Too Fast Too Fantasy XV: Chocobros Vs. The volcano

Stop the Regalia, I want to go out. In my research a finish Final Fantasy XV before this Friday, when it disappears from both Xbox Game Pass and my S Series, I got to the point of the game I feared. It is the time when history takes a 180-degree turn from the discouraged road trip into an obscure treaty of war and sacrifice. Oh, Shiva, I hate it.

Over the weekend a lot of things happened to get me to this point: the boys fought a light guerrilla war, we climbed a volcano twice, we ate on the mainland, they made our asses suffer beautiful dragon, and took about 90,000 gils taking pictures.

In doing all this, I accumulated 19 hours of play, up to 26 hours in total. Of those 19 hours, I would estimate that only five of them were dedicated to doing historical events. I just couldn’t hurry to this game and now, as I contemplate the prospect of being sent straight to the depressing end tan glad you didn’t. I’m pretty sure my reluctance to do just the story comes from the fact that I was finding, doing, and watching a lot of things I lost during my first game.

For example: I had no idea you could do small side missions with the boys. After finishing a hunt in the Galdin Pier area, I rested at a nearby campsite. In the morning, Gladio pulled me away and asked me if I would go running with him in the morning. Naturally I said yes, and the next day he and I went for a run on the beach. Noctis shouted and complained all the time because he wasn’t a morning person, but at the end of the race he said something like, “You know, it’s a little nice at this hour” and the camera moved up to get this (and I can’t stress enough) beautiful wide shot of the whole beach soaked with the sunrise while Gladio said, “If that’s all you get out of it, that’s good enough for me.” Signal that the heart is melting. It’s like the game tells me, “Yeah, Ash, you’ve wasted five more minutes doing something that has nothing to do with your ultimate goal, but hey, you did you can see a plan that cannot be seen from your preferred location. So, if that’s all you get out of it, it’s worth it. “

I spent all Saturday looking for camps that allowed me to see those vignettes and learned some interesting things. Final Fantasy knowledge of my problems. On one of Prompto’s adventures, he asked me to help him take a picture of a catoblepas. Now the catoblepas he is a bull-like monster of Greek origin which appears in many games, not just in Final Fantasy series, and for the longest time I thought it was pronounced as “kah-toe-blee-floor.” It turns out I’m wrong: it is pronounced “kah-TOE-ble-pas” (which rhymes with as Strongbad saysfhqwhgads. ”) [Hums] “Come catoblepas, I said come catoblepas.”

Special cry to the reader who, in response to my money problems, he suggested I look for Vyv in Lestallum. I completed all the missions I had, and the resulting cash takes me to my eyes in a healing way. That’s also why I ended up climbing a volcano twice: once to take a picture of it and twice because once I got off the volcano I received a notification from another research. Since I was already there, I decided to go back up the mountain, burning the rubber of my shoes (and the HP of the health bars of the chocobros) to find one of the hidden Royal Arms. I didn’t do much with Royal Arms in my first game, left for its HP drain properties, but finding a hidden one by chance has obsessed me with finding the rest. I’ve already gotten another optional Royal Arm which, when combined with the ones I got during the main mission, put me at eight of 13. Still, I don’t use them as much as my Ragnarok still does shit quite easily. .

My quest to finish FF15 Before time ran out, it meant I would finally have to go back in history and end my good times. I got to the part I won’t spoil that I’ll call The Sad Moment. There have been many Final Fantasy Sad moments that didn’t really make me feel sad, and moments that aren’t supposed to be sad, but that are completely shattered. I didn’t hear anything FF7big surprise (if you know, you already know). But I was baffled like a newborn baby when, inside Final Fantasy XIII, Dahj, son of Sazh Katzroy, was restored and Sazh, the prankster who turns out to be one of the best damn characters of all Final Fantasy canon: falls to his knees, hugs his son and laments. I wanted to feel something FF15It’s a sad moment and I think so, but more for the voice acting and images of the scene than for any affection I had for the characters involved.

What made me feel sadder was that after that moment, the game changed fundamentally. No more fun rides in the car (except through a deus ex canine-ica this will allow me to travel in time to the point of no return). Now the game is all sad-boy hours, that fucked up.

Still, I have to say I love the road FF15 emphasize how different things are now, changing the way you are used to playing. That food that increases the stats you are used to eating? No more, replaced by cup noodles or, if you didn’t buy any, me questionable cold food can. When you camp, instead of everyone sitting comfortably around a campfire, the game aims to show Gladio getting up and walking away in disgust to sit alone. Even the images have changed. Instead of being funny selfies or candid shots of smiling boys, all Prompto catches with his camera are shots from the back of everyone’s head and Noctis hanging his pain.

Now I’m in chapter 11 of 15. Where I used to worry about whether I would finish on time, I feel pretty good about my chances. So good that I will potentially sabotage myself with a few new goals. I intend to find the whole Royal Weapons, including the one hidden in the optional Costlemark Tower mega-dungeon. (I also have a search for Dino the New Jersey jeweler there that I am looking to complete.) Most importantly I will complete all character episodes.

I’m pretty sure dedicating myself to all this busy work and distracting from the main missions is one way to avoid the inevitable. I don’t want this game to end, especially because I’m damned with the prior knowledge that its ending is so different and supremely unsatisfactory from the start. Yes Final Fantasy XV it was just a collection of disparate adventures glued together by a story about friendship bonds that would be a great one of all time. But it’s not, and if it weren’t for the blessed ability to go back in time and keep wandering around, I would consider quitting smoking right now. Since I didn’t finish the game when it came out, and my memory of the ending is so faint, I hope there’s something I’m missing that redeems the story. Maybe the character episodes (which I haven’t experienced yet) will help as well. Either way, I’m on the stretch of house when five days are left. See you all tomorrow.