FFXV story/spoiler discussion thread.

[Jason Tandro]

Journal 7: Pool Party
All the way to the end of Chapter 8.

I'm actually on Chapter 12 right now but I was like "shit, I need to stop and write up my journal already!" Journal 8 should be along pretty shortly.

Edit: Very shortly in fact.

Journal 8: Smoke On The Water
Up to the beginning of Chapter 12, though I limit the revelation of the major major spoilers in Chapters 9 and 10. Still spoiler content though so be warned.

 

[Blade]

I got some spoilery questions:

I found a couple 'locked' dungeon entrances and I have no idea where the key is, also some locked areas in deeper parts of certain dungeons. Not sure if the two are related.

Question about Knights of the Round, is it Armiger only or is there more to it?

I'm still busy doing Bounty Hunting, but I'd like to find certain key equipment upgrades.

Also, an easy way to farm Gil for the Arena Prizes would be nice.

And I suck at Elemancy, can anyone give me tips on using it that don't fry my party to a crisp?

 

[Lex]

I got some spoilery questions:

I found a couple 'locked' dungeon entrances and I have no idea where the key is, also some locked areas in deeper parts of certain dungeons. Not sure if the two are related.

There's only one dungeon that's locked, it opens at night. If you've found others they're likely story related dungeons.

Question about Knights of the Round, is it Armiger only or is there more to it?

??? I don't know what you mean by Knights of the Round.

I'm still busy doing Bounty Hunting, but I'd like to find certain key equipment upgrades.

Some of the items are hunt related and require you to chop off certain monster appendages to get.

Also, an easy way to farm Gil for the Arena Prizes would be nice.

What are arena prizes? Best way I've found to farm gil is killing groups of certain monsters and selling their parts.

And I suck at Elemancy, can anyone give me tips on using it that don't fry my party to a crisp?

Use it at a distance XD.

 

[Jason Tandro]

I got some spoilery questions:

I found a couple 'locked' dungeon entrances and I have no idea where the key is, also some locked areas in deeper parts of certain dungeons. Not sure if the two are related.

There's only one dungeon that's locked, it opens at night. If you've found others they're likely story related dungeons.

Spoiler

I think he's referring to the dungeons within dungeons that I've seen. At a few of the Royal Tombs, such as the Keycatrich Trench, there is a locked door in the back and Ignis comments that there must be a key but he doesn't know where to look.

I have yet to crack this mystery myself, but now that I'm on Chapter 15 I think I'll begin hunting down clues.

 

[Joe]

Spoiler: Locked doors in dungeons

These are late game dungeons that you can get the key for once you've completed all the regular dungeons. The quest appears after you finish the game, over at Hunter HQ in the north west.

There's 6 I think? You get 6 quests, one for each, to open the door and delve into the dungeon. They go deep. The first is level 55 recommended and goes up to 99 for the last. I've done one and they apparently get harder and longer.

One thing of note is that manual saving is disabled in there. This is especially pertinent as I think the Costlemark one can last four hours. You can only save when you come across a campsite. I only found one campsite in the one I did (the first dungeon in Leide that Cor takes you to)

There's real good loot inside

 

[Pixel]

Some interesting stuff posted on Neogaf about the troubled development. Take with a pinch of salt.
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1323493&page=1

 

[Blade]

Regarding Costlemark, I heard there's Royal Arms in there, but do you have to clear it to get it?

I am still missing 3 weapons to complete Armiger.

And like I said, are these related to Knights of the Round (Kingsglaive implied something about them)?

 

[Tetsujin]

Knights of the Round are the "Old Wall" statues. They all bit the dust when they fought against the Diamond Weapons. The Royal Arms are not related to that.

 

[Joe]

@Blade - There's a Royal Arm in Costlemark's dungeon, yeah. You don't need to open that locked door to get it though. If you found the locked door in Costlemark but not the Royal Arm then you need to navigate the labyrinth correctly still (the big moving cubes)

Getting to the big room with the red giants and lift going back up (and small path to locked door) means you took a wrong turn somewhere. It'll keep throwing you there if you make a mistake.

 

[Jason Tandro]

Spoiler: Maiden flight of the Regalia

The Good: The view is awesome and the batmobile-esque look of the Regalia is sweet.

The Bad: It doesn't handle that great, there's really no new places to go that I can see and you can barely hear the music over the massive engine - it was already hard enough with the standard Regalia.

It's a nice feature, I'm glad I have the option and the view seriously is worth it, but I feel like they should have added like at least a superdungeon you can access via the flying Regalia. If there is and I just haven't found it I'll redact that last comment.

 

[Tetsujin]

I just checked out the credits you can view from the title screen.

They're obviously different from the end credits and feature different music too. "Too Much Is Never Enough" actually plays here!

 

[Joe]

Spoiler: For Jason and his Regalia

 

[Lex]

Is this game kidding with the Master Tonberries!? They're amazing! Like Sith Lords hahaha

 

[Jason Tandro]

Is this game kidding with the Master Tonberries!? They're amazing! Like Sith Lords hahaha

They remind me a lot of Sephiroth from Kingdom Hearts with their whirlwinding strikes.


@Joe: I stand pleasantly corrected! Thanks for the tip!

 

[Tetsujin]

Leviathan battle music should've been this:

 

[Jason Tandro]

Leviathan battle music should've been this:

Really I was thinking more this:

 

[Lex]

^sadly that's missing the water imagery the first one appropriately conjures

 

[Jason Tandro]

Journal 9: Hail To The King, Baby
All the way up to the ending and my capsule review at the end.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

Knights of the Round are the "Old Wall" statues. They all bit the dust when they fought against the Diamond Weapons. The Royal Arms are not related to that.

Are they not? I kind of thought

Spoiler: (general spoiler about Noctis's lineage)

Noctis's ancestors constitute a reference to the Knights of the Round as well. We see 13 of them, at least four of the five Armiger weapons featured in the "Episode Duscae" demo were named in reference to weapons that belonged to King Arthur's Knights of the Round Table, and

Spoiler: (ending spoiler)

while that sequence that finally puts Ardyn's spirit to rest seems to be a reference to the sequence in FFVII that culminated with Cloud using Omnislash, the attack itself here is pretty much a rapid rendition of the Knights of the Round summon

.

I'll readily grant you that some things obviously changed in development between "Episode Duscae" and the final release, but the notion was obviously there back then, and I don't think it was wholly abandoned even if the Old Wall is all from the setting that has been outright referred to as the Knights of the Round. For that matter, it's not as though there isn't a very strong connection between the Lucii and the Old Wall in "Kingsglaive."

While on that topic, weren't there five of those statues in "Kingsglaive"? And originally five Armiger weapons seen in the "Episode Duscae" demo? I may be remembering that wrong (perhaps there were only three Old Wall statues), but I definitely remember that the statues looked identical to some of the Lucii.

 

[Lex]

Pitioss took me hours. What a magnificently evil place.

 

[lithiumkatana17]

Knights of the Round are the "Old Wall" statues. They all bit the dust when they fought against the Diamond Weapons. The Royal Arms are not related to that.

Are you sure? Check out this screenshot I just took from the movie.

Spoiler

That's clearly the Star of the Rogue she's holding.

 

[Tetsujin]

Also, one thing I wanna say is: Even though this game really goes into the road trip theme (and I do enjoy that aspect), it's the least journey-like of the FFs I've played and it's due to the open world nature.

Instead of this epic, long journey to save the world/beat the bad guys/reclaim your kingdom, the first half/two thirds of the game feel like basically driving around in circles in the backyard of your home.
I've never felt like I was going on an actual adventure trip like other FFs because I was always a stone's throw away from the start of the journey. And quite a few times I was literally just running errands outside Insomnia's front door.

 

[Lex]

The thing is we haven't had that "crossing the water is a big deal" feeling since FFX (arguably IX given how small Spira's islands are), and it's been a massive deal in almost every FF before that. I was glad to see that come back here, but because we don't have a "world map" in the same sense it's a little lost. I still miss that "new continent" feel.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

Question about Prompto for those who have finished the game:

Spoiler

Would the whole "twist" about him being a Magitek Trooper be both more impactful and work better with the established backstory if he hadn't known Noctis for years, and instead was just assigned to this group by the king at the outset (because the king knew the truth, but [insert reason for sending him anyway])?

In my mind, it would eliminate plothole questions about how they never knew his home life was a fabrication while also really driving home the bond that was forged during the journey when Noct and the others still continue to treat him the same as they always have.

 

[ForceStealer]

Yeah I defintely recognized the shuriken in Kingsglaive, in

Spoiler

the finishing move against Ardyn and then the summon of all of them to eradicate him.

But I supposed that still doesn't necessarily mean the Old Wall and the Lucii are exactly one in the same. Those might have been enchanted statues and the only way they could directly interact in the world or something.