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glon-morski · 3 years ago

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On Ardyn, The Crystal’s Rejection of him and the history of the Lucis Caelum line

As far as villainous backstories go, Ardyn’s has been one of the most discussed ones basically since FFXV came out. This is partly due to the fact that the game has a very obvious weakness in its storytelling, and so parts of the story, character backgrounds and even lore are obscure at best. The fact that Ardyn himself is basically the only one who tells us what happened, providing only a one-sided, biased account of the past, does not help. Bahamut may add his own two cents once Noctis is sucked into the Crystal, but while he confirms the major points, he doesn’t provide any details (that I remember).

This first account of how Ardyn came to be what he is basically amounted to him being of the Lucis Caelum line, meant to take the throne, but being supposedly usurped and/or betrayed by another. However, in Bahamut’s own version of the story, it is Ardyn who is called the Usurper, as if he had been the one in the wrong.

Then his DLC came out and a lot of retconning happened and the current stance is that he was ‘robbed of his throne’ by his brother Somnus, rejected by the Crystal for doing what he was ordained to do and overall just having been dealt a shitty, unfair hand in life, so please feel very very sorry for him. *rolls her eyes*

Yeah, I’m not gonna do that. I want to know what really happened. So I’m going to absolutely ignore Episode Ardyn (EPA) and its prologue (EPAP) because they’re not considered canon to the main game, anyway. They’re an alternate timeline and thus do not matter to me. I’m interested in canon. So that’s where I went digging.

As a TL;DR, here are my conclusions: Ardyn being rejected by the Crystal is actually his own damn fault, for two reasons. One, he did something he absolutely was not meant to do, and you can argue that it was just him being altruistic and wanting to help people and that it was the right thing and his heart was in the right place, but it doesn’t change the fact that it wasn’t what he was supposed to be doing and it ended up doing more harm than good, specifically to himself. (In case it’s not clear, I’m talking about the whole ‘healing the sick’ thing.) Two, he misunderstood pretty much everything about his so-called Calling. He wasn’t ‘chosen, then rejected’, he was rejected because he felt entitled enough to tell himself he was chosen when he was actually not. And when the Crystal put him in his place for his audacity, he got mad and threw a tantrum like a little kid.

Yes, I am telling you that Ardyn wasn’t actually betrayed by anyone other than his own ego. He was a manchild with a humongous sense of entitlement who couldn’t handle being told ‘no, you got it wrong, back off’. That’s all it is.

As for how I reached these conclusions, a whole-ass essay is under the cut. If you wish to defend Ardyn, agree with me or otherwise discuss it, please feel free so long as you fulfill two requirements:

You actually read the essay below.

You will remain polite.

Thank you.

Acknowledgments: translations from Spanish (ES) (and the original ES texts) provided by Yrathiel on Discord. The German (DE) and French (FR) versions were translated by me. All the texts are transcribed directly from the archives in the game.

I) Ardyn’s story

All right, so what made me reach those conclusions about Ardyn’s story being so vastly different from what he tells us? Well, the answer to that question is actually in the game itself, scattered throughout the datalogs (and with additional info being interestingly scattered throughout the different localizations of the game, too). Let’s start with the simple and obvious: Ardyn’s entry in the dossiers (specifically part 3 of his entries, since we’re not interested in the parts about him being Niflheim’s Chancelor):

“Though Ardyn was born to become the Founder King of Lucis, fate had other plans for him. Blessed with the power to heal those afflicted with the Starscourge, he travelled the world purging the plague from their bodies by absorbing it into his own. Yet when he stood before the Crystal for judgment, it deemed him unworthy of becoming its chosen champion, decrying him as impure of heart. Ardyn was cast into exile, shunned by the people who once adored him and condemned by his own flesh and blood. He now seeks revenge on the Lucian bloodline -- in particular, on the ‘True King’ chosen to serve as the Crystal’s champion: Noctis Lucis Caelum.”

What’s interesting to note here, despite the sometimes confusing syntax (in terms of what it tried to imply), is the word choice in the important parts. ‘Ardyn was born to become the Founder King’, not chosen for it. This implies that, if not an official monarchy, a line of succession was already in place and the only thing that made him the one meant to be next in line and apparently becoming the first proper King was his blood. His birthright. He then sought the Crystal’s judgment, but was unworthy of becoming ‘its champion’. However, ‘the Crystal’s champion’ is not the Founder King, it’s the True King, the role Noctis was chosen for. What this means is that Ardyn’s Calling, job or whatever you want to call it never had anything to do with being chosen by the Crystal. He was never a Chosen of any kind. He was born a future ruler and meant to be the Founder King - the first King - of Lucis, but no part of this entry ever says anything about the Crystal being involved.

However, his bestiary entry contradicts that a little bit; it still confirms more than it contradicts, though:

“The man who was to be the first King of Lucis. Assuming the burden of the Starscourge corrupted the Chosen’s body, causing the Crystal to deny his ascendance to the throne. Ardyn’s impurities grant him eternal life, which he spends plotting his revenge upon the blood royal and the True King.”

So, apparently he was called a Chosen. Not just born to rule, Chosen. But here’s the question: chosen by who or what? We have no indication of that here. And interestingly, this is the only time in the archives (and in the game as a whole if memory serves, outside of Ardyn’s own, self-absorbed, entitled dialogue) that he’s ever called a ‘chosen’. So chances are it’s not the same kind of ‘being chosen’ as Noctis and other languages confirm this.

FR ”Ardyn should have once become the very first King of Lucis. He was a good, altruistic man whose organism was capable of absorbing the parasites which were the origins of the Ill of the planet [=Starscourge] and the daemons, which allowed him to save countless lives, but also to gain immortality. Unfortunately, his defiled body was rejected by the Crystal and Ardyn was stripped of his royal status, banished and removed from history. Thus, he did everything to take vengeance on his family, casting the entire world into darkness and ensuring that Noctis would obtain the power of the Crystal in order to eliminate him as the king of light.”

“This man should have been the first King of Lucis. The Crystal refused him this privilege after Ardyn was tainted by the Ill of the Planet. This change, however, granted him eternal life. An unlimited amount of time which he uses to construct his machiavellian revenge against the genuine royal family.”

(For those who don’t know, as I had to look it up myself: ‘machiavellian’ means ‘cunning, scheming, and unscrupulous, especially in politics’)

FR - Original “Ardyn aurait dû devenir autrefois le tout premier Roi de Lucis. C’était un homme bon et altruiste don’t l’organisme était capable d’absorber les parasites à l’origine du Mal de la planète et des daemons, ce qui lui a permis de sauver d’innombrables vies, mais aussi d’acquérir l’immortalité. Malheureusement, son corps souillé a été rejeté par le cristal, et Ardyn a été dépouillé de sa royauté, banni, et effacé de l’Histoire. Il a alors tout mis en œuvre pour se venger de sa famille, plongeant le monde entier dans les ténèbres et faisant en sorte que Noctis obtienne le pouvoir du cristal dans le but de l’éliminer en tant que roi de la lumière.”

“Cet homme aurait dû être le premier roi de Lucis. Le cristal lui a refusé ce privilège après qu’Ardyn ait été corrompu par le Mal de la planète. Cette altération lui a néanmoins offert la vie éternelle. Une durée illimitée qu’il utilise pour échafauder sa machiavélique vengeance contre la véritable famille royale.”

DE “As the first born of the Izunia family, which was once chosen as the line of Lucis Caelum due to its special abilities, he should have become the first King to protect the Crystal. Yet he used his powers to cure the people afflicted by the Astral Plague [=Starscourge] by absorbing the parasites of darkness into himself. As a result, he was rejected by the Crystal, attacked by his brother and ultimately banned into exile. Since then, the darkness has taken hold of him more and more and the hatred towards the Crystal and the line of kings is his only motivator. His true objective is to eliminate the chosen king after the powers of the Crystal and his ancestors were combined within him.”

“Ardyn was chosen to become the first King of Lucis, but the Crystal denied him this honor after he came in contact with Scourge-infected cells. Having become immortal through the absorption of the Scourge-infected cells, Ardyn’s hatred towards the royal family continued to grow. His deepest desire to one day take his revenge on the Chosen King.”

(Translation note: ‘Scourge-infected cells’ is the translation I decided to use for ‘Siecherzellen’, which is a combined word of ‘siech’ and ‘Zellen’, the latter meaning ‘cells’. ‘Siech’ is a formal and slightly archaic word that implies ‘long-time sick and weak (from age), without any serious hope of recovery’, and can be translated as ‘infirm’, but I decided to go with a less literal translation due to context.)

DE - Original “Als Erstgeborener der Familie Izunia, die einst für ihre besondere Fähigkeiten zur Linie der Lucis Caelums erwählt wurde, hätte er der erste König zum Schutze des Kristalls werden sollen. Doch er nutzte seine Kräfte, um die von der Astralplage befallenen Menschen zu heilen, indem er die Parasiten der Finsternis selbst in sich aufnahm. Daraufhin wurde er vom Kristall verstoßen, von seinem Bruder angegriffen und schließlich ins Exil verbannt. Seitdem hat die Dunkelheit immer mehr besitz von ihm ergriffen und der Hass auf den Kristall und die Linie der Könige ist sein einziger Antrieb. Sein wahres Ziel ist es, den erwählten König zu vernichten, nachdem dieser die Macht des Kristalls und seiner Ahnen in sich vereint hat.”

“Ardyn war dazu auserkoren, der erste König von Lucis zu werden, doch nachdem er in Berührung mit Siecherzellen gekommen war, wurde ihm diese Ehre vom Kristall verwehrt. Durch die Aufnahme der Siecherzellen unsterblich geworden, wuchs Ardyns Hass gegen das Königsgeschlecht weiter. Es ist sein innigster Wunsch, sich eines Tages am erwählten König zu rächen.”)

ES “Ardyn was born to rule over Lucis as its original and founder King, but destiny had other plans for him. He received a holy power that permitted him to heal victims of the Scourge, the calamity of the stars, and travelled over all Eos to purge the sickened of their maladies and to absorb the plague into his body, infecting himself. When he finally presented himself to the crystal to receive its gifts, he was repudiated without expecting it due to having impurities in his heart. He was exiled and scorned by those that adored him before, and even his own family turned their backs to him. Ardyn's objective is to unload his ire against the heirs of Lucis and especially to obtain his revenge against the 'throned one', favoured by the crystal: Noctis Lucis Caelum.”

“His destiny was to become the Founder King of Lucis and the Chosen of the Crystal, but his dirty soul was repudiated by it and he never was able to become a monarch. He turned immortal after assimilating the Scourge and his objective is to defeat the 'throned one' for the Crystal to suffocate the hate he has accumulated.”

ES - Original “Ardyn nació para reinar sobre Lucis como rey primigenio y fundador, pero el destino tenía otros planes guardados para él. Recibió un poder bendito con el que podía curar a las víctimas de la estepatía, la calamidad de las estrellas, y viajó por todo Eos para purgar a los aquejados de sus males y absorber la plaga contagiándosela a sí mismo. Cuando finalmente se presentó ante la Santálita para recibir sus dones, fue repudiado ante todo pronóstico pues albergaba impureza en su corazón. Fue desterrado al exilio y menospreciado por aquellos que en su momento le adoraban y hasta su propia familia le dio la espalda. Su objetivo es descargar su ira contra los herederos de Lucis, y en particular, vengarse del Entronado, favorecido por el Cristal: Noctis Lucis Caelum.”

“En su destino estaba ser el rey fundador de Lucis y el elegido por la Santálita, pero su sucia alma fue repudiada por esta y jamás consiguió convertirse en monarca. Se volvió inmortal tras asimilar la estepatía y para sofocar el odio acumulado se dispone a derrotar al Entronado por el Cristal.”

Notable differences and similarities between the versions:

English and Spanish are the only versions to claim Ardyn’s healing powers were in any way related to the gods (being ‘divine’, or that he was ‘blessed’). The other versions acknowledge his abilities, but don’t provide any sort of insight of where they came from. They’re just there, his, and that’s it.

German is the only version to claim the Izunia family was chosen as the ‘Lucis Caelum line’ due to the abilities people of the family had long before Ardyn was appointed King.

All versions agree Ardyn was meant to be the Founder King, but German alone directly states he’d be ‘the first king to protect the Crystal’.

Spanish is the only version that outright states Ardyn was the Crystal’s chosen. He’s not deemed chosen by the Crystal in any other version. Though he’s said to have been ‘chosen’ in English, it’s never stated it was the Crystal that did the choosing.

French is the only entry to claim Ardyn was actually removed from history, or that he was a ‘good and altruistic’ man.

German, English and Spanish all insist on the fact that Ardyn was born with the right to the throne.

All versions agree Ardyn was rejected by the Crystal due to being defiled by the Scourge. Spanish and English further insist on an impurity of heart (and soul in ES), but also present the whole rejection as a matter of ‘fate’ or ‘destiny’. Meanwhile, the German phrasing paints Ardyn’s journeys to save the people as something he was not supposed to do, something he did instead of the job assigned to him, i.e. being King. EN phrasing, on the other hand, seems to try to imply that Ardyn healing the sick should have made the Crystal accept him, yet instead it rejected him for his ‘impure heart’. French insists on how his actions saved innumerable lives and paints his rejection as something of an ‘unfortunate circumstance’ or a ‘regrettable turn of events’ more than anything else.

So, looking at all this, we have a pretty strong case for two facts being certain facts: that Ardyn’s ascension to the throne was his birthright and that the main reason for the Crystal rejecting him was the Scourge. The question of him being ‘chosen’ is harder to answer with just this, considering the inconsistencies between the different versions, and sometimes even within one localization (looking at you, EN). However, it seems safe to assume that even if he had been chosen, it was not by the Crystal. So that begs the question of who or what could have possibly chosen him, and for what exactly if he was already meant to be King by birthright and blood line?

Well, there’s this particular detail in the German version stating Ardyn would be ‘the first King to safeguard the Crystal’. We also know the Astrals expected the Lucis Caelum line to safeguard the Crystal. It was basically their calling. Does that mean Ardyn was the one bequeathed the Crystal by the Astrals? This seems to be the general (fan) consensus; or at least that Bahamut bequeathed the Crystal onto the Lucis Caelum line in the time of Somnus and Ardyn and that they didn’t have it before. This fact is contradicted by EPAP, but we’ve already established that EPAP is not part of the canon continuity, so we can disregard that little issue.

However, the fact that this same version of the entry also states the Izunia family had been chosen to be the Lucis Caelums before would contradict that assumption better than EPAP anyway. Because the Lucis Caelum line was founded when Bahamut gave them the Crystal and the Ring, officially making them royals and naming them Kings. Right? And yet Ardyn is the ‘first King to protect the Crystal’? When the title of ‘Lucis Caelum’ had already been bequeathed? Something seems fishy here. Let’s take a look at the Cosmogony.

II) The Crystal and The Ring of the Lucii

(All translated entries are immediately followed by their original texts from here on out.)

Cosmogony entry - The Crystal.

EN “There once lived a man, born mortal, but blessed with powers divine. Conjuring a collection of glaives, he dispelled the darkness plaguing our star. As a reward for his efforts, the gods granted him a holy stone - the Crystal, which he was to guard at all costs. For it would one day choose a King to see us through the coming disaster and lead us to salvation.”

FR “There was once a man with extraordinary powers. He could use multiple arms with ease and he fought the darkness that threatened to swallow the planet. Impressed by his bravery, the Six presented him with a holy stone and ordered him to protect it, for it was destined to choose the King who would save the world.”

“Il y avait autrefois un homme au pouvoir extraordinaires. Il pouvait utiliser plusieurs armes avec aisance et il combattit les ténèbres qui menacèrent d’engloutir la planète. Impressionnés par sa vaillance, les Six lui remirent une pierre sacré et lui ordonnèrent de la protéger, car elle était destinée à choisir le Roi qui sauverait le monde.”

DE “Even among mortals, there was one who had great powers. With his powerful blades, he stood against the darkness. One day, the Six entrusted him with a Crystal to protect. In the time of the greatest plight, they said, it would choose a King who would save mankind.”

“Auch unter den Sterblichen gab es einen, der über große Kräfte verfügte. Mit seinen mächtigen Klingen stellte er sich der Dunkelheit entgegen. Eines Tages vermachten die göttlichen Sechs ihm einen Kristall zum Schutze. In größter Not, so sagten sie, würde dieser einen König erwählen, den Menschen Rettung zu bringen.”

ES “A long time ago, there was a man that, even having mortal blood, was blessed with divine powers. He wielded weapons that he summoned from nothing with the power of his will, and with them he banished the darkness of our world. He received a holy/blessed Crystal from the Astrals, and also the duty of safekeeping it at any price, since it would choose the 'throned one', who would grant the world its salvation.”

“Érase una vez un hombre que, a pesar de tener sangre mortal, fue bendecido con sus poderes divinos. Blandió armas que conjuraba de la nada según su voluntad y con ellas desterró la oscura calígine de nuestro mundo. Recibió de los Sidéreos un cristal sagrado, la Santálita, y el cometido de velarlo a cualquier precio, pues su gracia habría de elegir al Entronado por cuya mano alcanzaría el mundo la salvación.”

It is interesting to note that only EN and ES mention the powers that were ‘divine’ in nature or say that he could conjure blades from nothing. DE and FR meanwhile merely state the man had extraordinary prowess, particularly in combat. Furthermore, what made the Astrals bestow the Crystal on him weren’t those same powers, but merely his bravery and the fact that he fought back the darkness - likely referencing the Scourge. That said, there’s no mention of any ability to heal, which would be the most obvious indicator that the man was, indeed, Ardyn. It might be. But it might also be Somnus… or an ancestor of theirs.

Furthermore, there’s an important detail to note that coincides across all versions - namely that the only mention of a ‘King’ of any kind in this entry is the allusion of the Chosen King who will be chosen by the Crystal and save Eos. The man who was entrusted the Crystal’s protection was not named King. He was merely the protector of the Crystal. This would mean that when the Izunia family was granted the Crystal and the name/title Lucis Caelum by the Astrals, they were merely chosen as protectors of the Crystal, nothing more. Moving on…

Cosmogony entry - The Ring

EN “Before falling into eternal slumber, the Six bequeathed unto man one last treasure: a ring. Yet who among us was fit to possess this gift of the Gods? After some time, the ring was transferred to the hands of a man blessed with powers divine, ultimately developing the mark of one fit to rule.”

FR “Before falling into a long sleep, the Six offered mortals a ring. These mortals then decided that it should belong to the one among them who had the greatest powers. And thus the ring became the symbol of rightful kings.”

“Avant de sombrer dans un long sommeil, les Six offrent un anneau aux mortels. Ces derniers décidèrent qu’il devait revenir à celui qui, parmi eux, possédait le plus grand pouvoir. C’est ainsi que l’anneau devint le symbole des rois légitimes.”

DE “Before the Six fell back into their slumber, they left mankind a ring with magical powers. Only the most worthy would be capable of wearing it, or so it was said. And so, as the years passed, the ring became the symbol of Kings.”

“Bevor die Sechs zurück in ihrem Schlummer fielen, hinterließen sie den Menschen einen Ring mit magischen Kräften. Nur der Würdigste wäre in der Lage ihn zu tragen, so hieß es. Und so wurde der Ring mit den Jahren zum Zeichen der Könige.”

ES “Before succumbing to their long sleep, the astrals left behind a ring. This ring, being a boon for humanity granted by the gods, would only be wielded by one worthy of the astrals. This ring, the ring of light, would then become a symbol and the proof of the true king.”

“Antes de sucumbir a su largo sueño, los Sidéreos dejaron tras de sí un anillo. Al ser un don otorgado a la humanidad por los dioses, solo aquel que fuera digno de los Sidéreos habría de portarlo. Se convirtió así este anillo, el Sello de la Luz, en símbolo y fe del verdadero rey.”

Huh, would you look at that. This actually answers a lot, doesn’t it. We have our mentions of Kings and people being chosen to be kings - namely those who were ‘worthy’ or ‘the most powerful’ (depending on the version). ES is the only one that’s more specific than the others by saying the Ring became the symbol of the ‘true king’. Meanwhile, EN is the only version that mentions the ring ending up in the hands of a ‘man with powers divine’ similar to the entry about the Crystal. Furthermore, the Astrals gave that ring ‘before falling into slumber’ (or ‘back into it’ in DE), which would mean this happened (right) after the Astral war.

This is further enforced in Bahamut’s bestiary entry.

EN “God of War. The Draconian’s bonds to the Lucii run deepest among the Six. At the end of the Astral War, when Ifrit had fallen and civilization lay in ruins, the Bladekeeper alone held vigil awaiting the coming of the Chosen King, while the other gods lay dormant.”

FR “God of War. The Draconian is the most attached to the future of Lucis. At the end of the Astral War, when Ifrit had disappeared and civilization lay in ruins, Bahamut remained, alone, waiting patiently for the arrival of the Chosen King.”

“Dieu de la Guerre. Le Draconéen est la divinité la plus attaché au devenir du Lucis. A la fin de la guerre divine, alors qu’Ifrit avait disparu et la civilization était en ruine, Bahamut est resté, seul, à attendre patiemment l’arrivé du roi élu.”

DE “The God of Swords. Once he watched over Eos as part of the Six. He shares a particularly close relation to the Kings of Lucis. He was the only deity who didn’t fall into slumber after the Astral War and the destruction of Ifrit. He waited patiently for the birth of the Chosen King, whom he intends to help with the fulfillment of his destiny.”

“Gott der Schwerter. Einst wachte er als Teil der göttlichen Sechs über Eos. Zu den Königen von Lucis eint ihn eine besonders enge Verbindung. Er was die einzige Gottheit, die nach dem Astralkrieg und der Vernichtung Ifrits nicht in Schlaf verfiel. Geduldig harrte er der Geburt des erwählten Königs, dem er bei der Erfüllung seines Schicksals zu helfen bedenkt.”

ES “The Astral of Steel, one of the Six that sustain Eos since time immemorial. It is said that he's the Astral that keeps a closer relation with the House of Lucis. After the fall of Ifrit and the loss of the ancient civilization in the Astral War, he was the only Astral to not succumb to sleep. He awaited the awakening of the 'throned one' (chosen one) and the fulfilment of his mission.”

“El Sidéreo del Acero, uno de los seis pilares que sostienen Eos desde tiempos inmemoriales. Se dice que es el Sidéreo que guarda una relación mas estrecha con la Casa de Lucis. Tras la caída de Ifrit y la pérdida de la civilización antigua con la Guerra Infausta, fue el único de los Sidéreos que no se entregó al sueño. Aguarda el despertar del Entronado y el cumplimiento de su misión.”

These entries, across all here compared versions, not only name-drop the Astral War, but also all agree on the fact that Bahamut ‘patiently waited for the arrival of the Chosen King’. Meaning that by the time of the Astral War, the prophecy was something he knew well and it was likely the same for humanity as a whole. This would only be possible if the Crystal, and the seeds sowing the knowledge of the prophecy shown in the Cosmogony entry about the Crystal, had already been entrusted to the line of Lucis Caelum/Izunia. Had Bahamut still needed to entrust the Crystal to someone and sow those seeds, I believe he wouldn’t have been said to have just ‘waited’, but that he ‘ensured humanity knew of the prophecy’ or something of that nature. Generally speaking, if the Crystal wasn’t yet in the possession of humans at this time, his entry would at least imply a more active involvement than just ‘patiently waiting.’

Furthermore, this entry confirms beyond the shadow of a doubt that the Astrals fell into their slumber right after the Astral War and, as far as we know, they never woke from it until the events of the game. This is yet another indication that they had to have given their ‘chosen protector’ the Crystal before that war. Finally, it’s important to note that the ring wasn’t given to any specific human in any version of the Cosmogony entries reviewed here, but on humankind as a whole and it was humans who decided who should get it and eventually made the ring into a symbol of a ‘rightful king’ or a ‘royal line’.

The only real discrepancy here is the one over a ‘man (blessed) with powers divine’ (which makes it sound like the powers of the line of Lucis Caelums were god-given) in EN and ES, while said man is only said to have ‘extraordinary power’ without any connections to the Astrals in FR and DE.

For this last one, there’s this interesting entry we can look at in the game’s lore guide:

Magic of the Lucii (I + II)

EN “The Crystal is the divine cornerstone of the Kingdom of Lucis. The stone has a will of its own and channels its power through the Ring of the Lucii to the monarch who bears it. Monarchs of the Line of Lucis have the innate ability to conjure magical weapons. A handful of close attendants is also afforded this self-same power.”

FR “The Kingdom of Lucis possesses a sacred rock with mystical powers called the Crystal. Only the King who has the Ring of the Lucii at his disposal can borrow the might of the Crystal. The members of the royal family inherit a power which allows them to summon weapons. The King may also lend this power to a small part of his closest followers.”

“Le royaume de Lucis possède une pierre sacrée aux pouvoirs mystiques appelée le cristal. Seul le Roi doté de l’anneau de Lucis peut emprunter la force du cristal. Les membres de la famille royale héritent d’un pouvoir qui leur permet d’invoquer des armes. Le roi peut également prêter ce pouvoir à une petite partie de ses suivants les plus proches.”

DE “The House of Lucis protects the sacred Crystal of Eos. Only the King with the Ring of the Lucii may cast spells which are superior to any weapon. The members of the royal family are capable of summoning weapons thanks to the magic of the Crystal. They may even share these powers with their closest confidants.”

“Das Haus von Lucis bewacht das heilige Kristall von Eos. Nur der König vermag, mit dem Ring der Lucis, Zauber zu entfesseln, die jeder Waffe überlegen sind. Die Mitglieder der Königsfamilie sind dank der Magie des Kristalls dazu in der Lage, Waffen zu beschwören. Diese Kräfte können sie sogar mit ihren engsten Vertrauten teilen.”

ES “Every descendant of the Lords of Lucis, the glorious kings of yore, inherits the power to use the armiger, the weapons arsenal that their royal ancestors used while alive. Moreover, with the ring of light, a ring where the souls of said ancestors live, they are able to release demolishing arcane spells. The kingdom of lucis holds the Crystal, the only blessed Crystal in all Eos. Only its Kings receive the gift and the power of the holy Crystal, because only if they're deemed worthy can they wield the ring of light, that acts like a channel for the mystical power of the crystal”

“Todo descendiente de los Señores de Lucis, los gloriosos reyes de antaño, hereda el poder de manejar a voluntad el Coro espectral, el arsenal de armas que blandieron en vida sus ancestros reales. Además, cuentan con el Sello de la Luz, un anillo donde moran las almas de estos antepasados, capaz de liberar conjuros arcanos demoledores. El Reino de Lucis hospeda la Santálita, el único cristal sagrado de Eos. Solo sus reyes reciben la bendición y el poder del venerado Cristal, pues solo si son dignos pueden portar el Sello de la Luz, que actúa como canalizador del poder místico de la Santálita.”

So… virtually all versions except German agree that the power to invoke weapons, the armiger, is not connected to the Crystal. It’s an innate power of the Lucis Caelums, something they’ve always had, independently of the Crystal. This makes sense considering the earlier quoted Cosmogony entries also hardly make any actual connection between these powers and the Astrals. In fact, it’s possible that even in the versions where the powers of the Lucis Caelums are called ‘divine’, it’s meant more as ‘god-like’, rather than ‘god-given’. By contrast, in a different entry of the lore guide (not quoted here), the Oracle’s powers to heal are outright stated to have been granted to her line by the Astrals.

Taken together, these excerpts would then constitute the following sequence of events:

In antiquity, the time of Solheim, a darkness surges and a man with extraordinary (god-like) powers drives it back. Impressed by his deeds, the Six entrust him with the protection of the Crystal and sow the seeds of the prophecy of the Chosen King. The line of Lucis Caelum is founded from the Izunia family.

At the end of the Astral War, the Six give the surviving humanity the Ring before falling asleep. Humans then decide only the most powerful and/or worthy of them should have the right to wear it and use its power. In time, the ring ends up in the hands of the Izunia family/Lucis Caelum line. As time passes, humans begin to associate the Ring with the symbol of ‘rightful kings’.

In the time of Ardyn and Somnus, the Izunia family/Lucis Caelum line is well established and knows its god-given duties well. As the first born, Ardyn is meant to be the next in line to protect the Crystal, which is known (by Ardyn and his family, not necessarily the rest of the world) to one day choose a King who will save the world. He’s also likely to inherit/obtain the Ring, which by then has gained the ‘Symbol of Kings’ moniker. Hence, Ardyn is expected to take the throne and become the very first King of Lucis. It is his birthright as much as he’s chosen for it. But he’s chosen not by the Astrals or the Crystal, but by humanity, by his fellow man, who were the ones to make the Ring into a symbol of kings in the first place.

The Scourge grows into a pandemic. People are dying. There is no cure. It is, it would seem, the time of ‘greatest need/plight’. People need a savior and the Crystal is destined to appoint that savior, the Chosen King. Ardyn already has been chosen to be king, though before sitting the throne, he goes out into the world and tries to heal as many as he can with his exceptional healing ability (not given to him by the Astrals as far as we can tell). In that situation, being put in the position of becoming the first King of Lucis and having proven himself capable and willing to save the people and fight back the Scourge, Ardyn grows to believe he’s not meant to be just the Founder King, but the Chosen King. So he goes to the Crystal he’s meant to protect to get the confirmation of that, because surely there is no one else… and is subsequently rejected due to being defiled by the very blight he was curing others from.

And this basically sums up what the Cosmogony and Ardyn’s archive entries would allow us to put together about his backstory. We could stop here. It shows what happened pretty well already, right?

Well, sorta, but there’s still the question of what happened after Ardyn was rejected. We know he was banished by Somnus and Somnus took his place, but exactly what led to it? Just his rejection? Somnus being an opportunistic, jealous ass and wanting the throne for himself? Or maybe was there something more? And how can I so easily assume that Ardyn being chosen as King by his people got to his head like that?

Well… let’s look at a couple more entries, shall we? Try to get a bit more context, particularly since the aforementioned possible sequence of events implies not one, but two resurgences of ‘darkness’ (which may or may not be the Scourge in both cases) before the events of the game.

III) Astral War, Scourge and Somnus’s Deeds

So, it’s a well established fact in the FFXV lore that the Astral War was the main reason Solheim fell and that it began because the people of Solheim rose up against Ifrit, who then wanted to destroy them (and Eos as a whole) and the other Astrals stepped in. So why bring this up? It’s not exactly a point of contention.

Well, this might not be, but there’s an interesting tidbit in Ifrit’s bestiary entry that I believe warrants being taken into account.

EN “God of Fire. It was the Infernian who bestowed the gift of fire on man in antiquity. He reigned over the ancient kingdom of Solheim until his once-loyal subjects turned against him. The Pyreburner then waged the Astral War that would quench his own life’s flame until his own daemonic resurrection by means of the Scourge.”

FR “God of Fire. It was thanks to the gift of the Scorcher that humans today have mastery of this element. Ifrit reigned over the ancient Kingdom of Solheim until his subjects rebelled against him. This revolt would set off the Godly War, which would end with the destruction of the Scorcher. It’s the Ill of the Planet that provoked the infernal resurrection of this deity.”

“Dieu du Feu. C’était grâce au don du Calcinateur que les hommes aujourd’hui ont la maîtrise de cet élément. Ifrit a régné sur l’ancestral royaume de Solheim jusqu’à ce que ses sujets se rebellent contre lui. Cette révolte déclencha la Guerre divine, qui se termina par la destruction du Calcinateur. C’est le Mal de la planète qui a provoqué l’infernale résurrection de cette divinité.”

DE “God of Fire. He once watched over Eos as part of the Six. He loved humans and stirred up their thirst for knowledge. In this way, he helped the civilization of Solheim to bloom as its King. But drunk on their power, the humans turned against the Gods. In the Astral War which broke out as a result, Ifrit was defeated and later infected with the Scourge parasite. He’s endured being devoured by the darkness ever since, not just on the outside, but on the inside as well.”

“Gott des Feuers. Einst wachte er als Teil der göttlichen Sechs über Eos. Er liebte die Menschen und schürte ihnen Wissensdurst. Auf diese Weise verhalf er der Zivilisation Solheim als ihr König zu großer Blüte. Doch trunken von ihrer Macht wandten sich die Menschen gegen die Götter. Im daraufhin entflammenden Astralkrieg wurde Ifrit bezwungen und später mit dem Siecher-Parasit infiziert. Nicht nur äußerlich, sondern auch innerlich, ist er seitdem von der Dunkelheit zerfressen.”

ES “The Astral of fire, one of the six pillars that sustain Eos since time immemorial. He gave the secret of fire away and was king of the ancient civilization of Solheim. He fell after the astral war and after being infected by the scourge, he came back to life in a state similar to daemons. Not only his body, but also his soul lies in the claws of darkness.”

“El Sidéreo de Fuego, uno de los seis pilares que sostienen Eos desde tiempos inmemoriales. Entregó el secreto del fuego y se convirtió en el rey de la civilización antigua, Solheim. Cayó tras la Guerra Infausta y tras padecer la estepatía, volvió a la vida en un estado cercano al de los cadentes. No solo su cuerpo, también su alma padece en garras de la oscuridad.”

All of these versions agree on a very important detail, namely that Solheim’s King was Ifrit himself. Not a human. Ifrit. A literal deity. And then the Astral War happened and civilization was virtually destroyed (see Bahamut’s entries quoted above). After a calamity like that, how long would it take humanity to recover enough to move past living in a tribal-like setting? How long until there were cities again and culture and a civilization that demanded a structure like a monarchy or something similar? Humanity was basically set all the way back to the beginning and had to start from scratch. Obviously, that would take time.

And then in Ardyn’s time, he’s chosen to be King. The first King of Lucis, yes… but possibly also the first human King in general. Because the only other King known to man before had been Ifrit, a deity. Please show me a man who wouldn’t get a bit of a big head when he was suddenly granted this kind of privilege. It’s not too hard to imagine it inflated his sense of entitlement from there and, since he was to be the first human King and that he had the power to save people from the Scourge, that he was the prophesied Chosen King who would save the world. And the Chosen King was to be anointed by the Crystal, which Ardyn was meant to be the next protector of, so that would track, too, if one assumed the Chosen King had to be from the line already tasked with protecting the Crystal; which, for the record, has never been said in the prophecy at all. It’s a detail that is entirely a human construct, born from the fact that the Crystal that shall choose the Chosen King and the Ring meant to be worn by the worthy both ended up, independently, in the possession of one and the same family line and that the Ring had been made by the humans to a ‘Symbol of rightful Kings’.

So of course, Ardyn would then go to the Crystal, so the obvious would be proven correct. Except he was wrong and he was rejected. From the beginning, it was all in his head. He was chosen to be the first king by his people, yes, but he was never the Chosen King of prophecy.

So… where is Somnus in all this? How did Ardyn being rejected due to his own delusions of grandeur lead to Somnus attacking and exiling him to become King instead? At first glance, it would seem there’s absolutely no way to find out in the game. Even the bestiary entry of the Mystic doesn’t touch that issue with a ten foot pole. All it mentions, across most versions, is what we already know: that Somnus became Founder King, lead Lucis to prosperity and unity for all except his elder brother, who was cast into exile. So that doesn’t give us any answers because, so far, Ardyn’s actions (that we can guess from the provided material) don’t seem to constitute any reason to go quite that far. Yes, he had delusions of grandeur, he made a mistake, but he was put in his place and told, under no uncertain terms, that being infected with the Scourge is not a good thing. Why would that warrant being attacked and ultimately exiled?

Well, to answer that, we might have to look at one of the most confusing Cosmogony entries: 15:2 Nadir. Here we go.

EN “O’er rotted soil, under blighted sky, A wicked plague the Wicked has wrought. In the light of the Gods, Sword-sworn at his side, ‘Gainst the dark the King’s battle is fought. From the Heavens’ high, to the blessed Below, Shines the beam of peace long besought. ‘Long live thy Line and this Stone divine, For the Night when all comes to Naught.”

So, at first glance, this seems rather unrelated, doesn’t it. It seems more an extract of prophecy, specifically the prophecy of the Chosen King, something that lies in the future from the perspective of whoever wrote this. The ‘plague wrought by the Wicked’ is the Scourge and how Ardyn unleashed it on Eos, the ‘King with the Gods Sword-sworn at his side’ would be the Chosen King, he fights against the Dark, he’ll bring ‘long besought peace’, there’s mention of a ‘Night when all comes to Naught’, which likely means the eternal night Ardyn brought about... all of this fits what we saw in the World of Ruin and the end of the game in general.

Except… no other version agrees.

FR “Evil corrupts the air and ravages the land. At the side of the Gods, a king and his knight fight bravely. Blessed by godly light, they push back the darkness. Mortals pray for durable peace. ‘Long live Your Line and the Stone divine, the only ramparts against the night to come.’”

“Le Mal corrompt l’air et ravage la terre. Aux côtés des Dieux, un roi et son chevalier combattent vaillamment. Bénis d’une lumière divine, ils repoussent les ténèbres. Les mortels prient alors pour une paix durable. ‘Longue vie à Ta Lignée et à la Pierre sacré, seul remparts contre la nuit à venir.’”

DE “And in his greed for revenge, he called forth the darkness which overran the skies and overflowed the world. But the King and the knight took up arms and pushed the darkness back. And the sky split and bathed the King in its light. ‘Protect the Crystal in the future and be armed for unspeakable pain.’”

“Und in seiner Gier nach Rache rief er die Finsternis, die da überfiel den Himmel und überflutete die Welt. Doch König und Ritter ergriffen die Schwerter und trieben zurück die Dunkelheit. Und es teilte sich der Himmel und badete den König in seinem Licht. ‘Schütze fürder den Kristall und sei gewappnet für unsägliche Pein.’”

ES (note: this translation is very liberal because Yrathiel struggled with understanding the rather archaic text.)

“coming from the scourge, of vile origins. decimated the earth, heaven all discolored. saviours/servants around and under the shine of the astrals. something about a gift of makers to kings. Then it would become an union long awaited. worthy ones take your scared stones and wait, because hell will open.”

“Venidos los Óprobos, de vitanda plaga orígenes. Inferaz la tierra, macilento doquier el etéreo. Servadores en torno y so fulgor de los Sidéreos, cierra a aceros el Entronado con hórrida calígine. Agraciose corusco don de Hacedores a Regentes. Así otrora deviniere en concordia largo anhelada. 'Valedores sed para aquestas piedras sagradas. Y Guardaos, pues el báratro se abrirá indolente'.”

Furthermore, there’s something interesting to note about the title of this entry. In FR, there isn’t one, it’s just ‘Cosmogony 15:2’. In DE, it’s completely different: ‘Of Gods and Kings’. And in EN, it’s ‘Nadir’, which means ‘the worst moment, or the moment of least hope and least achievement’ or ‘the point at which something is at its lowest value or level’. For something that, at first glance, speaks of the prophesied coming of the Chosen King who will save the world, these titles seem a bit weird. Which is why, setting aside the ES version for the simple fact that I didn’t get a proper translation (if anyone else can manage a better one, I’m all ears) there’s only one conclusion I can come to: that this isn’t really about Noct or the Chosen King. It doesn’t seem to be in at least half the versions. In fact, ES is the only version to name drop ‘the enthroned one’ (Chosen King), as you can check in the original text (‘Eltronado’ would be the word you’re looking for). All the others just mention a king and FR and DE even agree it’s ‘a king and his knight’. So two people. Now who does this sound like?

Somnus and Gilgamesh. Gilgamesh who was a knight and meant to be the first Shield of the King, but in Episode Gladiolus reveals he betrayed said king or something along those lines. However, we know Somnus still ruled just fine. So the question is, did Gilgamesh mean he betrayed Somnus at a later date… or that he betrayed Ardyn after the Crystal rejected him? If it’s the latter, why would he? What’s in it for him if Somnus exiles and/or kills his elder brother and ascends the throne? He would still be Shield to the King as far as we know. Why side with Somnus and not Ardyn if it’s all about Somnus being an opportunistic asshole who pounces the moment his brother is rejected by the Crystal for seemingly no reason?

Let’s take a closer look at all those versions (again, mostly excluding ES because of translation issues). All of them refer in some way to a plague - the Scourge. FR leaves it vague. EN and DE call out Ardyn for being the cause more or less directly. EN and FR then proceed to mention a king (and his knight in FR) who fought back, with the help of the Astrals (EN) or their godly light (FR). DE leaves the gods and their light out entirely here and only says a king and his knight fought back. The ‘divine light’ in this version comes from the sky after the battle, as it does in EN. Then it mentions the people praying for ‘lasting peace’. And finally, the quote, which seems to come from the skies in all versions, i.e. possibly from the Astrals themselves. And in all versions, it amounts to a hope that the king’s line will continue and he’ll safeguard the stone until ‘The Night’ comes.

The Night would have to be the eternal night, which the Chosen King shall end. But it’s only really alluded to as such at the very end of the entry/poem. Not to mention that the Chosen King, as we know, is meant to die, so why would anyone wish him or his line a long life after the fact? Or the Crystal, for that matter, which sheds all its light on the Chosen King and thus basically ceases to exist as the ‘sacred Stone’ it used to be and is just an empty rock? This does not make sense.

So… what’s this plague stuff and apocalyptic imagery, really?

Well, we know the Scourge was on the rise in Ardyn’s and Somnus’s time. Whether you consider EPA and EPAP legit sources of lore (I don’t) or not, the fact remains that the Founder King lived in a time when the Scourge ran rampant and part of his job was to push it back.

Funny that. If you recall ‘The Crystal’ entry of the Cosmogony, there’s clear allusions to a ‘surging darkness being fought back’ there, too. It’s almost as if the Scourge was a recurring problem… which, in all honesty, it probably is, hence why ‘the people pray for lasting peace’. The Darkness had surged and been fought back before. It’s a recurring problem and even if the humans alive in Somnus’s and Ardyn’s time didn’t live through any previous surging of it, they might have known from history that it’s a recurring issue. And it’s expected to happen again, hence the need for a Chosen King.

But here’s the thing. Ardyn caused the eternal night in Noctis’s time. Why make allusions to him causing a similar disaster (or trying to) eons before? Well, the DE version of the entry would pin it all on his ‘greed for vengeance’... which is funny because it’s also the version which, in any other entries, makes sure to beat us over the head with how Ardyn (and Ifrit) are ‘ravaged by the darkness’ as if they’re not who they used to be anymore. But either way, the allusion that he called forth an apocalypse, or tried to, and was subsequently stopped by ‘a king and his knight’ would imply that this is the exact reason Somnus attacked and exiled him (or potentially tried to kill him). Ardyn believed himself a savior, but he wasn’t one. The Crystal rejected him. Considering how the mentality of entitled people with delusions of grandeur work, it wouldn’t be a stretch to assume that made Ardyn angry. We see that same anger and hatred amplified in the game, too. So it’s not so much a stretch to believe that he lashed out. (We also see this in EPAP, so it could be said to be proof… but again, I don’t consider EPAP canon, so it’s a moot point for me; still, worth noting for others, I guess.) All the Scourge he took into himself, he then used to pay back the Crystal that dared reject him, the self-proclaimed Chosen.

If this is what happened, it would also explain the title of the entry. This would be the ‘lowest point’, the ‘worst moment’ when people had the ‘least hope’. Because unlike in Noctis’s time where it may have been known Noctis is the Chosen King of the Crystal (I would find it hard to believe Gladio, Ignis and Prompto wouldn’t have spread the word as the night set in, plus in Comrades the Kingsglaive seems to await Noctis’s return for that very reason), in Ardyn’s time, it wouldn’t have been the case. Because there wouldn’t have been a Chosen King yet. There would just be Ardyn, lashing out in anger and ‘drowning the world in darkness’ if the story is meant to be taken literally, and no way of stopping him.

There’s one more problem, too. Namely, that the Lucis Caelum line was meant to protect the Crystal, not destroy it. So if the one meant to protect it went ballistic and tried to destroy it instead, who would stop him?

The one who was destined to protect the Crystal in the event that his predecessor died or otherwise became unable to. In this case, the younger brother, Somnus. So that’s what Somnus likely did, with Gilgamesh’s help. They fought back Ardyn and the darkness he wielded. This was how Somnus ‘beat back the darkness’. How he earned his spot as the Founder King in his brother’s stead. And after all was said and done, that final line of the entry seems pretty much like the Astrals (likely Bahamut given he was the only one awake at that time as far as we know) speaking to Somnus, telling him to ensure his line lived and kept protecting the Crystal, because one day, it would name a ‘Chosen King’ to end all darkness.

IV) Concluding Remarks

So, taking all of this together, here are my concluding remarks on what is, most likely, what actually happened in Ardyn’s past: his family had been chosen as the protectors of the Crystal eons ago, in the time of the Gods, and granted the title ‘Lucis Caelum’. Their Calling was well known and the line of succession of that Calling well established in a way similar to a monarchy, with the firstborn being the one to inherit the Calling. In addition, due to their innate abilities (the armiger), his family were eventually entrusted with the Ring of the Lucii. It’s even possible that it was Ardyn himself who was the first of his family to have earned it. At this point in time, the Ring would have likely already grown to be associated with ‘the right to rule’, and so when Ardyn proved himself worthy of the Ring, he was chosen by his fellow man to be the first King of Lucis and possibly the first human King in Eos’s history.

Between that and his singular ability to heal people of the Scourge, he soon grew to believe himself the prophesied savior. He was to be King, he could heal those afflicted by the Scourge, he had a connection to the Crystal which was destined to name the Chosen King. It wasn’t difficult to come to those conclusions.

Except, again, it was not the Crystal that chose Ardyn to be King. It was his fellow man, when he earned the Ring. His ‘connection’ to the Crystal was merely that of protector of the sacred Stone. So when he came to it and touched it to prove he was, indeed, the Chosen King, he was rejected due to the impurity in his heart, soul (in ES) and especially his body. Because at the end of the day, he wasn’t the Chosen King. It was all in his head.

Feeling betrayed and abandoned by the Crystal, Ardyn then lashed out and released the power of the Scourge he’d accumulated, which prompted Somnus and Gilgamesh to try to stop him. To fight him. They succeeded and Ardyn was cast into exile and stewed in his (misplaced) hatred and anger for millenia, while Somnus took on his role as the Crystal’s protector and, possibly thanks to his success in defeating Ardyn and/or beating back the Scourge later, was then chosen by his people and crowned as the Founder King in Ardyn’s stead.

This is the conclusion and the most likely backstory of Ardyn that I can put together given the information provided in the game. Thank you for reading.

#FFXV #Ardyn Izunia #Ardyn Lucis Caelum #The Crystal #Ring of the Lucii #Starscourge #Back-Story Meta #Glon's Meta Wordvomit #VERY very long post

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smorgasbordofobsessions · 3 years ago

Text

liveblog: kingsglaive final fantasy xv

some absolute king put the movie to the internet archive - thank you. of course, i hope i'm watching the right thing haha.

regis honestly just so -chefs kiss-

it's crazy how long the wall around Insomnia was up

love when the niffs fuck up a royal gathering

young ravus! love it

ravus yelling for regis to help them :(

wow this flashback is different than the one in the anime

luna's clothes are different

but the acitons are te same

so not that different

getting some lotr the two towers vibes from this battle scene and i'm here fo it

and i LOVE this dude's invisible power nice

nyx's voice sounds so familiar!

nyx: i'm worth the wait

loving him already

but i'm liking seeing the way all these warriors are interacting with each other. can definitely tell they've spent plenty of time in each other's pockets

oh the cerberus!! i really liked that entrance

oh wait, no, what fun daemon is this?????

in love with the way nyx is using the warp

now i can ask the question: where the fuck are they? clearly not in insomnia, unless this is set during noctis' rest? but it can't be since this is 12 yrs after lunafreya became a prisoner...

hm, it'll get explained to me

nyx is nothing without the king. please remember that nyx

hm, yes, we love king regis

an envoy from niflheim????

oh it's ardyn!!!!!

god, yes, yes, yes, we love ardyn

oh he's delicious i loe his grandstanding

oh he mentioned noctis, that's a no-no

oh??? ardyn proposed noctis and lunafreya to get married??

oh this is so fucking great wow thank you ardyn

hm so this one insomnia soldier doesn't like nyx, how nice

oh shit night life in insomnia??

whatever the music is is banging

i missed his name but the dude makes sense

but where did these kingsglaive soldiers come from if they're outsiders?

i love a strategic meeting

especially because of how you can see regis actually tremble from weakness

also, gotta say, it's amazing that regis has the strength to support the wall and the kingsglaive

hm regis accepted the truce

who the hell is clarus?? i know who he is, but more like where is he, so who is he in regis' little posse

commencing operation: infiltrate tenebrae

lunafreya looks GREAT

oh hello ravus

"whatt you believe does not concern me"

god, knowing what i know about ravus, it must've hurt him hearing his own sister call him a lap dog to the empire

they have cartoons????

going back a bit, wonder what was up with the van that crow saw. bit suspicious

mm what a sexy car

i fucking KNEW it was an audi

"what good will you be without the king's magic?"

oh that IS clarus okay

yo they really just came in and said "we'll take lunafreya thanks"

hm.. i have suspicious feelings about lunafreya

like maybe she's ardyn??

"my duty is my destiny, your majesty. i'm prepared to accept whatever my come to pass"

goddamn

oh so crow's defintiely dead

i keep missing his name, but this dude is so torn up over crow's death he ripped off the kingsglaive insignia

hm, so the dude is going rougue, and wow, that was overheard by three other glaives

eve of the signing ceremony...

doesn't that mean that noctis and co have left already, actually?

yes, it must, because regis wanted freya to meet noctis

so, yes, the freya in insomnia is absolutely... not ardyn

crutch dude has now joined a rebel group - i just hope he did some vetting and isn't about to talk to niffs

who is that general in the armor?? hm, interesting

oof nyx with that round bubble butt

lunafreya is missing, how nice and convenient when the treaty signing is about the happen

regis ordered the kingsglaive to go save lunafreya, nice

god, one of regis's last acts as king :(

"for hearth" "and home"

that's actually a nice call and response

god, i'd love to be a legilimens so i could read regis' thoughts. he must know what this is probably gonna be his last day on eos

the hoods are very asassin's creed and i like that inspiration

hm what fun whisper was that to the niff ambassador

oh wait that dude is the niff emperor my bad

hm, yes, we love double talk

mm sexy kills yes

god, yes, the game's afoot!

octopus in teh airship? kinky

we love traitors

oh wow the crystal has been deactivated :(

honestly though, humungous props to niflheim for diong this. like this is a BRILLIANT politcal move, it really is

yes we fucking love regis and clarus fighting together!!

"then let us once more into the fray, old friend"

WE ARE HERE FOR THAT!!!

so sad the outcome though :(

ouch, clarus!!

"we have broken the wall. all that remains is the break the city"

100% correct emperor

nyx is so exasperated by lunafreya

yeah this dude in the vest - like he thought he was gonna somehow be great under niff rule??

oh hello there ravus

ravus put on the ring and, hm, he wasn't found worhty

nyx is fighting the super souped up general

and it JUST occured to me that the reason why nyx sparks when he uses magic is because it's not his

so this is how luna got the ring okay

we love parallels

regis's last stand :(

:'(

oh so the crutch dude didn't do any vetting at all because he only found out that the other refugees were working with niflheim

slacking bro

but, now yo can do what you want and bring refugees into the city

idk why any one would that that niff would keep its word, but that's besides the point

hm, no airbags?

"true power is not something that is found by those who seek it. it is something that is found by those who deserve it."

crutch dude being called 'hero' = irony

haha this traitor put the ring on, idiot.

though lunafreya baited him a bit but i support that

wow this ring got passed around like a hot potato

I WANT TO KNOW THE CONVERSATINO IGNIS HAD WITH THE LUCII KINGS!!!!!!!

nyx has been found wothy - until dawn

crutch dude's name is libertus

libertus threw away the pills, good job!

oh ehll yea the statues are moving!! i iked seeing that in thhe game

caught way caught up in watching the movvie

i absolutely loved the fighting. all the moving parts were done amazingly well and the effects and graphics were stunning

honestly a great fight. truly enjoyed that.

though, both libertus and luna know what nys is definitely come with morning's light, it's nice of them to be optimistic

luna doesn't fit in with the other people but separate paths yes

okay nyx was aaron paul, regis was sean bean

i knew nyx's voice was familiar

what a good movie! i really enjoyed that

love that it helps flesh out what happened prior to signing day, and also showed us how good the kingsglaives are in combat

i liked that everything was so tense and there weren't too many motivations for why people turned traitor or fighting - everything came down to fighting for home (minus niff as a whole but that's an empire so given)

also, liked seeing how the ring got passed around,and seeing ravus try it on, though it was told to us in game he had

overall, good! the backstory provided was great and really does help develop the game more

#ffxv #liveblog

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darkpetal16 · 3 years ago

Note

Can’t wait until Overlord gets posted!!! I’ve only ever found one fanfic of it I’ve liked and it’s a HP crossover

Character Sheet

Name: Momonga

Title: The Strongest Magic Caster with the Appearance of a Skeleton

Level: 100

Race: Heteromorphic Race; Undead

Job: One of the Almighty 42 Supreme Beings; Ruler of the Great Tomb of Nazarick

Residence: Great Tomb of Nazarick; Room in level 9

Alignment: Extreme Evil; Sense of Justice - 500

Racial Level: Skeletal Mage lvl 15; Elder Lich lvl 10; Overlord lvl 5

Job level: Necromancer lvl 10; Ruler of Death lvl 10; Eclipse lvl 5

Creator: N/A

Personality: Cautious, loyal, avid collector.

Name: Lumière

Title: High Priestess of Light

Level: 100

Race: Heteromorphic Race; Angel

Job: One of the Almighty 42 Supreme Beings; Lady of Light

Residence: Great Tomb of Nazarick; The Hidden Tower

Alignment: Extreme Good; Sense of Justice 500

Racial Level: Angel lvl 15; Archangel lvl 10; Seraph Empyrean lvl 5

Job level: Light Priestess lvl 10; High Priestess lvl 10

Creator: N/A

Personality: Demure, loyal, romantic,

Name: Albedo

Title: Warm and Caring Devil of Pure White

Level: 100

Race: Heteromorphic Race; Succubus

Job: Great Tomb of Nazarick Overseer

Residence: Throne Hall; and a room in level 9

Alignment: Extreme Evil; Sense of Justice - 500

Racial Level: Imp lvl 10

Job level: Guardian lvl 10; Blackguard lvl 5; Unholy Knight lvl 10; Shield Lord lvl 10

Creator: Tabula Smaragdina

Personality: Loyal, yandere, extremist

Name: Jack

Title: The Smiling Ripper

Level: 100

Race: Heteromorphic Race; Undead

Job: Great Tomb of Nazarick Head Researcher

Residence: The Hidden Tower; and a room in level 9

Alignment: Extreme Evil; Sense of Justice - 500

Racial Level: Skeletal Mage lvl 15; Elder Lich lvl 10;

Job level: Necromancer lvl 10; Researcher lvl 10; Assassin lvl 10; Master Assassin lvl 5

Creator: Lucille

Personality: Loyal, yandere, cruel

Name: Aura Bella Fiora

Title: Renowned Trainer with an Indomitable Will

Level: 100

Race: Human Race; Dark Elf

Job: Great Tomb of Nazarick 6th Floor Guardian

Residence: 6th Floor Giant Tree

Alignment: Neutral ~ Evil; Sense of Justice - 100

Racial Level: N/A

Job level: Ranger lvl 5; Beast Tamer lvl 5; Shooter lvl 5; Sniper lvl 5; High Tamer lvl 10

Name: Mare Bello Fiora

Title: Unreliable Envoy of Nature

Level: 100

Race: Human Race; Dark Elf

Job: Great Tomb of Nazarick 6th Floor Guardian

Residence: 6th Floor Giant Tree

Alignment: Neutral ~ Evil; Sense of Justice - 100

Racial Level: N/A

Job level: Druid lvl 10; High Druid lvl 10; Nature’s Herald lvl 10; Disciple of Disaster lvl 5; Forest Mage lvl 10

Name: Cocytus

Title: Ruler of Glaciers

Level: 100

Race: Heteromorphic Race; Vermin Lord

Job: Great Tomb of Nazarick 6th Floor Guardian

Residence: 6th Floor Snowball Earth

Alignment: Neutral; Sense of Justice 50

Racial Level: Insect Fighter lvl 10; Vermin Lord lvl 10

Job level: Sword Saint lvl 10; Asura lvl 5; Knight of Niflheim lvl 5

Name: Demiurge

Title: Creator of the Blazing Inferno

Level: 100

Race: Heteromorphic Race; Arch-Devil

Job: Great Tomb of Nazarick 7th Floor Guardian

Residence: 7th Floor Blazing Shrine

Alignment: Extreme Evil; Sense of Justice - 500

Racial Level: Imp lvl 10; Archdevil lvl 5

Job level: Chaos lvl 10; Prince of Darkness lvl 10; Shapeshifter lvl 10

Name: Shalltear Bloodfallen

Title: The Bloody Valkyrie

Level: 100

Race: Heteromorphic Race; True Vampire

Job: Great Tomb of Nazarick 1st ~ 3rd Floor Guardian

Residence: 2nd Floor Burial Chambers

Alignment: Great ~ Extreme Evil; Sense of Justice - 450

Racial Level: Vampire lvl 10; True Vampire lvl 10

Job level: Valkyrie / Lance lvl 5; Cursed Knight lvl 5; Cleric lvl 10

Name: Pandora’s Actor

Title: Ever Changing Man Without A Face

Level: 100

Race: Heteromorphic Race; Doppelgänger

Job: Great Tomb of Nazarick Treasury Zone Guardian

Residence: Treasury Zone Manager Office

Alignment: Neutral; Sense of Justice - 50

Racial Level: Doppelgänger lvl 15; Greater Doppelgänger lvl 10

Job level: Expert lvl 10; Craftsman lvl 10; Lord of the Castle lvl 15

Name: Cheshire

Title: Cackling with Madness

Level: 100

Race: Heteromorphic Race; Fairy

Job: Hidden Tower Guardian

Residence: Hidden Tower

Alignment: Neutral; Sense of Justice - 100

Racial Level: Fairy lvl 15; Trickster lvl 10

Job level: Illusionist lvl 15; Shapeshifter lvl 10; Stalker lvl 10

Name: Victim

Title: Sacrificial Fetus

Level: 35

Race: Heteromorphic Race; Angel

Job: Great Tomb of Nazarick 8th Floor Guardian

Residence: 8th Floor Tree of Life (Sephiroth)

Alignment: Neutral; Sense of Justice 1

Racial Level: Angel lvl 10; Archangel lvl 10

Job level: Patriot lvl 1; Saint lvl 4; Martyr lvl 1

A Sneak Peek

In the year 2138 AD there was a term: DMMO-RPG. That word was an acronym for “Dive Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game”. It was a revolutionary new way to play games that used virtual reality and nano-technology. Among the myriad DMMO-RPGs that thronged the market, one of them stood head and shoulders above the others: YGGDRASIL.

That game had been painstakingly developed and released twelve years ago, in 2126.

Compared to other DMMO-RPGs of the time, YGGDRASIL’s selling point was player freedom; it had over two thousand basic and advanced job classes.

Every class had a maximum of fifteen levels, and so in order to reach the overall level cap of one hundred, one would need to take at least seven different classes. However, players could take as many classes as they wanted as long as they met each class’s prerequisites. A player could even take a hundred classes at level one each. As such, in that system, it was exceedingly difficult to make identical characters unless one was deliberately trying to do so.

One could use various creator tools (sold separately) to fully customize one’s armor, weaponry, flavor text, appearance, and other cosmetic settings. A vast playing field awaited its players. There were nine worlds in total: Asgard, Alfheim, Vanaheim, Nidavellir, Midgard, Jotunheim, Niflheim, Helheim, and Muspelheim.

In essence, YGGDRASIL boasted a massive world, numerous classes, and freely customizable appearances.

It was inevitable that it would skyrocket in popularity and infinite the muses of millions of creative players.

Of course… that was all in the past now.

A gigantic table carved of gleaming black stone sat in the center of a luxurious room, surrounded by forty two chairs. Of all of those chairs, only three were occupied.

One of the seated attendees was clothed in a magnificent black academic robe edged in violet and gold. The collar was excessively gaudy, but it still melded well with the overall design. The person’s head was exposed, revealing a bare skill. Points of dark red lights glowed in its large eye sockets. Behind that skull pulsed a halo of black radiance.

Further down the table was a being that was not human either, merely a mass of black, sticky substance. Its tar-like surface roiled and writhed continuously, never staying in shape for more than second.

At the very end was a person who at a glance could pass as human, if not for the pointed ears and wings at their back. That person wore magnificent priestess robes of silver and blue. Its halo at the back of its head illuminated its long curly white-blonde hair.

The first attendant at the table was an Overlord, the highest-ranked of an undead magic-caster. The second was an Elder Black Ooze, which boasted the most powerful corrosive ability of the slime families. The last was a Seraph Empyrean, the highest-ranked of an angel-raced healer.

One might encounter those monsters in the most difficult of dungeons in YGGDRASIL. Overlords could use powerful curses or spells of the highest tiers of magic; Elder Black Oozes were dreaded for their ability to degrade weapons and armor; and Seraph Empyreans were universally despised when found near bosses.

However, they were not game monsters, but players.

In YGGDRASIL, players could choose their character races from three broad groups: humanoid, demihuman, and heteromorphic.

Humanoids were the basic player type and comprised humans, dwarves, wood elves, and the like. Demihumans tended to be ugly, but possessed superior attributes to humanoids. Examples of demihumans were goblins, beastmen, ogres, and so on. Finally, heteromorphic races had monstrous abilities, but despite their stats being generally higher than those of other races, they also possessed various drawbacks. There were around seven hundred playable races in total, including the advanced versions of those races. Naturally, the Overlord, Seraph Empyrean, and Elder Black Ooze were among the high-tier heteromorphic races that were playable.

The Overlord—who was speaking at the moment—did not move his mouth. That was because even the most advanced DMMO-RPGs of the time still could not overcome the technological hurdle of properly modelling the changes on a character’s face in response to emotions and speech.

He spoke in a jovial tone, “It’s really been a while, Herohero. Although this is the last day of YGGDRASIL, we didn’t expect you to show up.”

The slime wobbled. “Indeed it has, Momonga.” The slime nodded in the direction of the Overlord, then at the angel who nodded back in return. “Lumière.”

“How has work been for you?” asked the angel.

The slime sighed, letting loose a small tirade of complaints. Momonga and Lumière listened patiently as their friend vented.

After about ten minutes, the torrent of words that flowed from Herohero dwindled to a trickle.

“...I’m sorry for making you listen to my whining. I can’t complain much IRL.”

“It’s really no worries,” assured Momonga. “We’re happy you were able to come by at all.”

“Ah. It was so nice to see you both after so long. I was afraid to find no one here.” Herohero’s tentacles waved at both of them. “But it is getting late… How long will you two be on?”

“Until we’re automatically logged out once the servers shut down,” answered Lumière.

“Since it’s still a ways off, we might get more visitors like you,” added Momonga.

“Ah. I hope so. I see you both have taken good care of this place.”

Momonga and Lumière did not respond, neither of them wanting to show the surge of mixed emotions Herohero’s words caused.

There were a few more parting words, but eventually, Herohero left and it was only the two remaining members once again. Momonga sighed again and Lumière spared him a glance. Their expressions could not be relayed through their avatars so she sent him a frowny face instead.

The quiet disappointment was understandable. Their guild, Ainz Ooal Gown, had slowly died out over the years as more and more members left the game. In the past two years only Momonga and Lumière regularly logged on. They had sent emails out to the other members of the guild asking for them to join them on the final day, but unfortunately only Herohero responded.

“I’m going back to the tower,” said Lumière. “Meet up later?”

“Yeah. I’ll talk to you in a bit.”

Lumière left after that point, teleporting to the Hidden Tower at the 10th floor of the Great Tomb of Nazarick.

The Great Underground Tomb of Nazarick had once been a six floor dungeon, but it had been dramatically altered after Ainz Ooal Gown took control of it. Currently, it was a ten floor dungeon, and each floor had its own unique theme. The First to Third Floors were modelled after a tomb. The Fourth Floor was an underground lake. The Fifth Floor was a frozen glacier. The Sixth Floor was a rainforest. The Seventh Floor was a sea of magma. The Eighth Floor was a wasteland. And the Ninth and Tenth Floors were the realm of the gods—in other words, the home base of Ainz Ooal Gown, which had ranked among the top ten of YGGDRASIL’s thousands of guilds. In the Tenth Floor there were a few hidden areas, although only one was regularly used—The Hidden Tower.

The entrance was hidden in the Throne Room. It was a tower built by Lumière, Blue Planet, and Amanomahitotsu as a hidden level. Not that it mattered since the only raid that came close to it was stopped in the Throne Room.

The tower had five levels, the first three dedicated as testing areas for Nazarick’s lead Researcher, Jack. The fourth floor was a luxurious library with a big fireplace, and lots of comfy spots to lounge in. At the top of the floor was Lumière’s room.

Upon entering the tower Lumière stopped before the Tower Guardian, Cheshire.

In a game like YGGDRASIL, guilds enjoyed several benefits if they possessed a guild base of castle tier or higher. The NPCs that the Great Underground Tomb of Nazarick could field were undead monsters. These automatically spawning NPCs—or “pop monsters”—had a maximum level of thirty. Even if they were destroyed, after a while they would respawn on their own, at no cost to the guild. However, players could not customize the AI and appearances of these “pop” NPCs. They were hardly useful in deterring intruders, who were universally players.

There was also another type of NPC; the ones designed from the ground up to their makers’ satisfaction. If a guild possessed a castle-grade guild base, the owning guild would be allowed nine hundred levels to be distributed between any number of NPCs they wanted.

Because the highest level in YGGDRASIL was one hundred, by those stipulations, a guild could make seven level one hundred NPCs and four level fifty NPCs, or any combination thereof.

When designing an original NPC, one could customize weaponry and other equipment in addition to clothing and appearances. As a result, one could create NPCs that were far stronger than the automatic spawns and place them in key locations. Of course, not every NPC had to be designed for battle. A certain guild which called themselves the “Kitty Kingdom” fielded no NPCs other than cats or cat-related creatures.

It was a nice guild to visit.

Cheshire was one of those specially crafted NPCs. It was a shapeshifting fairy created by Lumière. Its default form was that of a dark cat with stripes and an eerie smile that showed several rows of sharp teeth. It was heavily inspired by the Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland, albeit with a more malicious mindset. It was designed to use “illusions” to trick players when entering such as changing what they see on screen to something else, or swapping what keys did what and so on.

Cheshire always floated down to whoever entered the tower. Its default setting would be to greet whoever came. It had a special message tailored for all the Supreme Beings.

“Welcome back, Mistress!” greeted Cheshire. As Lumière was its creator, she designed it to greet her as mistress, or my dearest lady. She gave the same order to her other creation, Jack.

Jack was stationed at the first floor of the tower. He was near some desks in the lab designed to look like a mad scientist laboratory. Lumière made up his character, leaning into an assassin-lich trope. She almost went with the skeletal appearance, but Bukubukuchagama talked her out of it. Bukubukuchagama bemoaned how there were already plenty of other “scary” monsters in the guild. She tried to bribe Lumière to make Jack a genderswap like her Dark Elves, but Lumière resisted. She compromised as a bishie. Or at least as much of a bishie as an undead could get.

Not that anyone could see it since Jack wore a mask.

That way he could appear as a “scary” monster to befit the evil lab, but in actuality, he was a pretty boy underneath which satisfied Bukubukuchagama. A happy Bukubukuchagama meant free visual novels for Lumière which in turn made for a happy Lumière.

Win-win all around.

Lumière brushed past both of her creations, stepping in to the laboratory and looking around.

Well, it is the last day, she thought as she glanced over at her creations.

“Come with me,” she ordered both of them.

Neither responded, both simply stepping closer to her. Er, well, Jack stepped forward while Cheshire hovered closer. She guided them up the tower to her favorite spot in Nazarick; the cozy little library.

With a wave of her hand she turned the fire place on and took a seat on the lush, red couch in front of it. She let out a slow sigh as she stared at the flickering flames.

[23:55:48]

She hadn’t even realized so much time had passed, she had zoned out watching the flames dance. That had been happening with greater frequency the past couple of weeks. Lumière’s body in reality wasn’t in good condition. It was a struggle to even get out of bed, her lungs slowly filling with fluid each day. She’d need another draining surgery in a month.

Her fatigue caused her mind to drift away, not quite falling asleep but close to.

What will I do when they shut the game down?

It was a question that had occurred to her several times, but she never found an answer. It wasn’t that YGGDRASIL was the only game she ever played--Civilizaiton CXI and Warhammer were nice ways to pass time, but YGGDRASIL was special to her. Ainz Ooal Gown was a place she finally had proper friends.

[23:59:58, 59—]

Lumière closed her eyes. What a shame.

[0:00:00...1,2,3]

Lumière knew something was immediately wrong when the first breath she took was not one hampered. She reflexively breathed deeper and found that it did not incite a fit of coughing. Her eyes shot open and she abruptly stood up from her seat.

Even the movement came with ease.

What in the?

[0:00:38]

Lumière twisted her body one way to another, breathing in the scents of--

Scents?! YGGDRASIL couldn’t mimic smells.

But lo and behold Lumière could distinctly smell the fire. It had a odd woodsy scent to it, as if it were scented logs burning inside. Lumière had never gone camping before, nor had she experienced fire first hand in her life. She marveled over the odd smell it emitted, sniffing delicately at it.

I quite like this smell, she thought.

“My dearest lady?”

Lumière twitched in surprise, looking over at Jack. The NPC had approached Lumière, a hand placed over his chest where his heart would have been had he not been undead. Jack, like all of Nazarick’s NPCS, had two default outfits: battle and casual. The battle would originally have only been triggered during a raid, so he currently wore his casual.

Lumière had been pretty huge into Sherlock and anime at the time of his design, so he was heavily inspired by an anime version of Jack the Ripper.

He had a black ulster coat with the collar flipped up. Underneath was a white button up shirt, and black and red suit vest. He had the classic dark white gloves, and black slacks to complete the look.

Oh, and of course the famous top hat. Could never, ever, forget the top hat for someone inspired by Jack the Ripper.

Lumière opened her mouth to say something but rapidly closed it. She placed a hand over her chest, breathing.

I can breathe easy. I have a sense of smell and touch. Is it--did I die?

Isekais were rather popular. Given her sickly body it wouldn’t have been too much of a stretch to say she passed away and had no memory of it.

The end result was still the same: she was in her avatar’s body. A body strengthened by a hundred levels and not plagued by illness or frailty. A smile curled her lips and she said, “Jack, how are you today?”

A question that an NPC could never answer unless specifically programmed for. Lumière had never given such line to Jack which meant that if he answered--

“Lovely now that I can gaze upon you,” he answered, stepping closer.

A surge of embarrassed adrenaline shot through Lumière at his intensely warm tone. Ah, wait--

She had almost forgotten how she programmed Jack’s personality. Leaning into the guild’s theme of “monsters” and “evil” she pushed on with his serial killer design. Cruel, sadistic, obsessive, and dangerously smart. She went all out, using a character design sheet Tabula put together. Lumière wasn’t as inventive or imaginative in the edgy department so she asked Ulbert to help. Ulbert had already made a pretty evil demon, Demiurge, and was delighted to try his hand at an evil undead serial killer.

At the end of the design she, as giggling joke with Peroroncino she added that he was a yandere for her.

Ahahahaha… I’m sure it’ll be okay.

「Message from Momonga」 Lumière?

Uwa! Momonga’s here?

「Message to Momonga」 Momonga! You came here too?

「Message from Momonga」 Came here… you’re really in the game, too?

「Message to Momonga」 It looks like it. I can breathe without trouble.

「Message from Momonga」 Ah. I’m happy for you. I’m going to conduct some tests to make sure I can cast more spells. Do you want to meet up in the arena?

「Message from Momonga」 Yeah, I’ll meet you there.

“Cheshire,” Lumière said, raising her hands up. “Come here.”

The fairy disguised as a monster cat floated over with a wide smiles. “Yes, Mistress?”

She reached out and the monstrous feline leaned into her palm. She felt his fur, his warmth, and beneath it all a heartbeat.

Jack responded with an answer on his own, Cheshire is warm and has a heartbeat, I can move freely… I’m here. This is real. They’re real.

Lumière smiled shyly, taking Cheshire into her arms. He was fluffy and warm. “We’re going to the arena to meet with Momonga.”

“As you wish, my lady,” demurred Jack while Cheshire flicked his tail.

#overlord

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randomfandomimagine · 4 years ago

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Games With Trish: God of War (2018)

I had watched the game before, but playing it was a whole new experience. It’s fun, exiciting, emotional and epic. It’s such a good game, with interesting plot, a moving story, great characters, beautiful scenery, breathtaking soundtrack and great mechanics!

The plot is quite simple, but it’s presented in a way that is so emotional! Just the beginning is flaweless, and it only gets better as it goes. It feels almost intimate as we go with Kratos and Atreus to the highest peak in the realm, they’re on a very important personal mission and you feel what they feel. You feel their pain and sadness on their mission, but also their surprise and concern when things get in the way and they’re in danger.

The characters are so cool and likeable, from the tough Kratos to the adorable Atreus to the complex Baldur and the mysterious Freya to the charming Mimir! Not to mention Brok and Sindri, I genuinely got excited whenever they appeared. I’m especially fond of Atreus because I love children and he’s just so cute! Those little moments of him running around and playing with the snow and stuff? Adorable. Kratos is also superb, because while he’s not as violent in this game as he was in the others, I see it as a plus! He’s more human in this game, he’s grieving his wife’s death, taking care of the kid and also having to deal with gods again. He’s still strong as hell and it never ceases to amaze me how much of a beast Kratos is, though.

I also love those little moments between Kratos and Atreus where they learn to understand each other and find a compromise. When Kratos trusts his son to fight, the boy thanks him. When Atreus improves on his fighting, Kratos compliments him. Those moments pulled such a big smile out of me. They might not agree on some things, and they are very different, but they are father and son and they love and protect each other and care so much and that just hits me in the feels!

It also had such incredible narrative moments. That scene where Kratos wants to comfort Atreus and is about to put his hand on his son’s shoulder but doesn’t? He wants to, but is determined on his tough love and ultimately doesn’t because he wants Atreus to be strong. Just, perfect show don’t tell. The plot in general has such good moments, enhanced by the soundtrack, and has a few little twists here and there that are really well done.

When it comes to gameplays, it’s also super fun. There are so many things to explore, including not just Midgar as big as it is, but also other realms like Niflheim and Alfheim and it’s so cool! Also controling the characters while you do insanely epic things like fighting dragons and such? So so good and exciting! I also really appreciate the RPG side of it, buying and improving the armour and weapons and the skills and everything, it’s all really well done. In fact, I still have to find the valkiries and try to platinum the game.

Overall, a fantastic game that has quickly made its way up to my top 5. The ending made me sad that it’s over, so I was excited about the second game... but then the secret ending? Like I wasn’t already hyped enough for Ragnarok!

#cory barlog? sir you are an amazing game developer #games with trish #god of war #gow #god of war 4

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scottymcgeesterwrites · 4 years ago

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Final Fantasy XV Review

Year: 2016

Original Platform: PlayStation 4

Also available on: PC (Steam), XBox One

Version I Played: PlayStation 4

Here we go. The final Final Fantasy review of the main single-player games. I just want to say, first off, we’ve been waiting for this game since 2006. It took them ten damn years to finally release this game. I clearly remember the teaser trailer they released when it was called Final Fantasy XIII Versus, and my next-door neighbor and I were so hyped for this game when we were freaking teenagers. After years of delays, Square Enix revamped it into Final Fantasy XV.

Did it live up to the wait? Well, read and find out.

Synopsis:

Noctis Lucis Caelum is the heir to the throne of the kingdom of Lucis. On his birthday, he sets off with his three best friends and bodyguards (Ignis, Prompto, Gladio) to marry his betrothed, Lunafreya. The marriage is supposed to be a political one, though Noct and Lunafreya had grown up together and become fond of each other. But peace turns to war as the empire of Niflheim betrays Insomnia and invades. Noct, now on the run, has to reclaim his right to the throne by collecting the necessary family heirlooms which will banish the darkness.

Gameplay:

Open-world Final Fantasy.

That is the big selling point for this game.

A MASSIVE step up from Final Fantasy XIII’s gameplay, Final Fantasy XV has you roaming around and attacking enemies on the field in real time. The battle system returns to something slightly more conventional by having you cast spells and use items. It seems like this is what Square really intended to do after Final Fantasy XII. Looking back, Final Fantasy XIII feels like some prototype before Final Fantasy XII, so it really becomes apparent that Final Fantasy XIII’s gameplay comes off as a huge mistake.

This game’s major’s strength comes from the player engaging with a massive world. You camp. You take on hunts. You take on a bajillion sidequests. You run across the world. You drive across the world. You can ride a chocobo across the world.

However, the dip in the gameplay comes from how easily accessible these sidequests are. The map tells you exactly where you go 24/7. I started to have an existential crisis around my 50th sidequest in a row. Why am I doing this? What’s the point? I go here to kill a thing, or go there to help someone by giving a potion or taking a picture. You start to realize that a good bulk of sidequests are either hunting daemons or fetching an item. You start to deconstruct the meaning of playing a video game as you think to yourself, “Why do I play video games?” while also thinking “But wait, one more and then I swear I’m done.”.

I get it, not everyone has the time nowadays to figure out a huge game like this. I get it, video games are now marketed to everyone for ease. At the same time, I personally love a good challenge. I mean, I’m the guy who has Dark Souls as one of his favorite video games of all time, so my opinion on the matter might definitely be skewered compared to most. I generally want to feel like I actually figured something out by myself rather than following a tracker on the screen and walking from task to task and then saying, “Okay done. Next.”.

Too much of that and playing a video game starts to feel like a 9 to 5 job to me. This game is great to play during quarantine, but at one point I saw playing this game as feeling like an actual job. Wake up, eat breakfast, time to hunt some daemons.

This is the growing conflict some people have with story-driven games versus open-world games. I see the argument focused too much on words like “linear”, but in reality we should be talking about “automation”. If a video game is too automated, then did you really play a video game? Or did you watch a movie that allows you to control the camera angle? At first, the idea of driving around an open-world Final Fantasy game sounds amazing. Isn’t that what fans always dreamed of? In reality, you don’t really drive around at your leisure. Even when you have the car set to “manual”, you can’t speed up, drive off-road, or pull off a sick drift like in The Fast and the Furious. Your car still automatically stays on the road wherever you’re going. It’s not so much “manual” as it is “I can control where and when to stop and which road to take”. Riding chocobos at your leisure is much more fun, but becomes increasingly impractical as you can just fast-travel to necessary locations in your car.

The sights and sounds of the fictional world of Eos are enough to gloss over these shortcomings though. It IS still fun to roam around and fight monsters and save the day. My bottom line is, “You don’t think about just how mindless the tasks are unless you keep playing for many days straight.”. And I poured hours into this game day after day because of the 2020 pandemic quarantine.

Graphics:

Obviously the best thus far. However, in-game facial expressions on the NPCs are still quite stilted and awkward. This game made me realize that we’ve yet to jump a hurdle when it comes to in-game graphics. The game is so polished but there are still limitations when it comes to giving the characters natural movements, both in body and lips. So an NPC could be shouting “WOW THAT’S AMAZING!” but have a straight face jumping up and down, despite the fact that the character model is the most realistic we’ve created so far in a video game. I was looking back at in-game cutscenes of Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, and found it ironic that they can portray body movements so much better, but that’s the trade-off. Less graphics power to portray realistic bodies, but the graphics power can then be allocated to focus on natural movements. Nowadays, all the graphics power is focused on making things look good, but that hardly leaves room for making things move naturally.

Story:

After the overly-complicated plotline of Final Fantasy XIII, Final Fantasy XV feels like a breath of fresh air. On the surface, it’s a straightforward tale of a boy seeking to become a king after his father is brutally murdered by enemy forces. The bromance between the young king and his bodyguards is endearing. Each character feels distinct and genuinely makes you laugh. The setup sounds like prime real estate for an emotionally charged storyline.

Unfortunately, it falls apart somewhere around the last quarter. What should have been a strong and straightforward story turned into a rushed, hasty mess by the final act.

The story started SO strong, they practically had it in the bag, but then it became apparent that many important elements were glossed over - especially when it came to the main villain. I realized that some things required me to read between the lines, or even were only explained in character dossiers in the archive section of the menu. Supposedly, the movie Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV explains more, but do you really expect me to have to watch a separate movie to understand the actual game? The final quarter of the story feels like someone was trying to finish NaNoWriMo, realized they were running out of time, and quickly jumped from scene to scene to reach that 50k word goal. The ten-year time-skip is a joke. The final chapter is sorely disappointing.

The ending was appropriate though, and even beautiful. However, the overall story didn’t have the necessary emotional weight to really make me feel anything. I thought to myself, “I feel like I should be tearing up but instead I feel nothing.”. Even Final Fantasy XII, which lacked a romance, had me swelling up at the end. Final Fantasy XV didn’t make me swell up until literally the last few seconds of the post-credits scene.

People complained about the advertising (Coleman, Cup Noodles) but that didn’t bother me.

What does bother me is the lack of variety in the main cast, and in numerous ways. There were so many interesting side characters that didn’t receive much screen time, or use at all in the story. The strong focus on only the four male leads made it a sausagefest. I was craving more out of Aranea Highwind and Iris Amicitia. They are important but don’t get any screen time at all in the final chapter, nor do we ever hear from them ever again after the time-skip. Aranea Highwind was such a cool character, but once again ends up being wasted potential.

The main cast lacked distinctive styles. When I first saw the main cast, I had a hard time telling them apart. They looked like a k-pop band. Compare the main cast of Final Fantasy XV to literally any other Final Fantasy main cast and you can immediately spot the difference.

The four main leads do have distinct personalities, and I quite loved hearing their comments and banter. It felt realistic, but at times it became ridiculous. I rolled my eyes when Prompto would say things like, “Hashtag sorry not sorry.” That was a bit too on the nose, and came off as Square trying to pander to the current generation.

But what really rubbed me the wrong way is the incredible lack of non-white characters in the entire game. Lestallum feels so wrong to me as a Hispanic. Lestallum is supposed to be modeled after Havana, Cuba.

Its music, its buildings, its activities. It has a tropical climate, and yet every single denizen is pale white. Every. Single. One. I am not exaggerating. It feels so absolutely wrong walking around that city and not seeing anyone with the slightest shade of brown. This isn’t some uncalled-for SJW rant, it’s a simple fact. Tropical climates breed tanner skins. My brain naturally did a double-take when seeing the all-white population, saying, “Hmmm, something’s wrong here.”. For God’s sake, Final Fantasy XII, made over a decade earlier, did a better job at displaying the various nuances in skin tones, and that was on the PlayStation 2! Final Fantasy X, even older, seemed to properly portray tropical beach populations, inspired by the Philippines, with the character Wakka.

I noticed that they really took the time to incorporate elements from virtually every single Final Fantasy game. Aside from the crystals, the modern settings, and other obvious elements, four male leads are reminiscent of Final Fantasy III, the sinister chancellor hearkens back to Kefka from Final Fantasy VI, the enemy Yojimbo resembles Final Fantasy X’s version of Yojimbo, a certain boss battle reminded me of Cid Raines from Final Fantasy XIII.

Also, there’s Dino. Quite possibly the most annoying Final Fantasy NPC ever.

The overly obnoxious Italian stereotype made me want to punch his face, and also took me out of the experience of the fictional world. Every time you spoke with him he's all like "HEY HOW YOU DOIN WELCOME TO OLIVE GARDEN YOU TALKIN TO ME BADA BING BADA BOOM SPICY PIECE OF MEATBALL CAPISCE? AMIRITE??"

Square seemed to treat this game as a milestone in the series, alluding to everything the series ever did. It’s a shame that the story itself wasn’t quite up to snuff to be held in such regard.

Music:

The game’s major lyrical song is copyrighted, which is a first for a Final Fantasy game. It makes sense why they chose the song “Stand by Me”, both in literal and figurative terms of the story.

The score to this game is quite fantastic. The series has its first female composer, Yoko Shimomura. I have absolutely no complaints about the music. Nobuo Uematsu didn’t even pop into my head during the entire game. It’s the first time since Uematsu’s departure that I felt immersed in the score. The motifs are distinct and strong. The battle music is vibrant and an orchestral orgasm to listen to.

Notable Theme:

“Somnus”

youtube

The main theme of the game. It plays right away in the main menu. I love how it is incorporated into the rest of the score, and my brain kept wanting to hear it to its completion.

Direct Sequel?

Nope. However, there is downloadable content that fills in the gap of events within the game. Supposedly, Final Fantasy XV is loosely connected to Final Fantasy XIII and Final Fantasy Type-O, all sharing common themes and possibly set in the same universe. You can also watch the prequel movie, Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV.

Did it Live up to the Hype?

Eh.

Yes, and no.

It was cool to play around, but the rest is a flaccid attempt at being a notable entry in the series “for fans and first-timers”, as the words proudly display every time you load the game. It’s not the worst in the series, but certainly not the best. It’s somewhere in the mid-to-low tier.

#final fantasy #final fantasy xv #square enix #ps4 #fantasy #fantasy rpg #rpg video game #rpg #video games #onvideogames #noctis #ignis scientia #prompto argentum #gladiolus amicitia #aranea highwind

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secret-engima · 5 years ago

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Have you played World of Final Fantasy? Because that stack sounds, a lot like that party system. Pease consider Ardyn, meeting his platonic Troll mate in Aulea, gender bending a few of his Somnus memories, & reaching deep into the briefings his Niflheim had given him on the Lucian Royal Family to craft stories of his supposed half-sister. When some moron with a death wish asks what this supposed sister looked like, cue some very flat stares. Nox and Ardyn work together to craft a painting (1/?)

Anonymous said: (2/?) of the supposed mother of Nox. They base it on Somnus, with bits of Aera, Cindy, and Aryana Highwind. It is both a tribute to those they've lost, and to those they've found. She's beautiful, with a mona lisa smile under her laughing eyes. She sprawls across a Solheim ruin, somehow seeming whole in her presence, and crumbling at the further edges.

Me: I have not, actually! That’s funny though, that my stack sounds like the party system XD. Also MY FEELS. WHY HURT MY FEELS THIS WAY. Alright my turn. Buckle up, let’s see if I can make anyone cry.

Ardyn and Nox are ... very nervous about making the painting at first, because what if Regis says he never saw a woman like that? Then they realize that their cover story supposes a single meeting, a one-night stand 15-16+ years ago, probably while Regis was drunk, so they’re fine. So they set about crafting a beautiful painting. A tribute to the women (and brother) who helped shape their lives so powerfully, a goodbye to those same people who they will either never meet again, or at least, will never have the same relationship, the same shared memories, as before.

They make her a white tiger (the closest they can get to this Aulea’s snow leopard without giving the game away), with a beautiful blue top that is reminiscent of Aera’s favorite dress (not her white Oracle dress, but the one she wore when she was just herself, when it was just her and Ardyn in the gardens, with the see-through elbow sleeves and the delicate gold embroidery), and a staff carved with travel blessings in her hands instead of a trident (Aera’s staff, her favorite for when she was traveling at least moderately incognito). Her hair is Ardyn’s violet-red to help maintain the image of sibling-hood, cut almost Somnus level short, practical and slightly wispy wild like Somnus’s the one time he had started to grow it out as a teen before deciding longer hair was too much of a hassle. Her skin tone is a bit darker than Somnus’s porcelain though, like someone who spends a great deal of time traveling beneath the sun (Cindy’s tan). She’s got a bright, full smile on her face, Cindy’s sunshine and cheer that show off her fangs, but it also has a large dose of Aranea’s lazy mischief in the expression, from lips to half-lidded eyes that makes the expression seem like good-natured trouble. Her outfit shows off the lean muscles on her upper half that match the corded power of her hindquarters, Aranea’s jumping power and speed on display, not that anyone but them know it.

Her eyes are a bright, armiger blue, and anyone looking at the picture would insist she has Nox’s cheekbones and a more feminine version of his jawline.

She’s sprawled out, as you say, in a Solheim ruin, as if posing for a picture. Around her the colors are lush and vibrant, the lines clean, the ruins somehow seeming alive and whole despite still being clearly ruins, but the farther into the background one looks, the more faded the colors are, the more crumbled and desolate the ruins.

When Ardyn and Nox reveal the picture to Regis and Co, shyly looking for approval to hang it somewhere where others can see, Regis finds his breath stolen. He wracks his memory for a woman like this, hoping to REMEMBER- but he can’t. He’s not surprised. It’s been long time, years and years, and there were several tigers, both white and orange, in his youth that he had flirted to bed, and he’s more than a little sure that they would have both been drunk the one time they met, or else surely a Niflheim woman would never dare have a one-night stand with a dragontaur, a Lucis Caelum. Even so, he sees Ardyn and Nox in the picture of the woman, in the eyes and hair and cheekbones and jaw. He sees hints of LIFE in the painting, of stories untold and adventures unspoken. The giant painting (because Ardyn and Nox do nothing by halves and did a life-sized painting) looks so REAL, so detailed and vibrant he more than half expects it to suddenly spring right out of the picture and start teasing Ardyn, who is himself staring at it with sad, nostalgic eyes.

Aulea bumps her hip against his and breaks the building tension made by his silence by calmly stating that, oh yeah, she can see why Regis tapped that. Regis sputters loudly, Clarus groans, Nox hides his face in his hands to muffle his semi-hysterical laughter while Ardyn just GRINS like a loon and chirps that “Indeed! His sibling was always QUITE the catch!”

Cor just tilts his head, considering the picture, trying to piece together a life story from the details Ardyn no doubt guided Nox through (they all know Nox was the primary painter of the two, but Ardyn would no doubt remember his half-sister much better, if Nox even remembered his mother at all). Cor sees ... traveller, warrior, mischief maker, leader. He sees a woman who travelled and let nothing stop her, who laughed loud and roared loud, who no doubt teased and bossed her half-sibling into joining her on whatever trip she had in mind, who let herself be teased and goaded into whatever madcap scheme Ardyn came up with that time. He sees a woman who could fight and knew it well, who lived easy in her skin because of it. He sees a hard worker in the callouses on her hands and the little smudges of dirt on her face.

He’s sees kindness in the tilt of her head and the flashing blue of her eyes, in the genuine cheer and goodnatured mixed in with the mischief of her smile.

Cor’s vague theories of an abusive mother for Nox ... fade. He trusts Ardyn’s memories enough to believe this is not a delusional, “clean” version, but rather a painting trying to capture what only memory could truly know. This woman would not have harmed her son. It must have been her husband, the one Ardyn has mentioned only once or twice with dark eyes, who took over Nox’s rearing after Nox’s mother died (died while Nox was very young, Cor recalls, not long after Nox had been born, he’d said) that had done the damage Cor has seen before Ardyn took custody and tried his best.

He wishes for a moment he could have met her. He thinks she would have been a good addition to the Citadel, once the awkwardness between her and Regis faded.

Regis ... ASTOUNDS Ardyn and Nox when he doesn’t just give permission for them to hang the picture somewhere, he insists the picture be hung in the special wing reserved for life-sized royal family portraits (not the Hall of Arts, that’s more of a museum of LC history and world history overall). Aulea is holding his hand as he speaks, unhesitating support in her every line and Nox quietly starts to cry when they hang up the painting he and Ardyn made right next to the one of Regis and Aulea together (and now Regis is glad that he bucked the tradition of separate portraits in favor of a shared one, it means there is a perfect spot for this one to rest next to his and Aulea’s, an appropriate place for the mother of his eldest and sister of his half-brother). Ardyn is tearing up too despite his grin, and Nox’s quiet, fervent thank you hurts Regis’s heart a little.

When the servants go to attach her name plaque, they realize suddenly that Ardyn has never actually mentioned his sibling by NAME. Not that they can remember at least. They ask Regis, who asks Ardyn and Nox, and while Nox freezes a bit in panic (they can’t say any of the names she was based on, surely not even Aera’s), Ardyn tugs his hat over his face and softly says, “Stella. Her name was Stella.”

And Nox hurts quietly on his uncle’s behalf at the grief in his uncle’s magic, at the stiffness in his uncle’s wings, even as Regis nods and leaves to go relay the message. “Uncle...?”

“Mother always used to say,” Ardyn murmurs as he puts his hat back on, a smiling mask in place, “that she had hoped for a daughter. I had already been born to Father’s previous wife, so there was an heir to the kingdom and there would be no negative repercussions if she had a daughter to dote on.”

Nox pauses, thinks of medieval medicine, how in Ardyn’s time potions and other magical medicines had not yet been fully developed, “A stillborn?” He guesses in dread.

Ardyn huffs, “No. Nothing that tragic.” Ardyn starts walking away, aiming for the gardens and a sunny patch no doubt, “Stella was what Mother was going to name Somnus if he had been born a girl. I used to use it to tease him when people commented on his ‘delicate features’. It was my nickname for him for throughout our childhood, up until he became commander of the kingdom’s armies and insisted that I would ruin his reputation among the men if I was ever overheard and that I shouldn’t risk it anymore.”

Ardyn disappears around the corner. The old silence left behind is very loud.

By the next day, people are gossiping over the stunning new picture in the Royal Family portrait wing, right next to Regis’s and Aulea’s shared one, in the spot where traditionally the wife’s portrait would have been had they not gotten theirs done together. A beautiful white tiger with mischief in her eyes and sunshine in her smile and and flyaway violet-red hair that makes people whisper over the similarity to the king’s half-brother.

The little plaque on the frame of the painting reads “Stella Izunia Caelum”

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house-of-otome · 4 years ago

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hey, i hope that you’re doing good ✨ could you please list the best otome game you’ve tried so far please ?

Thank you I am still doing my best to hang in there, I hope you're well too!

Obey Me is legitimately one of the best otome games I've ever played, I love the characters, the style, the overall gameplay. It's a solid game, not to mention that the more gender neutral MC is very very much appreciated for a nonbinary bean such as myself.

I used to really love another Solmare otome game called Niflheim, mainly just for the characters and their designs as well as the pretty unique story. It's still around in the app Story Jar, but it's no longer receiving updates.

Of course I have to mention Mystic Messenger, another awesome otome game with an interesting story set up and loveable dorks for a cast. (In case it hasn't become obvious yet I like otome games with an interesting story premise;;)

Mr. Love, Queen's Choice is also pretty cool, havent gotten very far into that one yet though, but I like what I've seen so far!

I enjoy Ikemen Vampire purely for the ridiculous premise of trying to woo famous historical figures that look like bishie anime men and are vampires. (sucks they made Jean d'Arc a dude though, wholly unnecessary in my opinion, but oh well)

All that being said I hope there will be more otome games with a gender neutral MC in the future. Like, I can mostly ignore whenever an MC is a girl by default if the story is interesting enough but it does keep me from truly identifying with the MC which is basically the whole point, you're supposed to identify with them. It would just be nice to have some more representation for me and other nb folk in the future. ^-^

#ezra speaks

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mister-christmas · 5 years ago

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Okay, so God of War PS4 was on sale and with the quarantine forcing me to live as a hermit I figured 'why not?' and a week later I have now completed it 100%. Kinda. I haven't beat it on the "Fuck you" difficulty but I didn't enjoy it enough to subject myself to that. Generally, it's kinda like DmC. A good game in its own right but when compared to the preceding games it doesn't hold up.

The combat is much slower. Less "spectacle fighter" and more "Dark Souls". It does get more complex later and though it's slower it's about as brutal as Kratos with a Dane Axe should be. Overall, the combat is good. It's visceral and satisfying and it will never not be entertaining to chop some poor bastard in half with your big fuck off axe, but it's not what I play GoW for. It's like if DOOM Eternal was turned into Rainbow Six.

As far as story goes, well... Look, God of War has never been overly focused on story. It's there but much like DOOM and DMC it wasn't what we were here for. So naturally the game that focuses on story will have the better one. There are more story beats and emotional impact in Dad of Boy than most of Kratos's diecidal rampage. It also gets points for intertwining the game mechanics with the story, like Kratos gaining unlimited Spartan Rage when Boy is threatened by Baldur or is in serious (story driven) danger. Also getting the Blades of Chaos was hype as fuck. But while Kratos is more sympathetic and human than he has been for like 4 games now, he's less entertaining. In the same vein as Joker or Albert "Satan's Hairdresser" Wesker he's not served well by being humanized. He's less fun and entertaining when he's not cartoonishly bloodthirsty. Kratos was sacrificed on the alter of "Hairy Dad" games.

As for the rest of the gameplay...

Bosses are worse. They range from "boringly easy cinematic" fights to "discount Dark Souls bosses". The final boss is anti-climactic and disappointing (seriously, the fucking Revenants, normal ass basic bitch mobs, give me more trouble than the final boss). And the Valkyries aren't hard or particularly fun once you scout their moves and learn the patterns. Just dodge then light, light, light, heavy. They're tedious fights.

Muspelheim is just a challenge tower, and while not the worst, they aren't nearly as creative as they could or should be. Also some were, again, not difficult but just tedious.

Niflheim can go fuck itself. Just run in a circle grinding special currency to unlock three kinda challenging fights and a bunch of chests that you need to go through if you want the final upgrade for your axe. I turned the difficulty down to "baby's first game" just so I didn't have to spend 3 hours running around in a circle. Fuck Niflheim.

Atreus ranges from toloerable to annoying. And the side characters are pretty good. They have their own quirks and verbal ticks and personality.

Overall, standalone I'd rate it 8 but as a GoW sequel I rate it 5.5. I'd say where it lets down the most are the bosses. Which are one of the biggest, best, most famous, aspects of the God of War franchise. @eric-coldfire

#god of war #god of war ps4 #gow #gow ps4 #this has been a review

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hanalwayssolo · 6 years ago

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Good News for People Who Love Bad News

A/N: Another commissioned fic, this time for the lovely @azure-scientia! Consider this a sort of sequel to this corporate AU I wrote earlier for Noctis.

Tagging friends! @raspberryandechinacea @noboomoon @emmydots @bleucommelhiver @gowithme @hanatsuki89 @valkyrieofardyn @animakupo @lazarustrashpit @blindedstarlight

[Link on AO3]

The bright Altissian sun in this fine Monday morning usually does the trick to jumpstart your hectic work day. That, and an excellent cup of coffee coupled with a plateful of pancakes down at Café Leville. This has become your religious routine after living in this scenic city by the sea for almost a year, and for a year it has brought you nothing but small comfort even away from home.

However, the moment you snap awake does not allow you to relish any of these simple pleasures.

Instead, you are greeted by a dizzying wave of nausea as you jump out of bed, hurrying straight to your bathroom, dry heaving into the sink. Your throat is parched by acid, your mouth as metallic as a handful of loose change. Wash, rinse, repeat. By now, you are already used to the bitter taste that always seem to linger at the tip of your tongue—which, you would argue, not as bitter as the day you and Noctis parted ways, but none of it matters now. You are moving forward, you tell yourself in the mirror. You are moving forward, one preposterously lightheaded morning at a time.

You only wish you can say the same to the slowly growing bump in your belly.

Perhaps moving forward is easier said than done. Scratch that—it is always, most infinitely, easier said than done. These last couple of months with Noctis chronicled exactly that: how it is easy for the two of you to say We’ll make time for each other, yet a voicemail is a much reasonable company than an actual phone call; how easy it is for him to say I’ll stay over on occasions he is in town, only for you to wake up to an empty bed; how easy it is for you to say I love you and not truly mean it, how the words tremble and shake with an uncertainty of all the forgotten messages, the forgotten dinners, the forgotten birthdays. You have to say, all those mutually brilliant but doomed attempts of maintaining this long distance relationship is exceptionally impressive, if not quite ambitious. Noctis tried. He really did. And so did you.

The weeks that carried on since the day you saw him last were all a numbing blur. A miserable restart, each day a trial run. At breakfast, he always sat across from you, poured caramel syrup into your pancakes and dashed a little into your cup of coffee. Now, you cannot take the scent of caramel without aching for his sweet smile. You ache for his sweet smile but between you and the shadow of this memory plastered on every empty seat are the hours he did not call back, an immeasurable space, the Cygillan Ocean.

Still, you do not cross the open seas. You do not board the next ship. You choose to live without the high from the sweetener. Besides, why should his absence matter, anyway? You probably have embraced your pillows more than you have ever held him in your arms, kissed your wine glass more than you have ever kissed him. You have drowned your longings in the river of your tears hoping it would cleanse your body from the memory of his warmth. But muscle memory is a curse; it only knows how to remember and does not permit you to forget. If you could, you would kiss as many people as possible just so you can erase the stamp of his lips on yours.

But that’s not you.

So you practice forgetting. They say practice makes perfect, but in the battlefield that is heartbreak, practice is the only thing that makes sense. You unlearn habits that remind you of him. You teach yourself to listen to all the love songs he used to play in the stereo of your living room without flinching at the ghost of his laughter. You teach yourself to play the video games he used to compete with you without hearing the sound of his delighted voice. You say his name over and over and over until it loses its meaning. You do not wait for his call. You do not beg him to stay. You do not ask to keep his promise. You inhale the sickly sweet scent of caramel and do not think of him.

And you have not been thinking of him. But the day you find out about the life growing inside you is the day you finally do.

Someone is knocking at the door of your bathroom. “Hey, you alright?”

You turn to see Crowe leaning by the doorframe, all strained smile and worried eyes, arms folded over her chest. She had been in Altissia on official Lucis Labs business these last couple of weeks; after learning she could not afford a single room in the Leville (“I’m afraid the accommodation for your trip is currently out of our budget,” Ignis had happened to tell her, which she already knew was a code for The collaboration with Niflheim Studios is fucking with our costs and overall finances, hence she did not pursue the subject any further), she opted crashing your place was a much more suitable option.

“You look like a hot mess,” she says, her face screwing into a frown. “You need me to buy something for you? Like, tea? I don’t know what kind of painkillers are safe for pregnant women, but I’ll go ask—“

“No, it’s okay, it’s fine,” you say hurriedly. “I’m fine. You don’t have to.”

“Really? Are you sure?” Crowe studies you with a significant look. You can see in her eyes an unspoken question she is meaning to ask. But she does not ask. She exercises an unlikely tactfulness that does not seem to suit someone like her who never minces their words, veiled in a patience that seems to wait for you to open up and tell her, No, I’m not, this isn’t fine, I don’t think I will ever be fine.

But these words never leave you. You swallow them into a smile and say, “Yeah, I’m sure.” You rake the hair back from your face. “Thank you.”

“Alright then.” Crowe nods thoughtfully, turns to take her leave. But she stops halfway. She circles right back around and looks at you with a serious expression you have come to know so well. “I know this is none of my business, but you know you don’t have to go through this on your own, right?” She rests a steady hand on your shoulder. “I’m here, and you can talk to me anytime, whenever you are ready. Okay?”

You weakly nod. “Yeah, okay.”

“Good. Now don’t even bother going to work—I’ll be dropping by AW, anyway, and I’ll let Weskham know you’re sick. You go get some rest. Got it?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Crowe smiles, gently pats you in the back. She edges imperceptibly towards the hallway and out of your sight. You close the door behind you, take a shower, press your head on the cold tile. You listen as Crowe goes through the motions of her own morning routine: the soft sizzle of the pan from the kitchen, the whistle from the kettle, the thrum of the bass from the stereo. None of it distracts you from the thoughts that seem to echo louder than the steady humdrum, nor the idea that has been troubling you for quite some time.

Maybe I should try calling Noctis again…

And you do. Well, not after a few moments of procrastination, of course—you know, get dressed, grab a slice of Crowe’s waffles, turn on the TV yet not quite watching anything for thirty minutes—with the hopes of maybe, quite possibly, you can sober up from the ridiculous idea. But the notion of it grows more stubborn by the minute. In the end, you could not resist. You fish your phone out, scroll through your contacts. You hover around Noctis’s name, and with a deep breath, you press the button.

The other line rings once, twice. Thrice. Four times. Five. He does not pick up, and you are only greeted by his almost too-mechanical voicemail. Hi, this is Noctis. I’m either on a call or away from my desk. Please leave your name, number, and the reason you’d like to chat, and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.

A beep follows. A sudden surge of fear clogs your throat. How does one even begin this kind of message? If you have been more brazen, or more confident, you would have gone on to say Hi, this is your ex, I am nine weeks pregnant with your child, please call back at your earliest convenience. Or maybe a simple, Hi, Noct, it’s been a while, we really need to talk. But you are neither brazen nor confident at the moment. You are all too reckless and emotional and tired and really just straight up fucking hormonal.

So you do not say a word and you hang up. A breeze flutters through your windows to occupy the silence. You do not try calling him again.

At the breakfast table, Noctis has been awfully quiet. The selection of food before him is as appetizing as any feast, but he does not feel like eating. He has been staring out into the glimmering expanse of the Cygillan Ocean from the balcony of his hotel room, trying to distract himself from the wafting scent of coffee, bacon and pancakes, and caramel. Especially the caramel. A strange thing to be sure, to shy away from relishing the signature delicacies of Hotel Leville at this fine, Altissian morning.

But for him, these simple pleasures only conjure the ghosts of all the memories he has of you.

It is almost a year and a half since Noctis last visited the city, yet everywhere feels like it has been suspended in time. Nothing seems to have changed: the warm sea salt breeze and ship-bourne markets; the vibrant thoroughfare and maze of streets; the throng of tourists lining up for gondola rides. Once, you had insisted that the two of you brave the long queue just so you could watch the lantern festival out by the docks. He still remembers that luminous night as if it was just yesterday: the sky encrusted by stars, the slow rise of paper lanterns trailing like fireflies, how your face was illuminated in the light. How he was caught by the teeth of your charm. How you kissed him without paying the gondolier any mind. How until now, he is still at the mercy of the memory of that night—and quite frankly, all his other days with you—all of which he thought he had forgotten. But he has not forgotten. He has never forgotten you.

And him being here after all this time…

All he knows is your specter is all over the city. Every street and alley magnifies all of his shortcomings, his mistakes, the time he has lost.

Across from him, Ignis stirs from reading the morning paper, looks up at Noctis with an expression that is achingly conscious behind the reason of his brooding silence.

“Is everything alright, Noct?” Ignis asks; he folds the paper and sets it down. “We have a meeting at nine o’clock with—“

“By any chance, could you cancel all my meetings with Weskham and those annoying brats from Niflheim Studios this morning and move it tomorrow?” says Noctis, not meeting the keenness of Ignis’s curious gaze as he rises out of his seat. “Tell them it’s a personal emergency that I need to attend to.”

Ignis purses his lips for a moment, as if carefully crafting his response. He smiles. Then, he says, “Very well. Send her my regards, then.”

Noctis scoffs. Of course. “That obvious, huh.”

“Frankly, it’s about bloody time.” Ignis pushes his glasses back to the bridge of his nose, takes a sip of coffee. “The fact that it took you more than a year to gather this courage to make amends is beyond me.”

“I, um… well—“ Noctis stammers, reaches for the back of his head; Ignis is never one to pull any punches, and that teasing jab is something Noctis knows that he rightly deserves. “It hasn’t been easy,” he adds sullenly.

Ignis sighs. “And I could only imagine it hasn’t been easy for her, either.”

Noctis does not say anything. He considers Ignis for a fraction of a moment. To be fair, Ignis is right. Surely, Noctis could not fault Ignis for taking your side; he had been the one assuaging all your worries when Noctis was constantly away on business. The splinter of truth in his words is a sharp dagger of guilt right through the heart. And yet, Noctis feels like there is more to it. He wills himself to probe further, and—

“I apologize for speaking out of turn,” Ignis says solemnly. “Do you need me to accompany you? Or Gladio, perhaps?”

“No, I can manage.” Noctis smiles, waves a diffident hand. “I’ll see you guys later.”

“Best of luck,” says Ignis as Noctis ambles away and out of the door.

Aiden’s cheery, bell-like laughter is swelling throughout the living room of your apartment—this utterly gregarious baby extremely amused with your exceptional talent in making silly faces—when you hear a knock at the door.

“Mummy’s going to be right back, Mr. Sweetface!” You give him a playful kiss and you hurry down the hall, unlatch the lock, and open the door with the remains of your beaming smile. “Hi, how can I— oh.”

You blink. The smile on your face immediately falters. With a numbing sense of disbelief, it takes approximately ten uncomfortable seconds for you to acknowledge that the man before you is Noctis.

“Hello,” he says. Even after all this time, the features of his face remain the same: his manner and bearing sharper, striking, yet much more handsome than before—truly and unjustly so; and those blue eyes, much like your son’s.

You open the door a little wider, still staring at him, letting the silence stretch longer than the first. “Hi,” you finally say.

“How are you?”

“Fine.”

He nods. “That’s great.”

“I didn’t know you were in town.”

“We just came in this morning. You know, for the merger.”

“Oh. Right.”

Another strained pause. It does not last long when Aiden’s delighted giggles burst the silence like a pin popping a balloon.

Noctis curiously peers over your shoulder. “Sorry, I—is that—“

“Shit, um—please come in,” you say, almost too hastily. Noctis is taken aback, slightly hesitating, but he indulges your invitation all the same. You usher him down the hall and into the white-washed brightness of your living room. “Have a seat,” you tell Noctis, gesturing to the couch as you pick Aiden up. “Congrats, by the way. For adding another gaming firm in your slowly growing empire.”

He squirms a little in his seat. “Well, I’m sorry—”

“Oh, we both know you’re not sorry,” you say dryly. He laughs. “Weskham’s been expecting that move for quite some time.”

“Right.” He pauses. Then: “He’s adorable,” he says with a strangely pleasant smile as Aiden waves at him, all bubbly and giggly.

“Yeah, he truly is.” The sudden quiver in your voice startles you. You clear your throat and say, “Well, he can get a little rowdy sometimes, but, yeah. Um—“ you bite your lip, trying to quell the sudden surge of emotion at the pit of your stomach— “would you mind if I take him back to his room first?”

“Sure,” says Noctis.

“C’mon, my Mr. Sweetface,” you say, pressing another kiss on Aiden’s chubby cheeks as you disappear into the next room, tucking him back to his crib. With Noctis briefly out sight, you take deep, shuddery breaths. You squeeze your eyes shut. You have imagined many a scenario on how you would run into Noctis one of these days, and quite frankly, this is not one of them.

You heave another breath, steady your trembling hands, muster a year’s worth of hard-earned forbearance before you walk right back out into the living room. You see Noctis, hands on the pocket of his perfectly tailored pants, studying and browsing pictures of you and Aiden perched on your shelves.

“Didn’t know you had a kid,” he says, holding a frame in hand.

There are so many things you could say at this point, but instead, you choose to say nothing.

Seeming to sense your unease, Noctis turns to you and smiles warmly, the same way he always does whenever he reaches out to assuage any of your worries. “Where’s his dad?” he asks curiously. Then, raising a hand as if to backpedal, he gingerly adds, “I mean, if you don’t mind my asking. I’ll understand if you don’t want to talk about it… wait, is everything okay?”

“I’m fine,” you say, but your voice cracks. So does your façade of bravery. Maybe it’s Noctis’s voice that first brought you to tears, or probably how gently he raised such a curious question which he had every right to ask and had every right to know the answer. Or maybe, it’s how he carefully crossed the space between the two of you—no more open seas, no more distance and time—with such reassured steps.

He firmly rests his hands on your shoulders. “I’m sorry for prying, I shouldn’t have asked that—“

“No, no,” you croak. “It’s only right that you asked. And I’m sorry for not telling you sooner. I really am. And I…” You falter into a pause. “I didn’t mean to keep him from you, Noct.”

You watch as the fine machinery of his face begin to grind into a slow realization. His hands fall away from you, his breath stutters into a hitch. “Wait, are you saying…”

You stare at him and nod.

He stares back. The blank expression on his face drifts to a quiet yet seething shock. He falls back on the couch, buries his face in the palm of his hands.

“When exactly were you planning to tell me?” he says, after a long, excruciating silence.

You sigh. “To be honest, Noct? I’ve already tried. So many times and in so many ways. You never returned any of my messages, never picked up when I called. I mean, sure, if you ask me, whoever’s your new personal assistant needs to get their shit together on sorting your business and personal affairs, but yeah—I get it. You’re a busy guy. Busier now, more than ever. And I… I just got tired of always being the only one trying to reach out.” You shake your head, press your hands together. “I mean, at some point, when I was five months pregnant, I went back to Insomnia and dropped by the office just to talk to you in person. But you weren’t there.”

He lifts an incredulous brow. “Wait, you were in the city? How come I didn’t know about this?”

“That’s what I’d like to know,” you say flatly. “That fella from Niflheim Studios—Ardyn, is it? He never told you, did he?”

“Hold on—“ his mouth twists into a grimace— “what’s Ardyn got to do with this—“

“He was the first one I saw when I dropped by the Citadel. I assumed he knew me; he called me by name, which I thought was strange. Anyway. I told him I had to see you. He said you were in Tenebrae for some conference, and he’d let you know as soon as he was able. When I didn’t get at least a single call or message from you, it’s either he never told you or you didn’t care at all—“

“That son of a bitch.” His face hardens, his hands curl into fists. “I swear, that bastard will pay for—“

“Noct.” You catch him by his wrist. “Please don’t.”

He says nothing, and so do you. This time, the silence that lingers is doused with regret. Noctis draws a heavy, wistful sigh. He slips his hand in yours. You let him.

“I always wonder what ever happened to us,” he says quietly.

“Life happened, that’s what,” you sniff with a small laugh. “I’m sorry for not trying harder—“

“No, no, don’t— I’m the one who’s sorry, more than anything,” he says sharply, his voice on the brink of breaking. “I’m… I am really sorry for letting this you go through all of this alone. For not being here with you and our son.” He wipes his eyes with one hand, the other shaking against yours. “And look—I’m not asking you to forgive me now. But I’ll do whatever it takes to make it up to you. If you would allow me.”

You consider Noctis for a while. He holds your gaze, firm and true. “Of course I would,” you hear yourself murmur under your breath, choking back the tears. “I would love nothing more.”

The bright Altissian sun in this summer morning has not changed in the last three years. But what has changed, however, is the company in which you keep.

In the balcony of your apartment, you watch Noctis make the silliest of faces in front of Aiden. The sound of their laughter rings like a song. The boy squeals “Daddy!” as Noctis takes him in his arms, pressing a kiss on his forehead, giving him a snuggle.

For a moment, Noctis turns to look at you and smiles. He does not say anything. Yet somehow, you know that this is more than enough.

#final fantasy xv #ffxv #ff15 #ffxv fanfiction #noctis lucis caelum #noctis x reader #older!noctis lucis caelum #older!noctis x reader #my writing #writing commissions

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killscreencinema · 6 years ago

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Final Fantasy XV (PlayStation 4)

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A Final Fantasy for fans and first timers... is the first words we’re greeted by as we boot up Final Fantasy XV, ya know, the one with a hunky all male cast of four who look like a K-pop band.

Though, to be fair, as far as equality in sexual objectification is concerned, it doesn’t take long before absurdly scantily clad ladies show up in the game in the form of Cindy, a friendly auto mechanic, with a distinct Southern twang, and a penchant for prominently displaying her decolletage*; and Aranea Highwind, a Dragoon and, I can only assume from her outfit, S&M enthusiast.

*To elaborate on this point, Cindy has a tendency to move in very unnatural ways during conversation, such as bending or leaning forward, like she’s practicing her Maxim cover pose, which serves no other purpose than give the player a good look at her cleavage. While this is an unfortunately common trope in anime and video games, it bugs me... not because for SJW reasons, more because NOBODY MOVES LIKE THIS!

Anywhoozles, I guess my point is that before this game was released, it seemed like there was a lot of bitching about the main boy band cast, but let Cindy and Aranea serve as reminders that Final Fantasy XV is an anomaly in an industry that normally caters predominantly to straight males.

End of rant - on with the review!

Final Fantasy XV, released by Square Enix in 2016, starts off with the main character, Noctis, crown prince of the kingdom of Lucia, setting off on a road trip with his buddies... his entourage if you will... as one last hurrah before he gets married to the lovely Lunafreya. While gone, though, the capital city of Insomnia is attacked by the evil Niflheim Empire, the king is assassinated, and a power Crystal is stolen for an unknown, likely destructive, purpose. To retaliate against the Empire, Noctis and friends travel the countryside in search of the Royal Arms, powerful relics left by previous Lucian kings, as well as the blessings of the godlike Astrals in order to gain their assistance in the battle ahead.

Say what you will about the bro-ness of it all, the plot is nice and simple, with a fairly clear goal and memorable if somewhat archetypal characters. Noctis is the reluctant hero with a destiny; Ignis is the snoody intellectual; Gladio is the surly tough guy; and Prompto is the wisecracking lovable loser - the “Ducky” of the group, if I can borrow a reference to Pretty in Pink that only people may age will maybe get. We’ve seen these characters in hundreds of other stories, but darn it if these protagonists don’t have a charming dynamic with each other that makes bantering fun to listen to (although it gets repetitive as they’ll often repeat the same conversation loops throughout the game - I can’t tell how many times I’ve heard Prince Noctis suddenly whine that it’s too hot before Gladio curtly replies, “Then lose the jacket.”).

The only character I didn’t feel worked as well is the villain Ardyn. He looks douchey enough, with his MRA fedora and an outfit that looks like a Goodwill vomited on him, but I never felt like I had a clear understanding of his motives nor his connection to Noctis, until its the information is dumped at the climax of the game, and even then, I could barely hear what the hell anyone was saying because the music drowned out the dialogue. What I could glean of Ardyn’s motivation seemed kind of weak though. The moment you meet Ardyn, he seems like a harmless weirdo who wants to help, but everyone in the Noctis’ party is immediately wary of his intentions for no real reason except the video game knows he’s the villain. I feel like reveals such as this are more effective the closer the villain is personally to the protagonist. Had Ardyn been a trusted chancellor of Noctis’ father, and even a beloved mentor for the prince, masquerading as an ally and one of the few survivors of the Imperial attack, only to betray Noctis as a crucial moment (along the lines of what happens in Altissa that seals the deal as far as Ardyn’s role in the story goes), then I would have felt more investment in this conflict. Such as it is, I didn’t really give a shit and that’s kind of where the story slowly fell apart for me.

What I did enjoy all the way through was the gameplay. This entry of Final Fantasy dispenses with turn-based combat altogether, instead leaning hard into full-on real time fighting reminiscent of Kingdom Hearts. While it’s fast paced and fun, the Final Fantasy fanboy in me still misses the good ol’ fashion slap fight combat the series was built on. I certainly hope this style of fighting isn’t going to be what we get for the FF7 remake.

One of my favorite aspects of the combat is how summons work in the game. As you build alliances with Astrals, you can call on them during battles to assist you with a massive attack so powerful it leaves total devastation in the surrounding environment (which is a beautiful touch). However, you can summon them at will, as the option to summon them only pops up if you meet certain requirements during battle. For example, if Noctis’ HP is critical and the battle has been going on too long, you may or may not get the option to summon Ramuh (the wizardy lightening god). While it’s good that the player can’t use these summons whenever they want, as it would GREATLY Nerf the challenge level of the game (these attacks will often end any boss fight instantly), it’s also rather frustrating figuring out how to trigger the summon if only so you can see the cool animation. Thank goodness for YouTube, I guess!

I really dug the familiar modern aesthetics of our world mixed with a fantasy setting of Lucis. This is nothing new in the Final Fantasy series, as both Final Fantasy 7, and to a larger degree FF8, both effectively achieved this mix. Speaking of which, the overall throwback to earlier FF games are nice, such as the idea of an evil Empire equipped with magical technology that they use to dominate the world ala Final Fantasy VI (my personal favorite of the games btw). Seeing Magitek engines and troops with modern graphics almost makes me pine for a remake of Final Fantasy VI... though I worry such a thing might take the magic out the experience of playing the 16-bit game.

Anyway, while I liked the world of FF 15... I feel like we barely scrape the surface of it. Whereas in nearly every game in the series you are eventually able to travel the entire world at will, visiting every nook and cranny, with Final Fantasy XV, you’re limited to Noctis’ kingdom of Lucis, a watery Venice-like city called Altissa, and... that’s about it. It just feels very, very... small. Also there are invisible barriers, and in a post-BOTW world, this is unacceptable. Granted this game was probably already nearly complete by the time of Breath of the Wild’s release, nevertheless, games like Skyrim and the entire Elder Scrolls series existed and had little to no invisible barriers. So my point is this: invisible barriers are obsolete. If you consider you game “open world”, artificial barriers shouldn’t exist. I should be able to jump my Chocobo over a goddamn road barrier like I’m Evil fucking Kenieval, not suddenly have my leap impeded by nothing, forcing me to find a more inconvenient, circuitous route to my destination.

Anyway, once you begin getting used to the overworld, at some point during the story, the game thrusts you on “rails” and it’s good-bye open world, hello unwelcome Final Fantasy XIII style corridor gameplay. You can go back to the open world at any point, but that doesn’t make finishing the game any less of a tedious slog. The game’s momentum comes to a HUGE halt once Noctis is completely separated from his friends and is left wandering the bland, dark corridors of an Imperial lab for what feels like a goddamn eternity.

So I guess what I’m saying is Final Fantasy XV, an otherwise excellent game, really shits the bed at the climax, but is ultimately still worth checking out.

#final fantasy #final fantasy xv #final fantasy 15 #noctis #gladio #prompto #ignis #rpg #jrpg #role playing games #square enix #ps4 #playstation 4 #sony #video games

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husbaano · 6 years ago

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Final Fantasy XV: Pocket Edition HD Review: A Bite-Sized Disappointment

Final Fantasy XV is a staple for modern day Square Enix that has one of the most bizarre development cycles and releases in gaming. When it originally launched for consoles in 2016 it had been 10 years since its conceptual reveal trailer, underwent both a system change as well as a director change, and a 3 month release delay. After such a long developmental cycle the game receive mediocre reviews including from myself who was extremely confused to how the game was considered “finished” in the first place with laughably unexplained cut scenes, bad animations, a simple combat system with no depth and just overall lack of polish; all of that development time and the game just ended up being bizarre and incomplete. Square Enix even stated that this was intentional in order to promote a “games as a service” model in order to keep providing for the consumers. Final Fantasy XV has continued to grow as its own brand since its release nearly 3 years ago with a full length feature film, an anime series, two mobile games, DLC and free updates to further “polish” the game. Square Enix is continuing to expand the reach of this multimedia powerhouse with the release of Final Fantasy XV: Pocket Edition for the Nintendo Switch, PS4 and Xbox One; an HD port of a “demake” originally made for mobile platforms. This demake somehow manages to capture the spirit of the original while adding some minor adjustments to make the originally once bumpy road trip a little smoother.

Final Fantasy: Pocket Edition HD retains the exact main plot from the original console release, even going as far as using the same audio and cutscenes; just chibi-fied. Set in a fantastical modern land, or a “fantasy based on reality”, Prince Noctis of the kingdom Lucis, must travel with his three companions to be wed to Lady Lunafreya of Tenebrae to complete a peace treaty. Thing don’t go exactly as planned as the peace treaty is very soon breached by the enemy nation, Niflheim, and the four boys must go on a journey to save the people of Lucis. In the original release I was baffled by how little of the story there was in the main game; a good chunk of it was found in supplemental material, specifically the anime series and the movie, like how the four boys became friends and how the peace treaty was breached in the first place; all of which are kind of crucial to the plot. To put it frankly the original story was a mess, important battles and events occur off screen, characters aren’t introduced or have purpose but the player is expected to care about them, time-skips happen often, almost no time is spent on the rival empire Niflheim and a lot of the characters associated with it go nowhere. It's just a weird occurrence when a randomly introduced man named Jared gets three main story quests devoted to him when the main antagonists get no screen time, some characters even only appear for one in the entire game. The main four characters, Noctis, Ignis, Prompto and Gladio, and their “roadtrip” are meant to be the heart and soul of the adventure; and they really are. Their interactions are charming, amusing and downright funny I love the brotherly bond the four share throughout the journey and during gameplay; its just annoying to realize that there is no in-game explanation as to how the four became friends in the first place! The story was, and is still, definitely a mess but the game developers tried to alleviate some of these issues through updates and DLC; although not perfect, the game is in way better shape than it was when it originally released.

Final Fantasy XV: Pocket Edition HD contains most of the major hiccups of the original release since its story is almost 1:1 with the original just with a new coat of paint, but it still manages to improve in some areas. One thing that stood out to me the moment I started it was the added “context” found before cut scenes; text blurbs occasionally appear to inform new players about the lore and the general story which helps comprehension immensely and is something that should have been in the original release to begin with. Another way Pocket Edition HD improves upon the story is by providing NPC dialogue strictly regarding the plot; this helps with world building and keeps the player invested in the story. One of the most common complaints about the original release was the lack of urgency since the plot seemed very “linear” but the game itself was open world so a lot of that plot tension was lost. Since Pocket Edition HD is a linear experience, the plot isn’t lost upon the player and is almost always the focus.

The entire game has been compressed into a cute, chibi art style that is very similar to the 2007 FFIV Remake for the Nintendo DS and 2013’s Bravely Default for the Nintendo 3DS. The art-style is distinct and translates the character designs well but the animations leave a lot to be desired. It feels as though they cheapened out on animations during cut scenes rather than it being part of the “demake” experience. The voice clips are all ripped from the console edition so some dramatic scenes come off as goofy rather than emotional. Pop-in is common and the game chugs while in docked-mode; in handheld mode the game runs at a smooth 60 fps most of the time. The menus are nothing special either; they feel pretty empty, boring and bare bones. It's not horrible for a mobile title, but for a $30 Nintendo Switch game this is bit disappointing.

Pocket Edition HD takes the console version and streamlines it to become a linear adventure rather than an open-world one. The world of Eos in the original release was vast but empty; it was just big for the sake of being big with nothing to do. Pocket Edition’s linearity is actually a benefit since the game seems a lot more focused, the plot is more cohesive and it feels more like a game rather than a walking simulator. The combat system has been overhauled but not for the best. As someone with 90 hours in the original release, I learnt the “depth” of the combat system but it wasn’t entirely enticing; it eventually watered down into mashing warps and holding buttons to block every attack in the game. It wasn’t deep or engaging,it kinda was just there. Now PE: HD takes this already watered down combat and dilutes it down even more. Each party member fights on their own while the player can only control Noctis. A single button is held to automatically attack the enemy you’re targeting, while occasional prompts appear that give you the option to perform a special attack with one of your teammates. Noctis can warp-strike to any enemy on the field at the cost of MP, and occasional QTEs can give you a brief window in which an incoming attack can be dodged or parried. The combat system is very bare-bones and fun at first, but it begins to drag once you realize it doesn’t get any more intricate. It’s stale and just plain easy; there is almost no challenge whatsoever. You can pause the game at any time to consume many readily available Potions to restore HP and the enemies go down fast.

In a similar fashion, the progression system is a watered down version of the console version. XP is awarded to party members after each battle and is applied at the end of each story mission. Leveling up party members allows for upgraded stats and AP to be gained. These Ability Points can be used on the bare-bones skill-tree to obtain new skills for the party; the skill-tree is just kinda basic and boring especially taking into consideration that enemies die easily to basic attacks as is.

Final Fantasy XV is Square-Enix’s new cash-cow and as such is being distributed to every platform imaginable. Square’s newest venture with the XV brand, Final Fantasy XV: Pocket Edition HD is a bizarre one and tough sell. This mobile app “demake” up-scaled for HD on the Nintendo Switch is a strange concept that lands in the story department for the most-part but lacks greatly in regards to game-play. It's a very strange release that serves little purpose considering the original release is a bit cheaper than this mobile title ported to the Nintendo Switch. It gets the job done if you want to experience XV without access to any other console but the price-point is just too high to justify the purchase.

#final fantasy #final fantasy xv #xv #review #game review #pocket edition #switch #noctis

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stompsite · 6 years ago

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So I Played FFXV

In most of my articles, I start out by presenting a problem. Maybe a lot of gamers hate zombies, and I want to write about a zombie game I love, so I present the problem of the zombie game, explaining in detail why I’m sympathetic to the concerns of people who hate zombie games, before explaining how the zombie game I love gets around that problem.

I do this because we’re rarely wrong about our feelings, but we’re often wrong about why. If I wrote “here’s a good zombie game,” no one would want to read that if they don’t like zombie games. By writing “this is why zombie games bore you and here’s how zombie games can excite you,” I appeal to a broader audience.

This brings me to Final Fantasy XV, a game one of my backers asked me to cover.

Good games writing often happens when an expert explains the ins and outs of a genre they know well to an audience they assume are quite intelligent but aren’t as familiar with the subject as they are. When I wrote about walking sims last year, I sat down and I went “okay, a lot of you are bored with walking sims. Why is that?” My editor’s boss didn’t seem to like it that much, insisting that the walking sim didn’t need any defending (even though The Chinese Room, developers of walking sims, had just shut down, and Tacoma, a walking sim with magazine covers, had sold a mere 10,000 copies). But I think people have strong feelings about things and they want to understand those feelings, so having an expert help them out without talking down to them is wonderful.

A little bit of history.

I may be an expert on video games, but I am most assuredly not an expert on JRPGs.

Unlike most people, I didn’t grow up with video game consoles. I saw a meme posted the other day saying “you can’t argue with me about games unless your first console was a Genesis or NES.” Mine was an Xbox 360, but I’ve been playing computer games for a great deal longer. Since Japan didn’t make many computer games (oh, sure, Final Fantasy VII was developed for Windows 95, but I don’t recall seeing it amidst the Diablo 2, Planescape Torment, and Half-Life boxes at CompUSA back in the day), JRPGs were never really a part of my gaming diet.

It’s not to say that JRPGs weren’t appealing. When my wisdom teeth were pulled, my mom brought our little 13” portable TV into my room and let me watch movies. I stumbled upon UHF channel 53, which broadcast a pirated version of TechTV, which was, at the time, airing Anime Unleashed, a block of awesome anime shows like Last Exile and Crest of the Stars. Most anime I’d seen up to that point was the stuff we got on kid’s shows, like Yu-Gi-Oh! and Pokemon. Digimon aside, most of it was garbage. Watching Boogiepop Phantom or Serial Experiments Lain during late nights on this stupid little black and white TV was something else entirely.

Since then, I’ve loved good anime aesthetics, so you’d think that JRPGs would be my jam. I thought so too, which is why I started talking to friends about them, but every time I did, my friends would talk about what confusing bullshit they were--especially, at the time, Final Fantasy X. “...but Final Fantasy VIII is better!” they’d tell me, and of course I’d ask them about that, and they’d tell me even more confusing bullshit. Plus, the whole turn-based gameplay thing was a huge turnoff. I got into other games, like Age of Empires and Unreal Tournament. They were more interesting. Games like Max Payne had way better stories than Final Fantasy VIII, that’s for sure.

Once, someone got me into Earthbound on an emulator, and I fell in love with it, until someone kidnapped zippy--I think she has a ‘real’ canon name but I don’t know what it is and I don’t want to know--and I couldn’t beat any of the fights because I didn’t understand the concept of grinding. Over the years, I tried other JRPGs, because the premise and the art sounded cool, but I bounced off the gameplay or the presentation time and time again. The closest I got to loving a JRPG was Dragon’s Dogma, and that was more of an open world sandbox game than any kind of RPG.

This brings me to another point.

JRPGs aren’t RPGs.

People usually protest when I make this point. Either I’m wrong or it doesn’t matter, they say, but I think it does matter because I’m a game designer, and understanding the specifics of genre is a really useful skill for a game designer to have. When I look at the JRPG, I see a lot of very specific elements that make them stand apart. If I say “I want to make an RPG,” chances are, I will not make something like a JRPG. If I say “I want to make a JRPG,” I will. The mechanics are distinct and interesting and worth examining on their own; no JRPG in existence could ever stand up to even a half-decent RPG if we judged it by RPG terms. The roleplaying just isn’t there.

Judging JRPGs by their own standards lets us see these wonderful games for what they really are. JRPGs are not RPGs from Japan. They’re not even RPGs. Once, when I made this argument, a guy fought back by arguing that a game wasn’t an RPG unless it had a party (Witcher 3 doesn’t), a bestiary (pretty sure New Vegas hasn’t got one), was turn-based (quick, someone tell Dragon Age!), and had a linear narrative (hahahahahahaha!).

“But you’re playing a role!”

Playing a role means following a script, which is what you do in any game without choice and consequence. Roleplay is a specific kind of improvisational acting that’s about creating and defining your relationship with the world around you. Dragon Age: Origins is a roleplaying game: you can be a dwarf commoner or a human noble or whatever, and your various choices will have major impacts on your relationships. You can define the person that you are. They are tabula rasa.

In every JRPG I’ve ever seen, you are a specific character with a specific personality, and while you may have some choices--Noctis in FFXV can choose to let the crew pull over and take a group photo whenever Prompto asks him too--those choices have little impact on the overall narrative or Noctis’ relationships with the characters around him. Lunafreya will always love him, Gladiolus will always get mad at him when Ignis loses his vision, etc.

Different kinds of games.

Pillars of Eternity, which isn’t a great game, but one I enjoyed well enough, let me set my character’s stats prior to playing the game. I defined my character as a rogue with great mechanical skills and dexterity. In Final Fantasy XV, when you level up… you can’t really control how your character’s stats changed.

None of this is bad! It’s just different, like the difference between a third person shooter and a first person shooter. First person shooting lets you focus on the environment and your interactions with it, but third person shooters tend to focus on your character. They have their own unique strengths. You can’t judge a first person shooter by third person standards and vice versa. The same is true with JRPGs and RPGs. They are different games. And that’s good.

The Game:

When it comes to Final Fantasy XV, this is the foundation I have. I’m vaguely turned off by all the stories I’ve heard, I love the aesthetics of most of them, and the gameplay is something I feel is wholly distinct from other games.

Final Fantasy XV appealed to me because it had real-time action combat instead of being a heavily menu-focused turn-based affair.

So, here’s the deal: you’re Prompto, a prince, who is on his way to meet the object--and really, she is treated like an object in this game--of his arranged marriage, Lunafreya, who’s the princess of a rival kingdom, I guess? Except the wiki says she’s a captive of Niflheim, but she seems to get along well with her brother, who is in charge of the armies of Niflheim, so… like… yeah, I don’t really know what’s going on there.

The wiki also says she’s the “main heroine” of the game, even though she barely has any screen time at all. She has magical powers that cures people of some weird plague that’s making nights last longer, except that the nights are still getting longer and more people are succumbing to the plague, so she’s really bad at her job.

Honestly, she’s just there to look pretty and say things like “Noct, please hurry.” Then she dies. Then one time her ghost shows up and uses force powers to save the crew by removing plot armor that was only put there so she could show up to remove it.

She is not emotionally important to you.

This isn’t like Alan Wake, a game that reveals over time the complex nature of Alan’s relationship and just how wonderful of a person Alice Wake is. In that game, Alan was motivated by guilt, and you, as a player, could connect to him because you got to see all of this unfold. You wanted to help Alan find Alice not because “Alice is Alan’s wife,” but because you saw that these two wonderful, flawed people loved and cared for each other and deserved happiness.

Lunafreya is a pantomime of a love interest, but there’s never any real love there, so there’s no urgency to actually chase her down, no sense of loss when she dies. It’s not all her fault though (I mean, duh, it’s Square’s fault). Noct is equally culpable. He’s just… kinda empty. He’s a shell who occasionally feels things when the script calls for it (ur dad died, be sad, ur gf died, be sad), but who doesn’t feel like a real person. I don’t really care about anything Noct wants. I just kind of do the objectives because they’re what’s next.

I spent my whole life being told that JRPG stories were the best that video games had to offer, and… look, being completely honest here, Final Fantasy XV is the JRPG plot as described to me--incomprehensible, pointless, and horribly paced, doing grandiose things because the developers want to do grandiose things, never earning a second of the awe it expects you to have.

“Yup,” I found myself thinking when I finished it, “this is exactly like every JRPG that has ever been described to me except Earthbound.”

Earthbound is great.

Final Fantasy XV makes the mistake of assuming that because it looks epic, it is epic, but since it earns nothing, it isn’t epic at all. It’s a hodgepodge of ideas. Maybe other JRPGs do a better job, but based on every other JRPG I’ve played, like Xenoblade Chronicles and Suikoden, it’s just not a very compelling game.

So it may surprise you to know that I liked it a great deal.

Brotherhood.

In my film education, we talked a great deal about the idea of the “male as default.” A lot of this is rooted in idiotic Freudian psychology (especially all the Lacan stuff), so it’s as bunk as astrology, even when it sounds good, but let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater here: all media has a perspective, and most media’s perspective assumes the male perspective as the neutral one.

American film does this too: it assumes everything is seen through American eyes. Most Hollywood movies are very, very American-as-default things, but that doesn’t mean they’re American movies. I’m not just talking geography, I’m talking assumptions about customs, camera angles, lighting, and so on. Russian film (European films too, but especially Russian film) tends to focus on specific body parts, using juxtaposition in editing to create specific senses about things. American films tend to favor wider shots, creating those same moods through things like motion and staging.

A film from another country can feel like it came from a different mind than the Hollywood monolith…

...and yet…

...there are very few genuinely American films out there. This is partly because most American films are built for export to other countries, so rather than focusing on specifically American subject matter, they focus on more universal things like drama and romance. Since America is so good at exporting American film, and many other cultures imitate the stylings of American films (because learning from successful things is how you succeed, after all), we end up with a very dominant American culture that has very little to actually say about America. In fact, lots of what America is tends to get lost in the shuffle.

If you’re lucky, you get filmmakers like Terrence Malick, who make films that are really about America and being American, but the significance of this is lost because people look at it and go “why do you make American films? All films are American!” But there is something specific there. Something interesting.

Maleness is the same way. It’s the assumed default in a lot of narratives, but because of this, very little attention is given to it. I once walked into the USAF museum while the XB-70 Valkyrie was in one of the hangars and didn’t see it because it was so big I thought it was the ceiling. Maleness in fiction is like that; it’s rarely examined closely because it’s too busy being big.

Here are two men. They are friends. The end.

We rarely look at how men bond, how they perceive each other, how they fight, how they talk and think because we’re too busy writing stories about the basic, empty characters who travel from point A to point B and the adventures they have along the way.

Oh, sure, sometimes you have people interrogating maleness, but they’re really only doing it to say “look what’s bad about being a man,” because they assume that male-as-default means we already see male-as-good, when really, male-as-default is male-as-nonspecifity. The beauty of maleness is rarely ever explored.

Somehow, despite all its narrative shortcomings, Final Fantasy XV excels at its understanding of maleness.

I think a big part of this is the road trip nature of the game. Sure, they’re ostensibly on the run and simultaneously on their way to a wedding, but that doesn’t prevent The Boys from having a good time. Each boy has a specific personality that is brought out in interesting ways; Ignis cares a stickler for safety and rules, Prompto is energetic and mischievous, Gladiolus is strong and confident and protective of those who are not. Noctis is basically an empty shell, but when he’s interacting with The Boys, there are still good moments to be found.

As you drive through the world, fighting monsters and helping friends, you learn more about these boys and the things they care about. Gladiolus is self-conscious about seeming too caring, but he cares so deeply, especially about his little sister Iris. He recognizes her crush on Noctis and even tricks Noctis into giving her flowers, knowing it would make Iris’ day. Prompto’s lower-class upbringing means he’s tremendously insecure about his relationship with the other boys. They’re not aware of how awkward he feels in the presence of people much wealthier and more important than he is, and when he makes it known, they do everything they can to assure him that he’s their brother and they wouldn’t have it any other way.

There’s something else that I’ve never been able to put into words. It’s a feeling I have occasionally, and one I cherish. When interacting with most men, there’s a degree of camaraderie, like, hey, we’re all on the same team, we’re cheering alongside each other, that kind of thing. There’s a whole second language that men are only capable of employing with other men that’s completely nonverbal, but not all men are comfortable using it with each other right away.

There comes a point in a male relationship where everything just sort of clicks. That guy over there is just a man you know, but that guy over there, you and him are mates and you’d fuckin die for each other if you had to. When you do things together, there’s a sense of rightness and appropriateness to it all. If your best friend asks you to help him carry some groceries in from the car, it’s different than if you help your next door neighbor who you don’t really know all that well.

I’m sure other, better writers have written about this sense of brotherhood. When I’m playing Destiny with a matchmade team and we roll an enemy squad into a mercy rule defeat, it feels good. When my friends and I trigger the mercy rule against the same thing, it’s like, heck yeah, these are the men who mean the most to me in this fuckin world and I am so lucky to have them with me.

Final Fantasy XV does its darndest to put this in the mechanics. The boys res each other during battle. They all have unique combo moves that play off each other. The battle barks are all designed to make you feel like… hell yeah, these are my bros, we kick ass together.

How many games just have two dudes talkin about dude things together? How many games are like “yeah, bro, let’s go running in the sand and whoever outruns the other is the winner!” How many games get that great banter is affectionate? How many games are willing to have a bunch of dudes who love each other and will die for each other whose relationships deteriorate over time but they come back from them stronger than ever?

There are a lot of stories about men in games, but very few stories about being a man.

Final Fantasy XV might be the best of ‘em.

And it’s still… dumb and flawed at times. I think I would’ve liked a more interesting protagonist and central conflict. I think the game is at its best when you’re cruising around a big, open world, humming about chocobos. I think Square had the opportunity to make a huge, incredible game about an adventure and they wasted it on a game that gets progressively linear (in a bad way) over time. I mentally checked out by the end of the game. I didn’t care that some random giant dude showed up, I beat the shit out of him, and then I had to fight a couple more dudes just like him, and then after beating them into submission too… we, uh, killed the guy who was stalking us the whole game? Why would I connect with random giant ghost kings when I spent the entire game playing alongside my brothers? Instead they get knocked out and fall asleep on the floor and I have the ending I was always destined to have.

Man, fuck destiny.

The game is great when it’s being personal, but it sucks when it’s trying to do all this other stuff. There are no affectionate moments between Noctis and Lunafreya. Mister Badguy, whose name I forgot and don’t feel like looking up because fuck that guy, he was boring, has to exposit his backstory (i was gonna be king but then i didn’t get to be king so i decided to have my revenge in like 2000 years’ time! mwahahaha!!! here is my entire personal history!) instead of just being interesting on a dramatic level.

It’s bad when it’s trying to be a grandiose RPG. It’s great when it’s doing something I can’t think of any other game doing before. I think you should play the first 8 or 9 chapters of the game. I think everyone should. That’s where the fun lies.

What about the gameplay?

The gameplay is kind of neat. Some stuff doesn’t feel nearly as good as other modern open-world games (like, uh, driving, which is kinda terrible and inconsistent about when it lets you drive, and interrupts your drive in really annoying ways at night, but the attention given to things like “needing to fill up with gas” is really cool).

Other stuff is clearly channeling How JRPGs Work, which is cool. The way the game gives you XP or deals with magic and abilities feels Very Classically JRPG. But it’s all wrapped up in a real-time action game that’s nowhere near as satisfying as Dragon’s Dogma or Ninja Gaiden or something. I’m not saying it has to be, but holding down a button and watching your character autoattack isn’t very fun. Zipping around with your teleport power is totally awesome though.

Magic is super strong and I probably should’ve used it more, but I was never really in love with crafting it. The leveling grid is kinda cool, but I have no idea how, when I did nearly every quest in the game, someone is supposed to unlock some of those skills. It just doesn’t seem possible considering the game’s content.

Quest design isn’t great; most of it’s just random fetch quests. The open world itself is nice most of the time, especially when you have a chocobo, but because the game’s so invested in making you feel like you’re on a road trip, you end up doing a lot of driving which a more generous fast travel system would have avoided, which means you end up seeing a lot of the same places over and over again, which kinda kills the whole road trip vibe.

And So it Ends.

There’s DLC. I never did that. I kinda soured on the whole epic journey by the end because of how boring the solo stuff was, and the DLC appears to be all solo stuff. Sorry, but the overall narrative and the gameplay just isn’t there. That’s not what makes FFXV good. The camaraderie is. The vibes are. Listening to the sizzle of ignis’ cooking or watching a huge monster fly in from above. There are so many incredible moments in this game. It’s too bad the narrative and the combat couldn’t keep up.

I think FFXV benefits and suffers from being a big 3D real-time game. A lot of classic JRPGs are 2D affairs where you have to communicate everything purely through text boxes. FFXV has the benefit of voice and physical performance, adding a huge layer of nuance and personality to its characters, their wants, and needs. But because it’s a big, bombastic 3D game, it can’t help itself, and wastes time with boring, endless set pieces that look cool but do little else.

Could I recommend it? I dunno.

But it kinda makes me want to try other JRPGs, even though there’s really nothing else like it out there.

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