Final Fantasy XV

1) Kefka

2) Caius (only part I liked about XIII trilogy, Serah ruined the rest of XIII-2 for me)

3) Ardyn

4) Kuja

5) Golbez (only because of his twist)

Slowly making my way through the game because BS work schedule. Encountered level 54 Jormungandr at level 20 something. basically solo'd it over the course of a half game day.

The entire time, magitek units are being deployed and slaughtered by Jormungandr. Night time occurs and two Red Iron Giants and a level 74 Magitek unit spawn immediately after Jormungandr dies.

I high tail it out of there because I used up all of my potions and hi potions.

So much fun. :D

Whether you felt frustrated or not is pretty subjective. I felt that the ring was very powerful, until they told you that it no longer worked by making its X-zone ability miss(starting with the Red Gargoyle that was actually the Emperor). Noct had been frustrated long before this chapter as well, the tension had been building in what you had referenced with the loss of Ignis's sight. The schism between friends, and the loss of Prompto. They are experiences that not many people can relate to. Not a lot of people know friends who go blind from battling for them. Not a lot of people get tricked into hurting their dear friends. And certainly, no one is a Prince who has everything handed to them, except for money and money exchange systems, cause we gotta give you motivation to do hunts and stuff I guess. I can agree that it definitely shows you that Ardyn is in control, but the entire game has pretty much been showing that. Whenever he shows up, they pretty much have no choice but to dance his dance, since he has way more resources and power than they do.

The chapter was very weak and poorly put together and delivered, like most of the story. During the scene where Noctis is engulfed by the crystal, you can't even enjoy the dialogue without subtitles, because Noctis is HNNGHAFHing too hard to even make out half of what Ardyn is saying. When you kill the red gargoyle, its death speech that lets you know it was the emperor is drowned out by other noises. Prompto's "reveal" wasn't even a reveal. There was nothing to hint at it earlier in the game. Nothing whatsoever. It was literally just tacked on.

Being that you can't really relate to Noctis, though you may certainly empathize with him, the chapter is just sort of ***. People's frustration doesn't just stem from a state of weakness/powerlessness. It stems from the fact that this was supposed to be the high point of the rising action that leads to the climax, and it fell flat on its face. Not because the story is bad, but because the delivery was god awful. Much felt forced, and honestly, Sudden Exposition Bahamut didn't really help either.

The story's biggest weakness is its delivery and lack of content and characters. Even taking into account a Noctis Perspective, the game shows us things that Noctis could not possibly know, like the fight between Regis and the Magitek Knights, as well as the gathering of the Imperial high command. Ravus. Other various scenes with Luna and such. If they wanted it to be just Noctis's perspective, they shouldn't have shown us any of that. It would have made it more clear, but they didn't, so it really just appears to be slap chopped together and it probably was. There wasn't really any time for me to get into feeling with or for Noctis. Story was so short and travel was so long that I felt as though I spent half of my play time traveling, a third of it fighting, and the last sixth of it having actual story scenes/dialogues. Lots of those "twists" weren't even twists. They were plot happenstance and mostly tacked on just to be something that happened, the best of which was Ignis's loss of eyesight. They hinted heavily at Luna being at risk for dying. You know from the moment that Ardyn recites that poem or rhyme or whatever before taking you to see Titan that he is a big deal, and that he is probably the major villain. It is signed and sealed when he kills Luna. You know that Niflheim is going to go to ***when Aranea tells you that Magitek creations are made from demons. The game is not actually very subtle at all.

What villains? Ok, ok. I won't go that far, but really, the villainy wasn't very villainous, beyond the act of sacking Insomnia and killing Luna and King Regis and that old man that you see once and then never again. Every antagonist either changes sides or isn't really evil, just misunderstood/left with no other option really. Ardyn was nothing like Kefka. Kefka was driven insane by an experimental process which imbued him with magical powers. Ardyn was made a hero by gods, but then stripped and cast down by the same gods who made him a hero and cursed with an onerous burden at the same time. He really didn't have any other option, because not even the gods could kill him, as evidenced by him being shattered into nothing but ice fragments and water vapor on the train. He needed Noct to kill him and end his misery. I don't see some awesome villain in him. I see a miserable suffering man without recourse. If there's any real villains in the story, it's the gods themselves, because though they side with Noct and help him right their own wrong, they still caused everything bad that happened too lol. Douchebag Gods if you ask me. Ardyn gets points for being the one of the most fleshed out characters in the whole game though. He had the a large portion of the dialogue in the game. Could have been a lot better though.

Villain - Meh, I get the point and what is driving him but there wasn't much build up for the actual character himself.

Story - First 1/2 the game was actually pretty good but then it all went to ***. Feels like the whole second half was rushed like crazy. I mean you spend most of it on a train or in some hallways. You go through a bunch of zones with no sidequests or anything.

Ignis AKA Iggy - Combat wise pretty good his overwhelm destroys single targets, story wise ..... well I honestly have no clue who this guy is other then the smart guy who cooks and drives.

Gladious - Combat wise has the best AoE attacks, hardest hitting auto attacks, and is beefy as hell. Story wise it seems like he is the Brute guard of the Prince.

Prompto - Combat wise .... meh? He has that Gravshot thingy for grouping monsters, it also ignores resistances when it comes to Custards and Dulce.

Now here is the huge *** problem for the Prompto, story. Chapter 13. Ugh ... just ugh, guy's im an escaped magitek trooper. Ok sure. Moving on. .... Really? Just gloss over something that huge?

Okay so one of the things I did see outside of the game was Prompto was a fat kid. How the hell did this fat kid escape from a military compound that turns people into 1/2 machines and installs demons in them, then travel over 1/2 a continent away to hide ALONE in a city of his nations enemy. Then manages to go to school and support himself enough to keep himself pudgy, clothed, and with up to date camera equipment.

Just what?!

Combat - 2 buttons guys. Yup. Once you get the Black Hood it turns 1 button. Only thing you can do to *** up is attack at the wrong time or try to block an unblockable move. While this is still stupidly simple it still can be entertaining.

Camera - >_> This is one of the big problems. The game has lock on, but when you lock on you can't control the camera. This results in fighting against the camera rather then the enemy itself.

Magic - It took me a while to figure out how the magic worked and when I did I figured out it was for the most part overly complicated, and extremely overpowered. You can cap basic magic damage with only 100 potency, leaving you with a possible 899 potency that does absolutely nothing. Oh you got a 200+ potency -aga spell? that's great it wont do anymore damage since basic spells are capped at 9999 which you can once again hit at 100ish potency.

Music- OH snap! This game not only has good music of its own but it has good music from almost EVERY FF GAME! I-XIV + Dissidia 1 and 2, it's amazing!

-Post Game-
Hunts - Some of the special hunts at the end are great. Demon Wall was a challenge. Adamantoise though was not as great as it was supposed to be, just a bunch of warp striking.

Dungeons - No maps, No hints, Doors lock behind you, and some of the battles actually were pretty tough. *** those Yoda Tonberries. Still have 2 of these dungeons left. One of the dungeons was 100 floors long. It took me 4 hours to get through.

Rare spawn - There is a Lv99 Mech that can spawn other then this idk, but this mech is a beast, *** Flakk Cannons.

In conclusion, even though I believe the game was released unfinished I still enjoyed the game enough to play over 150 hours.

I'd give it around a 7/10.

My personal value system, I measure in movie tickets costs.
150 hours Playtime
2 hours = Average movie time.
$7 = average ticket price.

FFXV Value so far = $525

When we see Ardyn on the train and start attacking him, his dialect changes and he acts surprised that we are attacking him. The theory is that he was Prompto from the very beginning. That makes it so effed because I didn't hesitate to hit that button hoping to kill him.

Another point was brought up that when you go save the fake Prompto Ardyn says "Are you sure it wasn't the real thing?" Implying very early in Ch. 13 that Prompto was a MT

Uhh you mean from the beginning of the game or something? The loading screen between chapters tells you Ardyn used a spell to make Noct think Prompto was him and the fact that fake Ardyn not only talked but moved and acted like Prompto made it obvious to the player that Noct was under some sort of hallucination.

Yea it mentions he uses a "stitch in time" to trick Noct, but I thought it was mentioning only the last moment when you push him off, not at the very beginning when you see him in the cart and it gives you the option to hit the attack button.

Yeah that power of his isn't really ever explained. It being Prompto at the start of the sequence is definitely a thing not a theory though... he's even standing in the exact same spot Prompto was with Prompto no where in sight. Just another case of Ardyn being a sick ***.

I wish they had elaborated on that 'stitch in time' part, or used it more throughout the game to *** with Noctis (maybe Ardyn did but we didn't realize?)

Yea, I guess It just never occurred to me until I read that. Man that makes me feel so terrible, I need to go beat the game again so Ardyn can win again. I think the power to control time and space is part of the Lucis bloodlines powers. I mean the weapon throwing and such already show a bit of that. Ardyn has just had a long time to perfect that.

He used it a bit in Ch. 13 and I think he used it to make the bodies appear in the throne room.

Yeah but I meant earlier chapters, before we knew about it

Probably didn't but would be cool to figure out later lol

After it came up I assumed it was how he was always able to be in the right place at the right time.

I'm pretty sure that Noctis was just where Ardyn wanted him everytime and not the other way around.