Date played: January 22nd
Platform: PS4
I spent a bit of time in the afternoon playing FFXV, but I didn't continue the story. Instead, I went back in time to return to the main map and completed a few hunts, since I felt like just fighting some monsters. I received a call from Cindy saying that there were some earthquakes in the area. When I went to see her in Hammerhead, she sent me to another outpost to the south. All of the secondary quest givers were there and had helpful items for me. Then I went to the mountain nearby and discovered the source of the earthquakes.
It was a monster. A giant fucking monster called Adamantoise. Now, when I say it's giant, I am not really using the right words. It's bigger than any of the summons. In fact, the Adamantoise is like a turtle, and it's shell was the entire motherfucking mountain! It was unbelievable to see it move around in real time... Nevertheless, the thing is level 99 and clearly extremely dangerous, so I was forced to flee. There is now a hunt for this beast, which I imagine will be one of the last things I'll do in the game.
Later that night, I played again, but this time continued the story. We're aboard the train to Gralea to go find the crystal, and hopefully, Prompto, who we assume is in Ardyn's care somehow. We stopped at a big crevasse because ice was blocking the way for the train. It turns out, that crevasse is where Shiva's corpse lies. Shiva is the Goddess of ice, and it seems like she died there a long time ago, but it's unclear.
We got out and tried to find a way to get the train moving again. Of course, we were attacked by demons, but nothing too crazy. There was even a boss called Deathclaw. I think he was supposed to be pretty hard, but I was way too high level for him to be a problem. After the boss, as the other guys were getting on the train, Noctis saw Ardyn. Noctis chases him but clearly, there's some crazy illusion shit going on and he wasn't able to catch him.
Then out of the blue, Gentiana showed up, the lady who acted as a medium for Lunafreya earlier in the game. She quickly revealed herself to be none other than Shiva herself! The corpse in the crevasse must have been just a fake... Shiva is beautiful, has very little clothing and very nice curves, so she's quite attractive, even if she's a literal ice Goddess... She freezes Ardyn and the remaining demons, then Noctis slashes Ardyn's frozen body to a million pieces. Unfortunately, he returns a moment later and explains that he's immortal! Thankfully, he leaves us alone, but it was weird and very confusing to me. Oh, and somehow, he managed to disable Noctis' weapons!
The train is still frozen in place, so the guys go to the cargo hold and take the Regalia for a car escape towards Gralea. There's a whole slew of Empire weapons chasing after us, so the drive was pretty cool. I dodged enemy fire and swerved around some wrecks, it was great. Unfortunately, the Regalia was wrecked at the end of the chase... That made me really sad, but I have a feeling Cindy will find a way to fix it or replace it. During the sequence, Noctis was separated from Ignis and Gladio, so the King is alone for now.
Without access to his weapons, Noctis is pretty damn vulnerable, so he decides to finally put on the ring of Lucis to defend himself. It grants him the ability to cast a death spell, which kills enemies, but also needs a lot of charging time and consumes an absurd amount of MP. Noctis enters Zegnautus Keep to retrieve Prompto and the crystal with nothing more than a ring on his finger...
Zegnautus Keep is a huge dungeon, but since there's no traditional combat or even party members, the whole segment was really weird. In fact, I think this is worst part of the game so far. I had to navigate long empty corridors, hiding from the occasional enemy or taking out a few demons with the death spell. There are no humans here, which is weird as fuck.
After a bit of fucking around and exploration, I found a second spell, which I forgot how to use right away. Then I found a third spell, this time, a Holy dodge that deals damage when executed well. This became my main weapon rather quickly as the death spell was too long to cast and impractical. I then found Prompto locked in a cage, but when I managed to get to him, he was nothing but another illusion by Ardyn...
There was a kind of boss fight here also, against a weird demonic insect thing. Without any weapons, my only choice was to dodge it until it died. Not fun. To my relief, I scored a new Royal Arm, the king's sword no less. That means I can at least fight a little bit without resorting to long dodging contests. I'm on the last floor of the dungeon now, so hopefully I can get out of there soon.
Platform: PS4
I spent a bit of time in the afternoon playing FFXV, but I didn't continue the story. Instead, I went back in time to return to the main map and completed a few hunts, since I felt like just fighting some monsters. I received a call from Cindy saying that there were some earthquakes in the area. When I went to see her in Hammerhead, she sent me to another outpost to the south. All of the secondary quest givers were there and had helpful items for me. Then I went to the mountain nearby and discovered the source of the earthquakes.
It was a monster. A giant fucking monster called Adamantoise. Now, when I say it's giant, I am not really using the right words. It's bigger than any of the summons. In fact, the Adamantoise is like a turtle, and it's shell was the entire motherfucking mountain! It was unbelievable to see it move around in real time... Nevertheless, the thing is level 99 and clearly extremely dangerous, so I was forced to flee. There is now a hunt for this beast, which I imagine will be one of the last things I'll do in the game.
Later that night, I played again, but this time continued the story. We're aboard the train to Gralea to go find the crystal, and hopefully, Prompto, who we assume is in Ardyn's care somehow. We stopped at a big crevasse because ice was blocking the way for the train. It turns out, that crevasse is where Shiva's corpse lies. Shiva is the Goddess of ice, and it seems like she died there a long time ago, but it's unclear.
We got out and tried to find a way to get the train moving again. Of course, we were attacked by demons, but nothing too crazy. There was even a boss called Deathclaw. I think he was supposed to be pretty hard, but I was way too high level for him to be a problem. After the boss, as the other guys were getting on the train, Noctis saw Ardyn. Noctis chases him but clearly, there's some crazy illusion shit going on and he wasn't able to catch him.
Then out of the blue, Gentiana showed up, the lady who acted as a medium for Lunafreya earlier in the game. She quickly revealed herself to be none other than Shiva herself! The corpse in the crevasse must have been just a fake... Shiva is beautiful, has very little clothing and very nice curves, so she's quite attractive, even if she's a literal ice Goddess... She freezes Ardyn and the remaining demons, then Noctis slashes Ardyn's frozen body to a million pieces. Unfortunately, he returns a moment later and explains that he's immortal! Thankfully, he leaves us alone, but it was weird and very confusing to me. Oh, and somehow, he managed to disable Noctis' weapons!
The train is still frozen in place, so the guys go to the cargo hold and take the Regalia for a car escape towards Gralea. There's a whole slew of Empire weapons chasing after us, so the drive was pretty cool. I dodged enemy fire and swerved around some wrecks, it was great. Unfortunately, the Regalia was wrecked at the end of the chase... That made me really sad, but I have a feeling Cindy will find a way to fix it or replace it. During the sequence, Noctis was separated from Ignis and Gladio, so the King is alone for now.
Without access to his weapons, Noctis is pretty damn vulnerable, so he decides to finally put on the ring of Lucis to defend himself. It grants him the ability to cast a death spell, which kills enemies, but also needs a lot of charging time and consumes an absurd amount of MP. Noctis enters Zegnautus Keep to retrieve Prompto and the crystal with nothing more than a ring on his finger...
Zegnautus Keep is a huge dungeon, but since there's no traditional combat or even party members, the whole segment was really weird. In fact, I think this is worst part of the game so far. I had to navigate long empty corridors, hiding from the occasional enemy or taking out a few demons with the death spell. There are no humans here, which is weird as fuck.
After a bit of fucking around and exploration, I found a second spell, which I forgot how to use right away. Then I found a third spell, this time, a Holy dodge that deals damage when executed well. This became my main weapon rather quickly as the death spell was too long to cast and impractical. I then found Prompto locked in a cage, but when I managed to get to him, he was nothing but another illusion by Ardyn...
There was a kind of boss fight here also, against a weird demonic insect thing. Without any weapons, my only choice was to dodge it until it died. Not fun. To my relief, I scored a new Royal Arm, the king's sword no less. That means I can at least fight a little bit without resorting to long dodging contests. I'm on the last floor of the dungeon now, so hopefully I can get out of there soon.
