Final Fantasy XV (was Versus XIII)

[The Twilight Mexican]

Yeah, to me Regis's face in that scene screams "Fuck you fuck you fuck you." Or possibly "Goddamn, I am constipated."

 

[Gary Caelum]

You don't say.

Granted, that page needs some updating (it's been a year and a half), but I called this one way the hell back:

Did you write all that?

Btw, to answer one of the other points on that page: I'm pretty sure the single wing is just supposed to represent a fallen angel. Because obviously having just 1 wing would mean you could no longer fly.

It's a bit of symbolism that goes back to an old biblical story. They even mention it on the FF wiki:
https://finalfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/One-Winged_Angel

They messed up that symbolism in Crisis Core when all of the one-winged angels could still fly.

On another note, I don't know why I didn't spot this before but....

Going by what we saw in the Episode Ardyn trailer... Regis fucking saw Ardyn before when he was younger and even fought with him. He even called him Adagium.

But in Kingsglaive, Regis acted totally like he was just some schmuck off the street. What was up with that? Why didn't he freak the fuck out that essentially, the Antichrist, was in his hall and talking to him?

That was weird. Maybe he didn't want to cause a scene and risk a fight breaking out?

Yep, I bet this was just a massive plot hole. But Regis' reaction to him in Kingsglaive was ambiguous enough that they can probably just come up with some explanation so it makes sense.

 

[Lulcielid]

Re: Black Wing

I remember Roberto Ferrari (artist who designed Ardyn) mentioning that he gave Ardyn that black wing just in case he had a "final transformation", I dont remember if it was somewhere on his facebook or in an interview with some FF fansite.

 

[Gary Caelum]

The old 4chan leaks did say that Ardyn originally had a final demon form at the end, but it was cut because they ran out of time.

 

[Lulcielid]

Unlikely because no such dummie content was found in the game nor mentioned in Ultimania guidebook (Like how a certain character called Safayroth was planned to be in the game but was cut, this being an example of the later).

 

[Gary Caelum]

Why would it necessarily be in either if it was cut? They obviously didn't put too much unnecessary stuff on the game disc because they were pushing up against the storage limit as it was.
I don't know about the Ultimania. Is that the one that was only in Japanese?

 

[Ryuman]

Re: Black Wing

I remember Roberto Ferrari (artist who designed Ardyn) mentioning that he gave Ardyn that black wing just in case he had a "final transformation", I dont remember if it was somewhere on his facebook or in an interview with some FF fansite.

I remember this. It sucks because there are a lot of things he said around the end of 2016 that were deleted. I remember being on his Facebook as it was happening, even when that mysterious Umbra art was posted! I can't quite remember if this quote was from the Facebook stuff though.

However, it was part of an anecdote he was telling regarding Ardyn's design. Apparently he submitted Ardyn to Nomura but it was turned down because Nomura thought it was lacking a certain eccentric quality. A week later he came back to Nomura with the addition of the wing (which he came up with thinking that it could be used in a final transformation). With that, he got the OK.

 

[Gary Caelum]

Started playing A Kings Tale in anticipation for my final playthrough of the game.

I missed this the first time round. It's actually kinda OK. Bit repetitive and could do with more story, but otherwise fairly good.

 

[Gary Caelum]

Update details for tomorrow below.

Nothing interesting except a few new bosses for Comrades. Damn. I was hoping at the very least, they'd make the moogle festival available again. Makes no sense not to.

The only good thing here is that Episode Ardyn is pretty huge. 10GB on consoles (although only 2 on PC which I assume means the DLC episode downloads separately on PC). For the sake of comparison, Episode Prompto was under 4GB.

https://www.reddit.com/r/FFXV/comments/b54ch1

 

[Makoeyes987]

...My God, FFXV is taking up about half my PS4's hard drive space with all these updates.

I've never seen a game this massive before. I'm glad for the content but Jesus...

 

[Lulcielid]

From my memory Red Dead Redemption 2 at launch was bigger with 90ishGB and Battlefront II is also currently on 90ishGB (after bunch of updates).

 

[Gary Caelum]

Halo 5 on the Xbone ended up at over 100GB. Lol I installed it and then immediately uninstalled it when I realised I had no room left for anything else.

 

[Lulcielid]

You can always buy an external HDD and install the games there.

 

[Gary Caelum]

Heads up. Someone's already got hold of Episode Ardyn. A lot of footage is already on youtube.

It's annoyingly spoilerish too (based on just the titles of some of the videos). Stay away from searching youtube for anything XV related until you've played it.

Also: rather annoyingly, it's only 2 hours long for the main part of the DLC. There may be some bonus stuff after though.

 

[Gary Caelum]

Hmmm so the 10GB update for the main game is AS WELL as episode Ardyn. Episode Ardyn is 6.5GB.

Yet the update just says it contains bug fixes and some new music tracks. So something's missing there. Fingers crossed the Active Time Report has some kind of big reveal later today where they announce they've added loads of other cool things secretly. Dunno why else it could be 10GB!

 

[Makoeyes987]

My God...

Being Ardyn is true suffering.

Spoiler

So if I'm to understand this right...

Aera was in on it all too?

She betrayed Ardyn as well, so that he could be the conduit of the Starscourge, and thus snuffed out by the "King of Light" and finally end the Lucis bloodline as ordained by Bahamut?

In fact, it seems Ardyn was gifted his ability to heal people for the exact purpose TO absorb the Starscourge into him, so that he could soak it all up and be the center of it.

So he was in essence, cursed from the start.

It wasn't enough for his brother to betray him and snatch the throne from him, but Aera was also against him too??

And I love how Bahamut basically tried to barter Noctis as a means of keeping Ardyn in line, since he would be the one to deliver Ardyn from his curse and he could get his chance to exact his revenge on him, and in the mean time, spread as much darkness as he could until the fated showdown.

I swear, with a God like Bahamut you really don't need Fal'Cie or Bhunivelze. You get all of them in one asshole but badass looking package.

And this pretty much shows that the ending of Episode Ignis is the only ending that breaks the cycle of fate and shows that humans can change the fate that's bestowed upon them. Since apparently as expected, the entire clash between Ardyn and Noctis really was a set up.

 

[Gary Caelum]

If you've played it, can you explain where it best fits into the story? At the very end? Or after Chapter 13? Or even at the very beginning?

 

[Lulcielid]

At the end because it begins and ends with the cutscene of

Spoiler

Entering the throne room to face Ardyn.

 

[Makoeyes987]

Spoiler

.....I really wonder how I love this game and story so much when it has such a sad depressing ending for most of the characters of its story.

Everyone is fucked over by fate. Ardyn, Aera, even Somnus. They were used to begin the plot of erradicating the starscourge by any means necessary. Regis was fucked over too and if you go by Omen's trailer, you realize he knew the truth about Ardyn and what Bahamut was planning.

Like don't get me wrong, I love what they did with Episode Ardyn but the fact they intended far more for this series is glaring. It simply makes no sense to end the DLC chapters here. Square Enix fucking dropped the ball here badly. God forbid they finish something they start.

 

[Gary Caelum]

Oh bloody hell, I'm only on Chapter 2 on my playthrough. I'm gonna have to speed through it or just avoid this thread for a while.

 

[X-SOLDIER]

Played it last night. Loved the hell out of it.

• Start at 8:38
• Once you get to 42:15 skip everything after that, and start back up at 59:28 (because I missed dialogue choices).
– If you ONLY care about story stuff, you can ditch at 2:18:00
• Some time around 2:48:00 I just started messing around and grinding the abilities and shit, so basically no one will care about that.
• 3:42:00 I get back to wrecking through the other places in Insomnia that matter & collecting all the things.
– 3:07:10 minor story dialogue
– 3:47:15 other minor story dialogue
• 4:55:30 is the ACTUAL end game start & I end at about 5:25:00
• 5:28:00 is checking the extra lore items from beating the game
• 5:50:54 is the start of the alternate ending path choice




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[Makoeyes987]

So, going by what we all know of the totality of the plot and all the DLC we've gotten, I feel the best order to play the DLCs are...

Episode Gladiolus (after he decides to leave the party)

Episode Prompto (after he leaves the party)

Then on should play the game as normal and beat it.

Upon completion of the game, one should play Episode Ardyn.

And upon beating THAT episode, then one should play Episode Ignis.

Episode Ignis feels especially significant given the ending of Episode Ardyn and the

Spoiler

resist your fate

ending. It feels like the perfect lead in for whatever new stories are going to be done for the novellas.

Spoiler

Whatever means Ignis discovered in letting Noctis live while restoring light to the world, it had to involve saving Ardyn, or at least freeing him from the cursed fate he had. Because how else could it happen?

This is pure speculation, but Noctis being alive and light being restored to the world means something different happened with Ardyn than him just dying a villain and being eradicated like the sacrifice he was meant to be.

 

[X-SOLDIER]

It's also pretty clear that Chapter 1 was meant to be a LOT more involved in wandering, and less of a quick walking simulator. It also feels like Ardyn's tornado & rifle were going to be more refined into a skill tree, but got cut short.

But yeah VERY interested in what they had planned with the other stories even moreso now. Still gotta check out the Comrades update.


Although.... Episode Ardyn is the perfect conclusion, because it feels like FFXV felt at release.



X

 

[Makoeyes987]

The more I think about it, I don't think we've ever had a Final Fantasy villain who truly was as sympathetic as Ardyn.

Caius Ballad is somewhat close, and maybe Shuyin of FFX-2, but Ardyn is on a whole different level. At least in regards to what happened.

I'm curious from those who played. What was the first choice they picked at the end?

On my first play through I chose

Spoiler

to defy fate and got to see the fucked up ending of him getting tortured by Aera, which had me jawdropped. It just felt like a natural choice. If I were Ardyn, there would be no way in hell I'd just go "OKAY I BELIEVE YOU" to Bahamut and go along with some cockamamie plan that uses me as a sacrifice on top of having my entire life be shown as a lie. Fuck that noise. I kinda wish Ardyn refused to spread the Starscourge just to spite Bahamut and instead go back to healing people just so the entire plan gets confused and Noctis has to now question just who the villain really is in the story.

Granted, I know Ardyn wasn't in the right frame of mind to think like that... He was pretty much mentally warped between the grief, despair, and mental overload of absorbing so many memories via the Starscourge, but if he could've done that... It'd definitely throw a kink in how everyone was to "play their part" in regards to fate.

 

[X-SOLDIER]

I'm really curious about

Spoiler

the vision he got when he Demonized Ifrit. It seems like the visions that he has of Somnus and Aera by the tree were far more metaphorical. With the Glaive he demonizes on Angelgard, he saw literal flashes of that individual's life. But with Ifrit he got suddenly wrapped up into this weird pseudo-vision of things that he'd experienced before. It almost feels like he's absorbing some of Ifrit's own memories related to being the outcast of the Hexatheon, since Ardyn is very much this monstrous semi-deity in his own right. It's even stated outright that gaining an understanding of the Demons will provide a better understanding of the Gods, and even his code name "Adagium" hits at half truths that may extend beyond just Somnus' betrayal.

That's probably the entire reason why they frontload you with this whole history lesson about the rise and fall of Solheim, and the deities individual involvements. For all intents and purposes, Ifrit's path of granting humans fire, that gift spreading destruction rather than aid, and the Ifrit being completely fucked over for trying to help people as a part of a necessary means to an end with the fate of Solheim was an almost identical process with Somnus (Bahamut) & Aera (Shiva). Those three all even have strong INCREDIBLY strong visual & story similarities:

• Ifrit's exiled to Ravatough like Ardyn was exiled to Angelgard. Ardyn's curly long red hair are much like Ifrit's own, and Ardyn's hair gets shorter after he sides with the Empire post-Angelgard just like how Ifrit's horns are broken after Ifrit is brought to the Empire from his own imprisonment. Ifrit's body is even corrupted by the Starscourge like Ardyn's is (changed heavily in patch 1.21). Ifrit is absent from the Cosmogeny portrait, as Ardyn is removed from the throne and history. Ifrit still wears his crown from when he was King of Solheim, whereas Ardyn is always hunting for his own crown.
• Aera's ultimately a servant of Bahamut in the alternate ending, the same way Shiva is directed in opposition to her own lover Ifrit in the game. She also spirits around in other forms amongst the mortals, the way that the Oracle is the one who convenes directly with the Gods. Aera betrays Ardyn to Somnus, When Shiva meets Ardyn in the train during the main game, Ardyn even says, "Ah, the face you wore on the day you" – and she cuts him off by tapping his lips, meets Noctis, and gives him the trident of the Oracle – after which point Noctis stabs and destroys the ice duplicate the same way Ardyn gets stabbed in the resistance ending. When Shiva confronts Ifrit she says, "Rest, my love. May your Soul know peace at last." (which was changed in an update from her original pre-1.21 dialogue)
• Somnus' Wall form wields a gigantic sword and the swords and other abilities of the Lucian Kings all mirror Bahamut's "wings made of swords." Not to mention all of the armor stylization similarities between Bahamut and the Mystic.

Also, compare the pivotal attacks in the finale fights between Ardyn/Ifrit and Somnus, and Noctis/Bahamut & Ifrit.
The attacks, camerawork, strikes are direct parallels of one another, just being turned the other way:

Ardyn/Ifrit vs. Somnus, and then Bahamut

Ardyn calls upon Ifrit to weaken Somnus, and then warp-strikes a blow directly to his face. Somnus wishes that his brother finds peace as he passes on. Then Bahamut shows up, drops swords in front of the castle to take out Ifrit, and prevents Ardyn from killing Regis as Regis' son will be the One True King.

Noctis/Bahamut vs. Ifrit

Noctis calls upon Bahamut to weaken Ifrit, Ifrit avoids the strikes that took him out before, and then Noctis warp-strikes a blow directly to his face (cutting off a horn). Then Shiva shows up to wish Ifrit peace as she causes him to pass on. Then Noctis confronts and completes the duty of the One True King by sacrificing himself to destroy the Darkness.


Also, the painting of Angelgard looks like the Pillars of Creation, which is a more indirect Eos-to-Cosmic parallel, but one that felt worth calling out, because I can't stop thinking about it.

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