Sulphur on 16/6/2018 at 17:58
^ Prompto sure knows how to level up some times. Not bad for the runt of the party.
Okay, I finished up the DLC in an effort to wrap up this game. As a whole it's... actually fairly decent? Well, apart from the Gladiolus one, which is just a short set of combat trials in a very good-looking dungeon, else is mostly filler. Each of the eps try something new with the gameplay, and as with the main game the mechanics are showy, but with the depth of a puddle. Still, points for trying, and Ignis's episode makes me do a complete 180 on his character, he's now my favourite of the lot. (I wish someone had directed his English voice actor to not intone
every single line as an inflated ponce; it doesn't make his character endearing, and his Japanese VO is much better at rendering him with the tones of the actual human being the story's trying to depict.)
So, onwards.
Episode Gladiolus: not much to say here except (and I'll come back to this) the soundtrack is bookended by some absolutely banging orchestral work.* It's about an hour and change and is a dungeon gauntlet with some rather clunky mechanics. I'd spoil the story bits, but if you actually intend to play FF XV as intended (Kingsglaive->anime->video game, in that order), you may appreciate the additional detail it brings to a side character. Me, I think I fell asleep once and then had to wipe doze slobber off the keyboard.
FINAL RANK: SHONEN SEPPUKU. Sorry Gladio, you've got abs I'd kill for but your entirely random mission gets an entirely random rank. 's only fair.
Episode Prompto: Not enough character work to make the story matter to me, because it's a pretty rote section
about Prompto. Okay, that's not actually a spoiler, but I'm just being careful here. You'll know where this slots into FF XV if you've finished it. It does have a nice section with a semi-open environment that contrasts with the drab industrial horror gunshooty bits, but overall it's a slightly middle of the road package. This despite some bits that should be emotionally affecting, but just left me going, 'Jeez, is that what Prompto'd look like if he were bald? Groce.'
FINAL RANK: STAR WARS EPISODE II WAS BETTER. Okay, maybe not. 6.5 selfies while falling off a cliff/10.
Episode Ignis: Oh my stars. This one's actually rather good. I'm not spoilering this - it's about Ignis, okay? It's about a day in his life tracking down rare ingredients for an aphrodisiac chocobo casserole, with the highlights involving stealth assassinating a black chocobo chick while humming the chocobo tune, and a rhythm action cooking minigame with feral cactuars trying to escape the pot. Rad!
Right, spoilers. While I may have been slightly down on Prompto, this one fills in an important part in the story with a delivery that hooked me,
and it has two gameplay features that made the location (
Altissia in the middle of that late-game rain of destruction) a joy to move around in - kinetic, element-based combat that's still mashy but looks great, and the other thing is very fun but also a spoiler: (
a hookshot a la AssCreed Syndicate that lets you zip around the rooftops for a decent portion of the episode. It's fairly well-paced for the 1.5 hours it lasts, and the story beats fill in a hole or two that I'd wanted FFXV to address near the end; it also does this with a razor sharp clarity that draws a tear from my eye. Also, who did the music again?
FINAL RANK: 9/10, specs. Pretty fucking good, plus that soundtrack is
so good.
And now, for a final(-ish) word on FFXV.Two weeks later, now that there's sufficient distance between me and the ending of FFXV, I... I really liked the game. 70% of it is
obnoxious filler; most of the story is confused, plodding, and fractured; it's pretty stereotypical and lacking in its depiction of women; the gameplay is passable at best, and incredibly shallow at worst; and there's not enough incidental animation or banter to prevent them from looping fairly quickly.
But.
You know - I watched the anime, I watched the movie, I did the tour quests. Those things shouldn't be optional, and they're the greatest problem with this game: without them, it doesn't have enough character to sell you on its premise. With them it's still a plodding mess at best, but you
could end up liking these 20-something airheads, and that makes a difference. They have personalities, and in the late game (too late for many), the story knows how to use that to make its final chapters the most unexpected comeback I've ever experienced in gaming.
Yes, I'm pretty fucking shocked. I liked FFXV. It's not for everyone: it's an experimental game with awkward design decisions (press the same button to interact
AND jump? oh my dear god) and terrible production decisions (hiya, chapter 13), and yet all of that... comes together in the end. It has an emotional through line that it sees through with dogged determination like FFs of old. It does that with a purity of spirit that I didn't think I'd ever be able to find in FF after Sakaguchi left. And that's important. Video games need their soul back.
I'm glad FF XV was acknowledged by most of the world not for its faults, but for its spirit. It's got a familiar voice, like a friend I haven't seen in forever, but when I hear them, it brings a smile to my face.
-----
*This isn't a footnote, but a side-note: FF XV had a gorgeous soundtrack. I wasn't surprised when I heard that Yoko Shimomura had composed most of it. If you remember the (
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvJ209AHTiw) Parasite Eve, (
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3Nl6S-tTkM) Legend of Mana, (
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LK34OebV2EU) Kingdom Hearts, and (
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfzIeYFwN24) Live a Live soundtracks, all of those were her.
What
did surprise me was that the DLC had some incredible music as well. Episode Gladiolus's (
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BWdBY_8QoY) Opening Theme is a rousing thing of beauty, and the episode ends with FF V's Battle on the Big Bridge (
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DV8SJ57dgyU) rearranged for an entire orchestra and choir. It's glorious.
So, y'know, I had to look up the second OST and its composers. Tetsuya Shibuta? Naoshi Mizuta? Yoshitaka Suzuki? Never heard of them, but some good stuff! Almost Nier-level good in places. Then I saw Nobuo Uematsu's name for a few tracks, and I was like, 'okay so that's just old FF tracks they've rearranged and crediting him for, right?' And yes, that's partly it, but he's also done new pieces? One of them is a goddamn (
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpbOrXf9zV0) epic gospel track. Another one is the Chocobo theme - WAIT DON'T GO, this is actually good - arranged with accordion and strings and fused with the Moogle Theme as a (
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aK6GjoAsU5A) tasteful waltz. (There's also a ukulele in there, somehow.)
And right after that it dawned on me that they got Yasunori Mitsuda to lead in composing Ignis's episode, and he brought his entire talent to bear. (
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DzI1nB-REw) Yes.
That's right. That is officially the three best jRPG composers on the planet contributing to a single project, and it's
Final goddamn
Fantasy. Oof. And of course they knocked it out of the park. But that's for you to discover, if you ever play this.
For now the best piece is, of course, the quietest. I'm leaving it here with the note that it's credited to Uematsu and Mitsuda both.
It's the sound of the circle closing.
[video=youtube;ru3-_g4xyy4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ru3-_g4xyy4[/video]
