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Inside the Crystal (Ch. 13)
BAHAMUT: “Gather strength, o Chosen.” HI BAHAMUT!
-This must be inside the Crystal, or in some spiritual space. He holds Noctis in his titanic paw.
His design is… odd. He reminds me of a Transformer.
-The Adversary is a man cursed with eternal life stemming from the daemons’ scourge. This is why Ardyn was forbidden from becoming the Chosen King. So he was a major candidate for being the king.
“Only the True King, chosen by the Crystal and guarded by his forebears, can end the Accursed’s madness.”
How did Ardyn get accursed? Was he just born bad as the Adversary? If so, that really sucks for him. Just a dude randomly cursed as evil. Or did he sell his soul or something? Maybe we’ll get more in the DLC.
-Providence opposes the Adversary. It’s as I thought, a vague but powerful Light, stronger than the Six. The Chosen King can receive it at the cost of his life.
That’s rough, buddy. Hopefully he’ll get a happy afterlife with Luna.
-Bahamut drops Noctis. As he falls into the void, he remembers his friends, family, even Ardyn.
BAHAMUT: “The Light waxes full. Go forth to the kingdom, where the usurper awaits.”
-Noctis wakes in Angelgard, that island off Galdin Quay. A beard shows time has passed.
A fairly short beard though, so maybe this is a month or two later.
-The sky is green, the night dark. Shit looks bleak.
HI PUPPPYYY! Umbra delivers a note: “Be waiting… In Hammerhead.”
End of chapter. We gotta be coming to the endgame now.
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World of Ruin (Ch. 14)
-You’re calling this quest “World of Ruin?” Are you sure, game?
I get that Noctis is waking up to a world that’s probably been under Ardyn’s influence for however long our hero has been asleep, just as Celes in FFVI awoke to a world under Kefka’s influence. But FFVI and its World of Ruin were some of the greatest things in gaming. The re-exploration of a massive world. Seeing such a wide and varied set of characters have full story arcs amidst this despair, seeking companionship and hope.
Are you SURE you want to set yourself in comparison to that?
I’m enjoying FFXV. A lot! The music, the characters, the mechanics, all good and at times great (especially the mechanics). I like to think I’m not bound to the past, or someone who just thinks the first FF I played is the best because it came first. (FFIV was basically my first, and far from my favorite.)
Callbacks, crossovers, and Easter eggs fit best when seen from the corner of one’s eye. I’m concerned at this point that XV is calling back to one of the greatest moments in FF at such a pivotal moment rather than forging its own path with original settings that future games might refer back to.
[Later edit: I thought about removing this section since devoting so much space to it seems in hindsight like an overreaction to a quest name. But I think it’s a fair concern. The comparison is kind of a nitpick I guess, but using a callback as its concluding set piece bothers me.]
-Chapter 14: Homecoming.
-The world may be ruined, but it’s not empty. Galdin Quay is PACKED with daemons, including tonberries.
-Okay, this is really slow going. It’s about the time that I meet a level 84 Daemonwall that I decide to just run past the enemies and rejoin my group. I got a long run to Hammerhead ahead of me.
-OH HEY IT’S TALCOTT DRIVING A TRUCK! This has gotta be, what, 10 years later if he’s this old?
-Yup, 10 years.
-The party is still together. Usually in Lestallum, sometimes in Hammerhead when Cindy needs help.
-It’s all night, all the time. Lestallum is the only place with light from its power.
-This is SURREAL. We’re driving, casually chatting, and swarms of daemons line the road.
-IRIS IS NOW A BADASS HUNTER KNOWN AS “IRIS THE DAEMON SLAYER.” HOW WAS THIS NOT A DLC???
-The party is alive, but they spend most of their time doing their own thing.
-We all reunite. Gladio looks the most similar, Ignis looks even more badass, and Prompto… well, the facial hair takes me back a bit lol.
-I’m glad that even though they do a lot of individual work, they’re still friends.
-The game flat-out tells me that the final battle will commence once I leave Hammerhead. Two things:
1) THANK YOU FOR TELLING ME. One of my largest pet peeves is when I’m suddenly yoinked into a new game segment with no way back before I’m ready. FFXV has been really good about warning me of this.
2) This is why I didn’t like the idea of calling this quest “World of Ruin.” FFVI’s World of Ruin was the start of probably a third of the game. A massive series of quests to see what each party member had been up to, and through a wide array of quests and dungeons and bosses, helping reunite everyone.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with that! I’m fine with them choosing for World of Ruin to start in chapter 14, and not, say, chapter 9. But why set yourself up in comparison?
Anyway, done harping on that. Let’s check out Hammerhead.
-Research notes in town comment on photophilic particles with some relation between the daemons and the night.
-…Not much in Hammerhead. I was kind of hoping to see Iris and have a new open world segment where I help out her and her team of hunters, or to see what Lestallum is like here.
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The Cure for Insomnia (Ch. 14)
-We head to the Crown City, where Noctis is rocking the most ROYAL of duds.
-The music is the title screen theme. Reminds me of FFXIV’s “Flames of Truth.”
-The city is a mix of daemons and “eternal soldiers.” The eternals must be Ardyn’s leftover troops.
-It’s a cool cityscape! If this is the final dungeon, I’m down.
-HEY it’s the Kingsglaive! They’re overwhelmed by emotion at Noctis’ return.
-I’ll give him this: he’s got some oratorical game.
-This feels a little bit hollow because we haven’t really spent time in this world. I wish we had gotten a chapter where we played as, like, Iris and Cor. Really got to see what this world was like and feel that despair of hanging on without knowing for sure whether Noctis would return.
-“Kingsglaive” reference! The Glaive who survived the signing ceremony and escorted Lunafreya to safety inspires this group. (Nyx iirc?)
-Picked up some side quests. Still hoping I get to see Iris.
-Back out into Insomnia. Where Ardyn is waiting to shower meteors on our heads. Hi.
-He summoned a wall around his tower, what Regis used to protect the city. That’s def the final dungeon.
-Continuing to explore the city when OMEGA POPS OUT.
PROMPTO: “What kind of interdimensional nonsense is this?” right there with ya
It’s level 119. This… is not a fight I have a remote chance to win right now.
-Found the Underpass master Key! That should help with things.
-While sidequesting, I stumble Ardyn’s guard dog, Cerberus. A fun two-phase fight that lets me knock him out of the air before he starts raining fire on me.
-A swarm of daemons attacks and pins us up against the protected Citadel, and it’s time for DEI EX MACHINA. Luna’s spirit brings the Six and this is frigging amazing.
Even Bahamut helps finish things off. He’s more of a knight than a dragon in this game, which is an interesting twist. I think it’s a great twist to make him a dragon-themed knight over a straight-up dragon (despite still not loving the physical design).
-A side quest to collect stuff for Cindy has me team up with an unnamed silent Glaive. I’m CERTAIN I’m supposed to know them, but I don’t.
-Huh! It was one of Regis’s Glaives. Still dunno who specifically lol.
[Non-rhetorical question: What’s their name?]
-The result of my side-questing are three talismans that allow the party members to do things I generally associate with their DLCs, for the ones I’ve played.
[Non-rhetorical question: How does this work? Like, Prompto’s gives him unlimited ammunition for the Rapidus gun from the DLC. How is that useful in the main game?]
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Next time: the end of the main FFXV game.
