’s he wasn’t entirely forgotten, just locked away like some weird national security secret. The fact that there is a unit of Crownsguard that is entrusted to respond at a moment’s notice if Ardyn should be released from his prison is interesting. Which means that Somnus actually put in safety measures to ensure Ardyn didn’t escape. Also, the fact that Ardyn doesn’t know what “Adagium” means or is when he first awakens probably means his name was replaced with that word and over time it became a legend- like a bedtime story you told misbehaving children. “You better be careful or the Adagium will get you,” seems like a fairy tale that would stay in Lucian history.

Now, I have to say that after the fight with King Regis, I believe that he was one of the strongest kings Lucis ever had. First of all, Regis is able to physically manifest multiple weapons at once from his Armiger, which you don’t even see Noctis do when he activates his Armiger (they’re all spectral weapons). Secondly, Regis was actually brave enough and strong enough to fight off against Ardyn by himself in order to defend his people which was really cool to see. All in all, it was great to see Regis in his prime and engage in full-blown combat (no matter how short lived it was).

          5. Ardyn Lucis Caelum

I still have so many thoughts about this DLC, but I’m going to have to end it early and I saved the best for last. I have to say it was so much fun to play a Final Fantasy game from the villain's perspective. Ardyn is a wonderfully written character and I am going to miss seeing more of him; Darin de Paul did a magnificent job on this and he has truly managed to bring an amazing character to life. Now then, let’s talk about Ardyn’s story.

While I do feel sympathy for Ardyn, a lot of people have to understand that he is the villain and would likely never get a canon happy ending: which I am actually a bit pleased about. Happily, ever after endings are often unrealistic and it wouldn’t really fit with Ardyn’s character to have a happily ever after (that’s not to say one shouldn’t write fanfiction about it ;) After all that Ardyn experienced, it would be incredibly difficult for him to simply let things go and I think that is his main folly. He actually discards his humanity and basically goes “to hell with them” which is why I love him as a villain. Usually it is the hero that fights destiny, so I loved seeing Ardyn fight his fate while Noctis humbly accepts his.

Another thing I enjoyed seeing was the extent of Ardyn’s powers. Granted, we could have used that in the main game (maybe they’ll do a patch update) but it was a lot of fun to see all of his abilities. I honestly believe even Ardyn himself does not know all that he is capable of doing and is constantly evolving and discovering new techniques for him to preform. But it seems like there are abilities that are unique only to him as a Lucis Caelum; such as the way his armiger functions, the way he slows time as he “warps” or “shadow steps”, and even his illusions. Though ultimately, I liked that he was able to showcase all of these abilities without doing some extreme final-form transformation. 

Overall, this DLC has made me love my favorite character even more- even though it does not excuse his actions in the main game. He experienced so many horrors but that does not condone his actions. Despite how he was in the past, Ardyn is a final fantasy villain; and one of the best ones.

I am certainly gonna miss seeing more FFXV content, but all good things do come to an end. Now it’s time to go and write fanfiction about the new content. ^_^

[jlavisant]

I'm so happy we got the Ardyn DLC. I can't believe there was a time where I thought Ardyn was going to be a minor antagonist. Seriously, when I first saw Ardyn, I thought "that's the guy we're going to fight before we fight the final boss" but nope! And I'm so happy I was wrong.

Literally my first thoughts about Ardyn were “oh hey finally someone that looks like they’re in a Final Fantasy game” lmao

I didn’t go into this game loving Ardyn. I didn’t know shit about him. I thought I was gonna be a Gladio slut forever but that actually did not last at ALL (only because Square did Gladio dirty not because Gladio is awful... he’s not awful... he just didn’t hold up).

I mean fuck anon u can’t just say this and expect me not to get sentimental

I love Ardyn so much and I love him so much more after Episode Ardyn and the fact that we have Episode Ardyn and we can play it whenever we want and jump around rooftops in Insomnia and just absolutely fucking wreck shit and wear stupid fucking hats and see all the fucking AWFUL shit he went through and his D: and ;A; and :C expressions and Darin’s wails and moans of PAIN AND AGONY I JUST

god fuck I love Square for all their flaws I love them they have been a constant source of characters I latch onto and Ardyn has become my favorite of them all

[higharollakockamamie]

So I was trying to make Gladio in D&D and it’s harder than one would expect. Originally, I thought that he would be a paladin, what with taking an oath to protect Noct. But then I watched a playtthrough of ep. Gladio, and his fighting style is really just brute force, all muscle no mettle, like a barbarian. However one of his most interesting mechanics is being able to inspire Noct with rousing speeches that also boost his stats, like a bard. What class do you think he would be?

True story, I got this ask in my inbox on the morning Episode Ardyn came out, and I was so sure it was going to be something with spoilers that I didn’t dare look at it until I’d finished the DLC. Then I did and died laughing. 

You know, that’s interesting. Now that you mention it, for as devoted as Gladio is to his duty, he really doesn’t feel like the paladin-style pious-devotion-to-an-ideal type. He’s not above doing what it takes to get things down. If you threaten Noct he will kick you in the dick. Maybe he’d just be a plain old fighter, but real good at it.

You’ve sent me down a rabbit hole of D&D stuff, since I only started playing recently.  Apparently a barbarian/bard isn’t very workable, since you can’t cast spells while raging, but god do I love the idea of a bard who inspires people by yelling at them drill sergeant style. 

[moonraccoon-exe]

question about episode ardyn: where the f*ck was clarus? hes supposed to be with regis yeah?

AYE THAT’S A GOOD QUESTION MATE AND I GOT YER ANSWER!

MOONIE RACCOONIE EXPLAINZ

In reality, like OUR reality, I’m going to guess that the developers didn’t have the budget/care to animate Clarus for in-game, or he just didn’t fit in the story so they were like nah bro let’s leave him out of this, but then they were like, but hey, we said that Shields are supposed to always be by their king’s side, right? And they were like shit mate u damn right, how do we put Clarus out with a logical explanation, sort of like 98% of the things we read and play and watch have the protagonist’s parents always DIE because they’re really just in the way of our protag’s awesome dangerous stunts

So they were like HEY. I KNOW HOW WE CAN DO THAT.

So the in game explanation, in their reality, what happened was, it was Founder Day and everyone was like AYEEEEEEEEE WOOOOOOOO and then this creepy officer for some REASON goes nuts and summons the Astral of fire that was supposed to be dead lmao crazy right, and creepy officer starts doing, you know, the usual, wrecking the city, destroying buildings, bringing down the Wall that Insomnia uses to literally not die at the hands of a technologically and militarily superior enemy country, summons a dead god of fire that’s angry & consumed in darkness seeking to cause havoc, and popping balloons

So Regis in the Citadel goes, shite mate, boi be destroying the city and I don’t think that’s going to have a positive impact on the rotten tomatoes equivalent of carnival rating, so he goes, aye I can’t let this go on, we need to stop him, so he sends the pre-Kingsglaives to catch him but OOPSIE, THEY ALL DIE, so he goes shite mate, this ain’t working, better keep sending troops to their deaths and if we can’t stop him, then we’ll just have to keep the people safe!

So people go aye, u damn rite mate, but we need a leader to tell us what to do because we’re all unsynchronized little silly babies that don’t know what to do and currently our future Marshal is fifteen years old, wat do we do? And Regis goes, oh, that’s an easy question! I’ll just give you MY Shield to lead u!

And people are oh my god holy wow that’s bullshit, you could have named literally anyone else the captain of this mess, but you chose your best friend, sure he’s completely capable and experienced and will do phenomenal, but just because he’s your best friend surely that’s a totally biased choice, what is next, will the next king be one of your relatives? of course, capitalist monarchic bullshit, but okay

And Regis is like, I am aware that I have yet not reproduced, and my dad is dead, and females don’t exist so I don’t have a mother either, who cares, and I’m completely aware that I’m the only living human to carry the Lucis Caelum blood which is like, super important because the gods LITERALLY CHOSE MY ANCESTORS TWO THOUSAND YEARS AGO and if I died WOOPSIE there goes the choice of the gods along 2000 years of effort and I’ll leave the world to devastation, but here, have my personal guard, I’m sure I can do completely fine entirely alone and vulnerable and unwatched, it’s okay, you keep him

So Clarus is dismissed from his Shield activities, because Regis is an overconfident little shit that was like “you go this other thing, I’ll be fine!” then he wasn’t LMAO, so that Clarus could go take the lead of the Crownsguard, because Glaives didn’t exist yet and hence Crownsguard are the only elite guarding group, and the terror and havoc in the city are the size of a literal god of fire that can step on like twenty people per step if he so wished, so the people really literally need all the available help

But seriously, being serious lmao, it’s not that Regis is an overconfident little shit I’m so sorry XD It’s just that he cares more about the people than he cares about himself. Pretty much shown with just what he did in the main story’s events; he literally knew he was going to die, but he made sure to first, save Noctis because he’s the future of the people, and second, to leave the Citadel almost defenseless so that the entire Crownsguard body could focus in evacuating, you guessed it, the people. 

So in the events of Episode Ardyn, what happened is that Clarus didn’t fit anywhere in the story and developers needed to put him out, lmao, but the excuse is pretty legit if you ask me, considering Regis’ character and stuff, and having him dismiss Clarus from Shield acitivities to go lead the Crownsguard and focus not in the king, but in the people.

Which still doesn’t make me 100% happy because when they said “Clarus is featured” MY MIND WENT CRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAZYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY I WENT INTO TURBO EXTRA MAXIMUM HYPE MODE I WAS CRAZY YELLING SO LOUDLY THE CAMERA TURNED RED AND SUPER SHAKY AS IT ZOOMED IN AND I ROARED SO LOUDLY THE WHOLE UNIVERSE COLLAPSED, and then when I got that I was like lol okay. 

BECAUSE I CAN’T. EXPL AL IN. MY ULTIMATE UTTER COMPLETE LOVE FOR CLARUS AMICITIA I CAN’T, THE ACCORDO SQUAD ARE LIKE. THEY MAKE ME CRAZY OKAY, I COULD DEDICATE 100 PARAGRAPHS TO THAT BUT THAT’S NOT WHAT YOU’RE ASKING AND THIS IS TOO LONG ALREADY

*needed to go take a breathe to calm down and not rant about my LOVE FOR CLARUS AND HOW I’D PAY 100 EXTRA DLCS TO GET AT LEAST 1 SCENE OF HIM IN GAME*

SO YEH

THAT’S THE EXPLANATION

I HOPE YOU LIKED IT, MATE, HIT THE LIKE BUTTON AND SUBSCRIBE

[icharchivist]

i’m stopping for today bc i have to wake up early tomorrow and if i start Episode Ignis now my night will be ruined

so i went through episode Gladio and episode Prompto for now.

Episode Gladio was kind of interesting, i liked that we did get to know more about Cor, and the bigger mythos around the special powers that comes with being the Shield of the King, more than just being a glorified bodyguard yaknow? It was pretty neat in general, filling the gap explaining where Gladio has gone. Plus it does explain why he’s more on the edge when everything goes down after Altissia, after this amount of burden and reminder of how important Noctis is going to be, i can understand why he snapped like he did.

That said i’m not a fan of fighting with greatswords to start with so having to do a whole episode as Gladio was... a lot... my fighting style with ff15 has been “wrapping wrapping wrapping, sword wrapping wrapping” so huh, i wasn’t prepared to that.

... the only thing that could have been worse would have been to force me to use Guns the whole time through. So, thanks Episode Prompto for making me dread playing.

The gun gameplay with Prompto was pretty smart and dynamic, honestly it looked very cool and it would have been more fun to me if i was just, better with guns to start with, but there’s a reason i’ve never ever used gun as Noctis during my 97 hours of gameplay.

but Episode Prompto’s plot was fucking outstanding and i loved it. I loved how much Aranea was in it too and her way to deal with the situation. She is so clever and neat and i love how direct she can be. Also she’s so pretty....

meanwhile on Prompto’s side, it was nice to see why he felt the need to reveal his origins to Noctis and the gang, and seeing him discover more about the clone thing,  it was so unsettling and really sinking in how awful the whole thing was. It also made it a lot clearer which is pretty neat since in the main game it’s kinda just, thrown by lines of dialogues from Ardyn yaknow? It’s really neat to have a scavanger hunt of scientific recording to try to piece things together and make it all clear, especially from the point of view of the one person who would have an identity crisis out of it.

Anyway anything about Prompto’s dilemna of fearing not being accepted by others if they knew his origins made me cry, especially when that translated to him hallucinating Noctis attacking him like hellloooo im gonna cry. 

In general though man i do try to keep my shippy commentary lowkey but... Prompto and Noctis fills me with love i will never know happiness ever again. The full scene where Noctis apologizes to Prompto and expresses that he wants to unite their nations, showing Prompto that what he wants is to have him by his sides regardless of his origins and that he’ll always adjust for Prompto? im a fucking mess. 

Especially knowing it was a few hours before Noctis entered the Crystal and learnt his destiny was to die for the greater good.... Like.. this scene shows how much Noctis had hopes and plans for the future and especially regarding Prompto and i’m just.......... i’ll never know happiness ever again.

anyway i’ll do Ignis and Ardyn’s DLCs in time, depends how much i survive the exams tomorrow lmao. Then i’ll be done.... man. What a trip that has been...

[noythe]

Of Oracles and Kings

After surely enough hours of thinking I finally managed to write down, what I am thinking of the Prologue of Episode Ardyn. Everything I gathered since the release of Final Fantasy XV will be used in this post, probably not pleasing every single individual - but this is my opinion alone.

All the facts I am going to list are part of the Game, may it be from several translation sources - as far as the german was closer to the original japanese, I considered a few things from there, too.

Remember, this is a post made by someone who hated Ardyn on an early stage, but fell in love with the chancellor after enough time, fancfiction - replays and so on. But I will edit this whenever I find something new that is a reliable source.

Now is your last time to turn back, if you are an Ardyn hater or want to spill more fire into it.. Last chance to scroll past this. Thanks.

And by all means. Whatever I have written down there - this does not justify what he had done in the game.

1: Izunia

Ardyn Lucis Caelum. The name we all got to know during the stage of the game, as Noctis goes into the chrystal. The tale of the accursed. I guess I do not have to repeat this. We all know it very well. But the first name we stumble over by this handsome traveller with that voice like silk -> Izunia.

So, in the Dossier by german translation it was stated, that the Name of Ardyn was Izunia.. Before they became Lucis Caelum. Considering the Anime now - I have two theories.

They messed up the translation. Again.

Which is hopefully more like to be happening: Before the Plague went down and everything went to hell, everyone might have been normal. Same for Somnus and Ardyn. Only as the world needed it, they were gifted by the Astrals to stop this. Rising over the human limits with their abilities they were given the Name of Lucis Caelum. For whatever reason. I hope this will get finally solved and covered in the DLC.

2: Fleuret/Oracle

We have Aera. A woman that is betrothed to Ardyn and sneaking out to see him. Called the Oracle .Didyou guys ever reconsider that an Oracle was not always meant to heal the people? If we can take the information of the Prologue for granted, Aera was talking to the Astrals/Godsl and spreading their word and plans among the people. Perhaps because she could understand the godlike gibberish. She was no healer. It was Ardyn on his own. They looked up to her and took her word for granted.

So after he was no longer able to heal, I guess the Astrals or Bahamut decided that they needed a new source of Light in this darkness. Because the Plague was not gone after Ardyn was killed/imprisoned/abandoned. But it couldn’t be her. It couldn’t be Aera. Even if she looks a lot like Lunafreya and shares her last name as far as I know - she died to protect the man she loved. Besides the shared looks are quite intersting.. Remember the time Ardyn was killing Lunafreya and his entire look softened for a mere second? Perhaps he saw her again.  

So, we see another woman next to Aera - perhaps Gentiana as she was a Messenger of the Gods as well and some Artworks show a dark haired woman that wields the Trident.  It is not confirmed yet, but I guess that she might have assisted Somnus indeed. Just not like the very first Oracle did. 

3: Scourge

While both brothers have their way of dealing with it, I have to say I like Somnus even less than before. Not that he just burned the people alive - he made it worse without noticing, calling his brother a traitor for doing his best to stop the plague from spreading. So in fact, Ardyn cleaned the mess up - his younger asshole brother created. Also - people say that the Memory might a fake. I can nearly assure you it is not. During the early scenes you see Somnus gathering the Victims of the plague. It is night. Do you guys remember what happened in the game during night and with Demons around? Right. The Area got misty/foggy and some particles were flying around. So. GUESS WHAT. There are DOZENS of people. It’s just what happens with all the scourge piled up. As Aera dies Ardyn can’t hold back the darkness he had gathered over an undefined amount of time. Maybe it had been years. So what Somnus had faced with Gil in the beginning.. Was probably NOTHING compared to the darkness Ardyn had been holding back, Same for the moment Ardyn gets stabbed by his brother in the tower/Temple/whatever.As the entire Scourge that was gathered in his body is released, it’s all dark. This is one of the effects of the scourge. Don’t play it down. So killing someone with the scourge is not an option, as we saw it only spreads ( Reference: The ‘Death’ of Ardyn during the ending) Unlike the method Ardyn used -> Taking it in and keeping it contained. That gives me to think..Did Lunafreya heal it the same way like Ardyn did? Was she getting that weak because of it and the Covenants? 

There probably was a way to clear it. Perhaps a special rite whatever. But that was never mentioned. Maybe Ardyn was just send to sacrifice himself with all the Scourge, only given this task. One live in exchange of countless. But we know how this played out.

4: Kings

I noticed some people claiming that Ardyn was in the end selfish as he announced himself King. He didn’t. He never really did. First of all he was traveling alone and in secret, admired by the people he helped with a real solution. They despised Somnus for what he did - and I can’t blame them. If someone would burn my entire family just for the sake of ‘preventing’ things, I would be pissed too. 

Ardyn was loved by the people. They asked him to be king. They had chosen him. And he knew what kind of burden that would be, but for the sake of them - he would have been their king.  We see Aera talking to the Chrsystal - performing some kind of ceremony to listen and spread their word. It was Somnus who asked. But the ones seeing the scene don’t know what was told. Only Aera and Somnus know - at least that was what I thought. But recalling Episode Ignis helps here. The Chrystal itself tells us there, that Ardyn was indeed chosen.

They call out Ardyn and he ends up in the same room - Somnus seems to snap, revealing his master plan to get Ardyn to them because they had lost him before and says that he is the chosen one. Somnus lied. Otherwise Aera wouldn’t be so surprised. He didn’t even wait for HER to announce it. Aera the Oracle - the messenger of the god, the voice the people would listen to.

So I assume that Somnus is indeed the jealous King Ardyn told us about.

That he was in the end rejected by Chrystal was not his fault. Ardyn hadn’t done anything wrong in this case. He had tried to fulfill his calling - knowing what would happen. Sadly we have no real information about this but I really guess that Ardyn was talking the truth. He was erased from history. And we know that Somnus felt guilty. 

5: Curse and Blessing

We know that Ardyn is immortal. Unless Noctis shows up and fulfills his calling and cleans up the mess Somnus and Bahamut had created.

We also know that the Oracle promised Ardyn to remember him always - even if no one else would. Foreshadowing? Perhaps. Perhaps she had seen the future like Ignis did during his Episode. Words she used during the gameplay trailer reveal, that she wanted Ardyn to live ( I guess she meant him. And I guess the scene was a dream that haunts him during the 2000 years or after his freedom.)

Maybe she had used these words before, trying to encourage him. Perhaps she had known about the state he was in. Maybe she knew he had a calling to follow. This is just a theory of mine and I can’t say for sure how this will play out. But I hope SE will play it smoothly, otherwise I will be mad af. But he calls it himself Both during the train-scene. My thougts on that. The Blessing part might be indeed from Aera.. While the curse keep him chained to this world and far from the woman he had loved.

6: Lies

There is no good or evil, only thinking makes it so.

If it would be a twisted memory, I assume we would know. Ardyn had suffered a lot. He had seen people die he cared for. He had lived, loved and in the end found peace. People say that this insight into the Episode might be twisted because it is Ardyn’s story we’re talking about. Think about it again. Aera is telling us the story and we have enough proof that he is talking the truth. As it is even said by the developers that the Anime will show the side of Ardyn we didn’t know so far. It is confirmed.

(And if someone screams. BUT THE PLACES ARE DIFFERENT - Watch the prologue again, or at all.... Watch it for real. And notice the details, temple area, open at the sides, different time. It is as confirmed as I can say now. If SE tricked us.. Well. I just can work with what I have. There is no mistake in the Animation or such. Watch it 200 times if you have to. I can point it out by seconds, but I am too lazy for that.)

To erase every single trace of Ardyn in history, Somnus had to work cleanly. I have to say, Somnus did good by that. Either because he burned everyone alive who knew or made sure the day was never mentioned like it happened.

But why isn’t  Aera mentioned? Somnus erased Ardyn from history. Guess you wouldn’t want anyone to know that you actually killed his fiancé, because you’re a mad,stupid idiot she knew the truth that he didn’t. Sad death. I hope they’re happy in the Afterlife. They deserve it.

 A lot has been lost. No one had known. No one. And to be fair, a common  quote I stumbled across lately a lot: History is written by winners.

He calls himself noble, thinking that his actions are the right ones. Maybe that’s why he burned the people alive. But burning innocent people is not noble. There is nothing noble about killing the fiancé of your brother and calling her a foolish woman. There is nothing noble of tricking your brother and cursing him, giving him no choice but to mourn for the love he had. Good job Somnus. It took your nearly 2000 years to realize and ask your friendly younger version to give Ardyn peace, huh. A little bit late, asshole. No, I don’t forgive you.!

To finish this for now, I have to say: Ardyn deserved better. Same for Aera. It is a tragedy. 

Not you, Somnus, I hope I can smash you in an epic-long-ass-bossfight during the DLC: Otherwise my comrades-Character will wipe the Lucian floor with your remaining body parts. I hope we get more answers during the DLC and can’t wait to finally play it.

[ertrunkenerwassergeist]

Thoughts about Episode Ardyn

After my near incoherent rambling yesterday I tried to put something a bit more coherent together. It will be 100% subjective so not really a review. Not an objective one anyway. This will be quite long so I will put it under the cut for everyone interested.

First off, like I said before, I quite enjoyed Episode Ardyn and had great fun with it. I liked Ardyns moveset quite a lot. It’s like they finally finished fleshing out the combat system. Traversal was also much faster. You could sptint, but I loved to just devolve into dark particles. 

The exploration was also interesting. To be finally able to walk through the streets of Insomnia myself. I would have loved to see the lower levels also, but this was enough for me. The destruction part was also really cool and that you could get points for it. It was quite in character that Ardyn would do something like that.

Concerning the voice acting, I played the game in German, so I can’t really say anything about the English line delivery. I heard a few clips of Darin de Paul and he is very very good. The German voice actor for Ardyn is Jo van Nelsen and I think he did a really great job. The only one whose line delivery came across as really woody in some places was Regis (Richard van Weyden). Otherwise it was all solid enough in my opinion.

Now the plot. Oh my cheesecake, the plot. Cheese is a good word for it, I think. Those plotholes. At first glance it seems to fit together easy enough, but after thinking about it... 

Why does no one say anything about Ifrit ramaging through the city in the main game or the movie? Did they collectively all just forget it? How do Ardyns memory powers work? What’s up with Somnus? Ardyns logic at the end doesn’t make any sense. The whole ending doesn’t make any sense. 

I liked Ardyns character after he was found by Besithia. He was old and tired and just wanted to be left alone and I thought it would be interesting to see how he got from that to that lovely spiky ball of spite and sarcasm we all know. They did a decent job at it. 

How he went from tired to angry to downright vengeful and full of hatred. His reaction to his powers. What I find very aprubt is his insistence that he helps people doing a 180 in the span of a few minutes. It might be months for Ardyn to come to that conclusion but we get it in a few sentences.

Besithia having Ifirt in his labs is... terribly convenient? Yes, let’s go with that. I think it would have been way more rewarding if Ardyn had gone out to confront one of the Gods for answers and in the process he then would have infected Ifrit. But this is a DLC and that means the story is on a short leash, so it’s not bad, I guess.

With the memory magic Ardyn has going I would have loved to see more about the Astral War. Especially since Ifrit was on the opposite side, the devils side, so to speak. We got Shivas account of it, but the winners write the history so... yeah. 

The interaction with Somnus are also wasted potential. I like the fallen messiah trope they have going with Ardyn and from everything I heard about and saw of Somnus I think they wanted to do him as a moraly grey character. They totally shot themselves in the foot with the last one because he just comes off as a douchebag in the Prologue and what he actually says in the DLC... He totally flips in tone from ‘I knew you were evil and had no right to be king because you would have destroyed us all’ to ‘I will pray for you and I’m deeply sorry for what I did to you’. WTF??

Maybe all of this would have made more snese if we had seen the both of them interact as actual brothers and not only as rivals for a throne.

Bahamut is like the ultimate evil in this. The mastermind that pulled all the strings. I always knew he was a dick, but this? This is like ‘I planned all along for you to be the bad guy’ instead of ‘I made a mistake and now try to cover up my blunder’. From the actual game I kind of got the vibe of the latter, but who am I but a lowly fan, right? I also find it wierd that Bahamut is apparently not well known outside of the cosmogony? The others are all well known, even Ifrit. What did Bahamut do all these years? Take a vacation on the Bahamas? You know, that wouldn’t surprise me in the least.

Also what is going on with Aera? I like her, but I get the feeling that she has no clue about anything. She is there to die (like Luna, that’s why I said the two were alike in the worst of ways) and look pretty. She just needed to speak up and she didn’t. And she stabbed Ardyn at the end. I don’t get her character. At all. Was she in league with Bahamut all along? If yes, that would totally come out of left field and not be a good twist at all.

Her character motivation is just non-existant and it’s buggibg me to no end. Here she comes across like an will-less puppet. 

Or the whole her stabbing him thing was an illusion. But that would be equally dumb.

Before this gets too long, can we talk about the ending? It doesn’t make any sense. If someone actually has a decent rationale about it I would love to hear it. Ardyn is super spiteful of Bahamut and would kill him given half a chance. We get two chioces at the end, to follow Bahamuts decree or not to follow it. It would be in character to not follow it, and I chose that option and... you still do what Bahamut says anyway?

I talked with a few people about it and we all don’t get it. If this was the divergence point for all the other canceled DLC they should have pulled it because it’s not going anywhere. I like choices in video games, but those choices should then actually change something and not be there to look pretty and do nothing.