DLC Review: Final Fantasy XV Assassin's Festival

With Final Fantasy XV’s Universe constantly expanding, a free Assassin’s Creed tie-in chapter is a very unique addition. As a tie-in to a game that is from a different series, developer and world, it’s a wonder how this Assassins Festival manages to mostly fit itself into Eos convincingly. The gameplay in this expansion expands on Noctis’ ability to warp around areas by letting him traverse areas in new ways, at least when it’s not being plagued by XV’s old downfall of invisible walls. But if you want to spend more time with XV’s still likeable cast and play some fun side quests, the Assassin’s Festival may be worth your time.

The Pros and Problems of the Final Fantasy XV Universe

I love Final Fantasy XV on PS4. I love it enough to have played it for almost 200 hours. I’ve watched Kingsglaive and the Brotherhood anime, played A King’s Tale, a little bit of King’s Knight and having also played the Episode Gladiolus and Prompto DLC, I’m eagerly waiting for the Episode DLC based around my favourite XV character Ignis. When they first announced the Final Fantasy XV Universe, I was ecstatic. I was in the group who loved the characters and the story of XV and was excited to get more background into some of the main group. That was until the universe kept expanding.

Why There's A Place for Silly JRPGs

Last year, I tried a few JRPGs in my backlog I had been really excited for, such as Fire Emblem: Awakening and Lost Dimension. I really enjoyed both of these games, but they both had stories that were predominately serious and after playing them back-to-back, I found myself in a weird place where I briefly wondered if I needed a break from JRPGs because the stories were feeling so heavy. But if course, the answer turned out to be no, as after playing a very silly JRPG in the form of Sorcery Saga: the Curse of the Great Curry God, I'm into JRPGs more than ever, with my love of JRPG silliness fully tended to. Silly JRPGs often get a lot of flack from well-meaning JRPG fans that think they're a trashy part of the genre and I understand they're not for everyone. Personally, I love these silly and sometimes trashy JRPGs for a break between and during serious games or for when I want to laugh while still playing game mechanics I like.

My first silly JRPG experience was probably Hyperdimension Neptunia: Producing Perfection (Technically it's not JRPG, rather an Idol Simulation game, but it's in the same vain as the main Neptunia series so I count it). I was attracted to it because I'd always had a small interest in trying the Neptunia series because of its gorgeous anime cover art and the Idol premise in Producing Perfection pushed me over the edge as a fan of pop music. I spent a pleasant few hours in my first playthrough with Neptune and was completely charmed by her love of pudding and refusal to take anything seriously. I was so charmed by her I played through each other character's story as well and found myself giggling and just feeling happy while playing this carefree Idol game. I'd always played serious games with a hint of humour, so having the humour portion outweighing the serious was a completely new experience and I enjoyed it more than I thought I would.

I found the same light-hearted feeling when I tried Sorcery Saga: the Curry of the Great Curry God last year. I was really excited for Sorcery Saga because along with being humourous, it was a proper RPG. In terms of being delightfully ridiculous while being a good gaming experience, it didn't fail to deliver. I was hunting around a fantasy world desperately looking for curry ingredients that were centuries old with my strange everything eating pink thing named Kuu and was constantly bombarded with silliness from every side character in the game, including but not limited to a group of heroes named after food, a Prince that falls in love with almost every woman he sees and his poor wife. Best of all, I was getting this beside a fairly familiar gameplay experience, which allowed me to have fun while also feeling at home.

Outside of full silly JRPG experiences, silly moments can also be a great way to break up the heaviness in a JRPG and humanise otherwise very serious characters. One of my recent favourite characters is Ignis from Final Fantasy XV and I don't know if he would be if there hadn’t been the more lighthearted moments with the group. Imagining Ignis without the recipes and sarcastic humour is pretty sad as they're what make him so likeable and made him feel much more relatable when heavy story moments hit. This kind of silliness has made many of my favourite characters feel much more relatable and the fact that so many JRPG series embrace this is one the things that make me love JRPGs above all other games.

Whether it's in a royal quest or a search for legendary curry, silliness is a great thing that has been embraced in the JRPG genre and it's great that there are games that embrace this in big and small ways. I probably love deep stories more than silly JRPGs, but I hope to try more silly games such as Senran Kagura and Cyberdimension Neptunia for more laughs mixed in with my JRPG fun. Some people may brush these silly games aside, but for me they’re a strange part of what makes the JRPG genre special.

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What's your favourite silly JRPG? Do you prefer your JRPGs to be more serious or silly?
Leave a comment below, send me a tweet at @JRPGJungle, hit me up on Facebook, Youtube or Instagram and let's talk!

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The Platinum Trophy Journey: Final Fantasy XV

On March 10th at 8pm, you can bet I was grinning pretty hard as my platinum trophy for Final Fantasy XV popped. Not only is it my little badge of honour for a game I've had over 100 hours of fun with, it's my first platinum trophy since 2015 and my second JRPG one since I platinumed Persona 4 Golden in 2014. Platinum trophies are my excuse to stay in worlds I don't want to leave yet, and this Final Fantasy XV trophy gave me another 60 hours of gameplay to satisfy my addiction to its open world.

The extra time I spent in Final Fantasy XV going through the trophy list and finding out what I needed to do was actually pretty fun and it isn't that difficult of a platinum to get compared to my three (or more? I can't remember) playthroughs of Persona 4 Golden. Final Fantasy XV’s platinum was mostly pain free because it simply requires time and if you waited until the end game like myself to explore the open world, you'll probably find a lot of new things that you didn't know you could do in Eos.

As I've said in my other Platinum Trophy posts (you know, in 2015), the purpose of this post is not to guide you into getting the platinum trophy as there are plenty of fantastic sites such an PSN Trophies that do a great job at that already. This post is to inform you about the experience of getting it. Most platinum trophies are no small feat and while this one was relatively pain free compared to other experiences, it might not be for everyone. Here's the best and worst of Final Fantasy XV’s Platinum Trophy experience for those ready to spend more time with Noctis and his crew.

Spoiler note: I have included Hidden trophies names in this post, but not descriptions to avoid spoilers as much as possible while still describing my Platinum Trophy journey. I don’t think there are any major story or event spoilers in this post, but proceed at your own risk!

Feel free to watch the video version here!

Facts

Final Fantasy XV has 51 trophies to unlock. This includes the platinum and 50 trophies, including 42 Bronze, 5 Silver and 3 Gold. The time it takes to get the platinum trophy will of course vary from person to person, but by the time I was done my hour count was at around 120 hours.

The Easy

~15 Story Trophies (Hidden)

Learner’s Permit - Drove the Regalia

Immortal Photobomb (Hidden)

Quadruple Threat - Equipped four weapon slots

New Power - Learned first ability

Chocobo Jockey - Rode a Chocobo

Angling Rookie - Improved Fishing Level for the first time 

Survival Rookie - Improved Survival Level for the first time 

Photo Rookie - Improved Photography Level for the first time 

Cooking Rookie - Improved Cooking Level for the first time 

Just Hangin’ Around - Performed first point-warp suspension 

Brother in Arms - Issued first ally command 

Blind Spot - Performed first blindside link 

Noct You Like A Hurricane - Initiated first link-strike after parrying an attack 

The Power of Kings - Called forth the Armiger for the first time 

Magical Worker - Crafted a spell for the first time 

Black Mage - Used magic for the first time 

High Five for Justice! - Played Justice Monsters Five for the first time 

Spinning a Yarn I - Completed first sidequest 

Spinning a Yarn II - Completed five sidequests 

Divine Intervention - Summoned one of the six for the first time 

35 Bronze + 1 Silver = 36 Trophies

The good news about Final Fantasy XV’s trophy list is that there are a lot of trophies for just doing basic tasks and completing the main story. Completing the main story alone will yield you a good 15 trophies, and you’ll definitely get other trophies along the way just from playing. In fact, the first tutorial will probably see you pop multiple trophies for doing basic battle tasks and this is a trend with Final Fantasy XV’s trophy journey. There’s a trophy for doing most of the activities available to explore in Eos at least once, such as riding a chocobo or driving the car for the first time. I was only missing the High Five for Justice! Trophy at the end of story and was able to get it in less than five minutes once I decided to go for the platinum. Most people will probably get a good majority of these on their first playthrough and they’re fairly simple to go back and do if you missed one, making getting the bulk of Final Fantasy XV’s trophies quite easy.

The Challenging

Tortoise Toppler (Hidden)

Regalia Pilot (Hidden)

Faithful Heir (Hidden)

Spinning a Yarn V - Completed 40 sidequests

Weaving a Tapestry - Completed 80 sidequests

1 Gold + 3 Silver + 1 Bronze = 5 Trophies

The most challenging trophies of Final Fantasy XV involve running through dungeons, big boss battles and a lot of quests. They'll require some levelling and healing items and are deserving enough of their gold and silver ranks. The toughest one for me was Tortoise Toppler trophy and I left it till last. Even with my characters at level 100, it took time and items but the 30 minute battle that ensued had my tension levels at their peak because I didn't want to lose all that time for nothing and made winning feel damn good. The other hard trophy from this list was the Faithful Heir one that required a lot of dungeon crawling, but the dungeon battles weren't the hard part, it was more the amount of them and some of the maze-like areas that I definitely got a little lost in. As a fan of dungeon crawlers and recently games with a lot of exploration, I found this one enjoyable for the most part, but I may have referenced a guide or two for some of the more difficult dungeons (a certain tower comes to mind).

As for the quest trophies I've mentioned here, the challenge of these trophies is probably subjective, but if you sped through the story, doing so many quests will take some time and a lot of running around the map to do tasks big and small. The more difficult trophies I mentioned will complete some quests to help you do these, but doing 80 quests will naturally require a significant time investment.

Everything Else

Chosen King (Hidden)

Self-Mastered - Activated 50 Ability Nodes

Self-Improved - Activated 20 Ability Nodes

Angling Expert - Reached maximum fishing level

Survival Expert - Reached maximum survival level

Photo Expert - Reached maximum photography level

Cooking Expert - Reached maximum cooking level 

Spinning a Yarn III - Completed 10 sidequests 

Spinning a Yarn IV - Completed 20 sidequests 

2 Gold + 1 Silver + 6 Bronze = 9 Trophies

The quests listed here are not easy, not hard; they basically just require what most of Final Fantasy XV’s trophies require: time. The Expert trophies here were what took me the longest, but they were some of the funnest as they encouraged me to run around Eos and do what the guys love doing. I found myself fishing and running around a lot for these and the fishing risked grating on me towards the end. I feel lucky that at the time I was levelling up my fishing skill, the Moogle Chocobo Carnival was still around and had a nice atmosphere for fishing (as weird as that sounds). But for those without that luxury, probably the most annoying part of the platinum trophy journey (unless you love fishing), will be fishing. (But hey, at least Noct enjoyed it, right?)

Side note: There are little tricks I found that you can do to make Ignis and Prompto’s skills easier to complete: I spammed Prompto’s Snapshot skill in battle and you can camp many times in a row to get Ignis’ cooking skill up much faster. I didn’t find a secret to getting Noctis and Gladio’s skills up faster, so you can leave it in the comment if you did!

It's probably worth noting that I put two of the seemingly more difficult gold trophies here, rather than in the ‘Challenging’ part of this post. This is because I didn't think they were that challenging, but they do require a little levelling up time to get AP. I ended up liking unlocking ability nodes, particularly the combat ones, as I had no idea how many cool skills there were to unlock and some of the posey teamwork moves the group do now are really cool.

The Experience

As a Final Fantasy XV fan that's a completionist at heart, I had a lot of fun getting this platinum trophy and I found it to be a mostly fun experience. I had about 60% of the trophies when I started my platinum trophy journey and got myself up to around 80% mostly through quests. A lot of the trophy’s goals are easy to combine for efficiency, which is good considering how overwhelming most platinum trophies can seem. For example, while trying to get 80 quests done for the Weaving a Tapestry trophy, I made sure to run to every quest to up Gladio’s survival skill, fish out any rivers I found along the way and camp a lot. It also gave me that ‘being on the road exploring with the guys’ feeling that XV does so well, making the around 60 hours it took me to get the platinum (after my initial 40 hour playthrough) go by much faster than I thought based on Persona 4 Golden standards.

As with any platinum, if you're not addicted to or in love with the game you're platinuming, you're probably not going to love it. I'm in the group of people who did love XV and I'm satisfied with the extra time I spent playing it. If you're like me and you loved the exploration and brotherhood aspect of XV, the platinum trophy is a fun way to get the most out of the Final Fantasy XV universe by meeting side quest characters and beating big bosses and it is certainly not a bad way to kill time while waiting for the next piece of story DLC.

Final Fantasy XV can be picked up at Play-Asia.com!*

(This is an affiliate link that helps support my JRPG Jungle content, so if you use it, thank you! <3)

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Will you platinum Final Fantasy XV? What was the last JRPG you platinumed?
Leave a comment below, send me a tweet at @JRPGJungle, hit me up on Facebook, Youtube or Instagram and let's talk!

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Make sure to follow the blog here, follow @JRPGJungle on Twitter and Instagram, like JRPG Jungle on Facebook and Subscribe to the mailing list and Youtube Channel for updates on content and random musings on JRPG news and games. You're awesome! <3

JRPGs I Played in March 2017

Currently my Persona 5 hype is very, very high, probably due to the fact that it's almost April (or because I changed my PS4 theme to the Persona 5 one). Thankfully, there were a lot of JRPGs in March to keep JRPG fans busy, in fact more than I could keep up with. What I did play, I really enjoyed. There was the breath of fresh air that was NieR Automata and its amazing story, my addition to Final Fantasy XV continued thanks to Episode Gladiolus and I got a little further into my own personal side quest of catching up on the Kingdom Hearts series by playing more 1.5 HD on PS3. I might not have played all the new JRPG releases this month, but these very different JRPGs I played in March I am overall quite happy with. Here are all the JRPGs I played a little and a lot of in March, before Persona 5 takes over my entire life.

Episode Gladiolus Review (Final Fantasy XV DLC, PS4/Xbox One)

Spoiler note: Due to the nature of when Episode Gladiolus is set in Final Fantasy XV's story, mild spoilers may follow

Although the core Final Fantasy XV game is Noctis’ story, Gladiolus’ small departure from the group in the main story made his character feel less complete compared to the other guys, until now. Episode Gladiolus finally gives Gladio and Cor the character development they need in the hour long strength testing journey. The Episode surprised me with the evident thought put into making Gladio's combat different to Noctis’ and switching from warps to brute force was a cool new way to tackle XV’s foes. With new story and fun challenges, Episode Gladiolus is a pretty decent experience that rounds out Final Fantasy XV's characters more and will likely be enjoyed most by those like myself who haven't moved on from XV yet.

Feel free to watch the video version here!

Gladiolus’ solo journey starts pretty much just after he breaks away from Noctis, Ignis and Prompto and takes place in a brand new dungeon. Gladiolus’ goal is to acquire more power to help him in his role as the King’s Shield by doing the Blademaster Gilgamesh’s challenge. He is accompanied into the special dungeon by Cor and must complete each trial to both prove and improve his strength. The path to the Blademaster is fairly direct, although there's a lot of conversation along the way between the two which fills in the gaps about the history of this quest and shows Gladiolus’ resolve. Gladio is likeable in his Episode, showing both strength and humility at the right times. The character I found the most interesting in Episode Gladiolus however ended up being Cor, a character I previously didn’t care much for at all. I always felt like I never learnt much about Cor in the main story, other than that he'd been through some stuff. The conversations between Gladiolus and Cor tell interesting tales about Cor’s past and while Gladiolus is appropriately the star of this Episode, because I knew Gladiolus so well already from the main Final Fantasy XV story, the rounding out of Cor’s character was appreciated.

While Episode Gladiolus’ story does manage to fill in that gap of when he leaves the party and gives more of Cor’s backstory, it doesn’t do much else. What you see is what you get with Episode Gladiolus and there isn't a lot of surprise outside of what was in trailers or already known about Episode Gladio or the character himself. Before going into Gladio's story, we know he had a struggle, became stronger after fighting a guy and came back and well, that's pretty close to what happens in Episode Gladiolus. There is Gilgamesh as an added point of interest and I did enjoy seeing him challenging Gladiolus’ resolve, but I almost wish they didn't announce him as the big boss because maybe this episode would've had that wow factor that I felt it was missing. I enjoyed the extra backstory added to underdeveloped characters as someone who is still into XV, I just wish it was as surprising as the other character Episodes seem (the extended and emotive Episode Prompto footage at the end of Episode Gladiolus being a good example of this). As much as I enjoyed it, it does make me wonder how appealing it would be for someone considering coming back to XV.

Luckily, Episode Gladiolus is more than just story and what I was genuinely surprised about was how much I enjoyed playing and battling as Gladiolus. Compared to Noctis’ combat style of warping and multi-weapon wielding, Gladio uses punishing blows and an interesting Rage mechanic that raises damage based on the amount of successful shield blocks, all appropriate for the King’s Shield. Blocking was always apart of XV but with Gladio’s Rage multiplier, it felt much more involved. I found myself carefully trying to time my blocks to get my Rage up and unleash fully-charged super attacks with four times the damage stored up thanks to my Shield Blocking. On top of Gladio’s unique base combat style, he has some cool moves such as hitting enemies with pillars and jumping on huge enemies heads to do some cool-looking big attacks. Gladio's more involved combat style is such a refreshing take on Final Fantasy XV's already good action combat and is easily the highlight of my Episode Gladiolus experience.

Episode Gladiolus’ gameplay is also interesting in the way it plays with JRPG mechanics. Instead of leveling, the completion of trials is rewarded with special stronger attacks, which are needed because you don't have the same access to items and shops as you do in the core game. There are also two special challenges in Episode Gladiolus, including the Score Attack mode which allows you to fight the trials for points, and also a special Final Trial mode. These modes are a fun way to play more with Gladio’s fun combat and considering the story of Episode Gladiolus can be completed in an hour or so, the added value from the mini-games is appreciated.

Episode Gladiolus might not go very far beyond what it offers in its trailer, but the added character development and fantastic new take on XV’s battle system were things I really appreciated from it. I left the experience feeling like I understood Cor and Gladiolus a little better and thoroughly enjoyed hitting enemies with pillars and unleashing my inner King’s Shield rage. While Episode Gladiolus’ story didn’t have the wow factor I was hoping for, it’s given me a lot of hope for the next few Episodes and how their own individual combat styles and more mysterious seeming stories will pan out. But for now, Episode Gladiolus is a nice start to the deeper look at Final Fantasy XV’s story and was enjoyable enough for a Final Fantasy XV addict like me.

Score: 8/10

Really didn’t expect to love the combat as much as I do. Having urges to go back and play Score Attack.


Episode Gladiolus is available as paid DLC for Final Fantasy XV on the PSN and the Microsoft Store. It is also included in the Final Fantasy XV season pass.

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Will you play Episode Gladiolus? If you have, what did you think of it?
Leave a comment below, send me a tweet at @JRPGJungle, hit me up on Facebook, Youtube or Instagram and let's talk!

Thanks so much for stopping by!
Make sure to follow the blog here, follow @JRPGJungle on Twitter and Instagram, like JRPG Jungle on Facebook and Subscribe to the mailing list and Youtube Channel for updates on content and random musings on JRPG news and games. You're awesome! <3

Is Platinuming a Game the Same as 100% Completion?

Remember when people completed games without the motivation of a trophy or an achievement? When I was discovering video games through Spyro the Dragon and Crash Bandicoot, young little me really wanted to have every gem, every record and every level for some reason. I don't remember whether it was because my parents wouldn't buy me another game or if I just wanted to, but I have many fond memories of the joy I felt getting that final gem and the hours in between. I started thinking about this after looking at Final Fantasy XV’s trophy list. It's my resolution to platinum at least one JRPG this year and I enjoyed the hell out of XV, so I thought it would be a good candidate considering I'm had around 70% of XV's trophies when I finished it (edit: and I finally got that platinum!). What struck me about XV’s trophies was how easy it looked compared to what could still be done in it. You can get a trophy for maxing out Ignis’ cooking skill, but you can't get one for unlocking all of his recipes. You can get a trophy for completing over 80 quests, but what about for completing all of them? Perhaps this was done to make the trophy more accessible to new players, but as a JRPG player that’s a completionist at heart, the platinum leaves too much leftover.

Final Fantasy XV isn't alone though. I platinumed Persona 4 Golden as my first platinum a few years ago and while in comparison to Final Fantasy XV it's a much tougher platinum, I still have things leftover outside the platinum trophy realm. I don't think I completed it on the hardest difficulty and I didn't get any Personas to level 99. When I platinumed the visual novel Danganronpa, I didn't pass any of the class trials on the hardest difficulty and if I'm being honest, I abused the easy mode to get some trophies. It's with this in mind that while I love trophies, I have to acknowledge that it takes more than a huge boost in my trophy level to fully complete a game to the level I may want. And this raises a question in my mind: am I really fully completing a game by getting the platinum? Judging from what I just said, the answer is probably not.

In spite of this, I still think trophies are great. Trophies are usually what inspire me to start exploring the full completion aspect of a game and are an excellent push in the right direction for the completionist starting out. When I decided I wanted to play more Final Fantasy XV, it was trophies that showed me there were plenty more quests I could do and was the start of my platinum journey. As someone who has been going exclusively for trophies and not thinking about the other aspects of completing a game for a while, I've realised that my definition of completely finishing a game may have changed and evolved into something more like how I completed games in my childhood. I understand that trophies are a great motivator for many people who wouldn't usually fully complete a game and they have given the completionist bug to many players who now like seeing that 100% or getting the trophy before their friends. My completionist journey is becoming a more personal one, but I also tweeted soon after I got my Final Fantasy XV platinum and messaged my brother, so I understand the community benefit of trophies. I would genuinely be sad if the community aspect or fun percentage system in the trophy world went away.

Even though my gaming style is evolving, I'll still keep using trophies as my map when starting my completionist journey and will veer off in certain ways when necessary. Trophies and full completion isn't for everyone, but trophies are certainly a good way to inspire someone to go deeper into the game and my own form of completionism is my way of finding excuses to play more. Both styles of play involve getting the most out of a game and it's great that games can provide so many different gameplay styles for people like me who want to go beyond the core game or for the more casual gamer playing with their friends.

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What's your favourite way to complete a game? What's your proudest JRPG platinum?
Leave a comment below, send me a tweet at @JRPGJungle, hit me up on Facebook, Youtube or Instagram and let's talk!

Thanks so much for stopping by!
Make sure to follow the blog here, follow @JRPGJungle on Twitter and Instagram, like JRPG Jungle on Facebook and Subscribe to the mailing list and Youtube Channel for updates on content and random musings on JRPG news and games. You're awesome! <3

All the games mentioned in this article are available at Play-Asia.com!

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Review: A King's Tale: Final Fantasy XV (Reviewed on PS4, also on Xbox One)

Final Fantasy XV loves retro games. The boys of Final Fantasy XV are always playing the retro-style smartphone game King’s Knight and there's also the mini-game Justice Monsters Five in XV. A King's Tale Final Fantasy XV is another nod to this, but adds story into the mix to make the side-scroller a little more than just a side experience. I had fun with the short side-scroller but as a fan of Square Enix’s usual ambitious and cinematic storytelling, A King’s Tale was fun for a free experience but isn't all that memorable in the long run.

Feel free to watch the video version of the review here!

A King’s Tale is part visual novel and part side-scroller. It begins with an adorable exchange between King Regis and a young Prince Noctis sharing a lovely father-son bedtime story moment. Noctis requests for his dad to tell him an epic bedtime story about Regis’ own travels and Regis obliges, with the story being told through the side-scrolling adventure (which I like to think is how the retro-game loving Noct imagines the story). The story told is a little old Final Fantasy with its crystal-chasing shenanigans and a little Final Fantasy XV, with an emphasis placed on the value of friendship.

Since it's shown and implied in Kingsglaive and in XV that Regis had his own hardships, the story is proof of the fact that he had a journey similar to Noctis’ one in Final Fantasy XV. He travels with a crew similar in personalities to Noctis’ group, with the exception of standout Cid being way grumpier than the four guys in XV could ever be, in a good way. It was cool to see Regis and his crew summon and fight well-known Final Fantasy foes together, but other than some nice father son moments and terrible dad jokes, it doesn't really add much to the Final Fantasy XV Universe like I was hoping it would. Other Final Fantasy XV side experiences such as Brotherhood and Kingsglaive were so substantial and I was a little bummed A King’s Tale didn’t follow this trend.

The gameplay in A King's Tale however was pretty fun. Side-strollers aren't something I play regularly, but the retro music and hordes of enemies to take on were challenging enough and I was often rewarded by a cool summon animation in the bigger battles. Seeing some of Final Fantasy XV's places in pixel art style was a nice touch and most of the familiar enemies all needed different combos or attack types which kept me on my toes.

One of my favourite and least favourite mechanics in A King’s Tale was the Armiger, a cool multiple weapon super attack that has the ability to attack 4 times if you use your teammates right. This created a good goal towards, as the Armiger breaks its charge if you get hit and to get maximum damage, you must have used all your teammates attacks at least once before using it. It created an interesting dilemma of sometimes prioritising hiding and running from the hordes of enemies until I could use of the teammates instead of defeating the ones before me and I couldn't help but feel a little mad when I was hit and had to start all over. While it might have been frustrating, I think it was frustrating in a fun arcade style way that made me want to keep challenging my way through until I could unleash my best attack and see Regis’ disco battle victory pose as a small victory.

As someone who isn't a huge side-scroller player, my time with A King’s Tale was fun enough. I enjoyed the challenge from the sheer hordes of enemies I faced and the quick peak into Regis’ past, even if it didn't really add much to the Final Fantasy XV universe. It's definitely no replacement for the core Final Fantasy XV game, but A King’s Tale is a fun and different experience for those with a little extra time.

Score: 7.4/10

Don't forget: Regis was hot stuff.

You can download A King's Tale: Final Fantasy XV for free on the Playstation Network Store or the Microsoft Store.

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What did you think of A King's Tale: Final Fantasy XV? Do you prefer retro or new style Final Fantasy games?

Leave a comment below, send me a tweet at @JRPGJungle, hit me up on Facebook, Youtube or Instagram and let's talk!

Thanks so much for stopping by! Make sure to follow the blog here, follow @JRPGJungle on Twitter and Instagram, like JRPG Jungle on Facebook and Subscribe to the mailing list and Youtube Channel for updates on content and random musings on JRPG news and games. You're awesome! <3

How To Accept Timed-Quests in Final Fantasy XV

I love the idea of Final Fantasy XV’s timed quests, so naturally I wanted to do the first one as soon as possible. Maybe it's just me, but I was a little surprised when I saw that there was no actual way to accept the quest from the menu and I was left with a slight ‘What now?’ feeling. Turns out the timed quests aren't accepted through the menu, rather by going to them yourself. Considering I wasted 20 minutes of time trying to find the exact point where the quest would start, here is a small guide on how to activate these quests for those who had the same problem.

(Feel free to watch the video version!)

1. Open the menu and look at the Timed Quests menu

Pretty simple. Make sure you go to the Timed Quests menu, as they don't show up in regular Quests.

2. Find and mark the Timed Quest’s location yourself on the map

It's slightly annoying that there isn't the option to do this automatically, but I digress. When looking in the timed-quests menu, you'll see a blown up version of the map. The area you want to go to is shaded on the map. In this case, our quest is luckily near a landmark (Causcherry Plains in this case), so find that on the map, mark it and get ready to drive there.

3. Go there and confirm your location

Again, pretty simple. You can drive there by using your map point or find a parking spot nearby. Get there however you see fit (You can also listen to the new NieR tracks on the music player while you're at it)!

Once you're there, confirm your spot by comparing the timed-quest map to where you are on the map. Unfortunately you can’t see where you currently are on the timed-quest map, so you will need to jump in and out of there and the actual map to check. For the current Cactuar quest, I was a little off the middle of the big round thing my first time and and the quest wouldn't pop, so get it as perfect as you can.

4. Run into the area in front of you/nearby and the quest should become accepted

Simple in theory, but results may vary depending on how correct you got your map point (as I said, it took me a couple of times). This will vary quest by quest, but with the cactuar quest it meant running into the right part of the forest.

Side note: During a second attempt to do the cactaur quest, an enemy came to attack me while the quest was being accepted and it aborted itself. After I went back to the Regalia and back to the spot, it popped up properly, so you don't need to be too worried if this happens to you.

5. Complete the quest and enjoy!

After stumbling to find the quest, thankfully it was a lot of fun and I plan to do it a few more times to get my characters over level 99 because the current quest gives a sweet amount of experience. I hope Square Enix adds more of these quests soon - so far it looks like the next one is in March. I also would welcome a UI tweak to make starting them a little easier, but for now I'm just happy they're in the game and I have more reasons to play Final Fantasy XV. Happy questing!

You can pick up Final Fantasy XV for Playstation 4 and Xbox One on Amazon!

(This is an affiliate link that helps supports my JRPG Jungle content, so if you use it, thank you!)

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What do you think of Final Fantasy XV's new timed-quests? What level are your characters at?
Leave a comment below, send me a tweet at @JRPGJungle, hit me up on Facebook, Youtube or Instagram and let's talk!

Thanks so much for stopping by!
Make sure to follow the blog here, follow @JRPGJungle on Twitter and Instagram, like JRPG Jungle on Facebook and Subscribe to the mailing list and Youtube Channel for updates on content and random musings on JRPG news and games. You're awesome! <3

A Look at Final Fantasy XV's Latest 1.05 Update and Booster Pack+ (Mini-Review)

Final Fantasy XV is a gift that keeps on giving and is really doing its best to keep everyone playing, whether it's those who purchased it or those who bought the Season Pass holders like myself. This is a smart move considering the time between each of the upcoming character Episode DLCs and is a good way to stop the open world becoming stale and keep those still totally addicted like myself from becoming less addicted or worse, not playing at all. Normally I wouldn't write anything about an update to a game, but the 1.05 update added some really significant updates, such as timed quests and a higher level cap. On top of that, Season Pass holders also got the Booster Pack+ a day after the update so as a happy Final Fantasy XV fan, I wanted to give my thoughts on each new feature added to the game because some of them are pretty cool.

(Feel free to watch the video version!)
Update 1.05

The new update to Final Fantasy XV adds some significant features and is available freely to anyone who owns the game. An exciting thing for those who own a PS4 Pro is probably the new Lite Mode that has a maximum of 60FPS and probably looks absolutely stunning. I don't own a PS4 Pro so I can't comment on this much, but it gives me a reason to be a little more jealous of everyone who does.

Also something I can't comment on much is the raised level cap as my characters are only just at level 80 as I write this (note: as I edit this, I've hit level 100 woo!), but I'm pretty excited for this. Usually levels are capped at level 99 in Final Fantasy games, but Final Fantasy XV players can enjoy getting up to level 120, which is a really cool change. I recently maxed out my character's skills and have missed having a goal to work towards, so it's nice to know I can enjoy seeing my EXP go up for awhile. Also I'm keen to have some totally OP characters for when I go verse a certain boss for a certain gold trophy and an curious to see if it will affect my enjoyment of XV. I do wonder if level cap increases will be a trend with future Final Fantasy XV updates, but even if it's a one-off, it's pretty damn cool.

The thing that had me most keen for the 1.05 update is the addition of Timed Quests. I've written about how I'm totally addicted to running around in Final Fantasy XV's world and Timed Quests are a great way to keep this interesting. The first one is pretty rewarding, with the current fun and challenging cactaur quest giving 10,000 EXP, 333 AP and 150,000 Gil upon first completion, plus cactaurs being 1000 EXP each anyway add up to a fantastic way to reach that new Level 120. This update is guaranteed to keep me checking back for those awesome rewards and I can't wait for more quests and hunts.

The last few updates are minor updates, but nonetheless help enrich the player experience in Final Fantasy XV. In case you were getting sick of hearing the Chocobo theme (is that possible?) while riding Chocobos, you can finally listen to the Audio Player while riding and if you wanted to listen to two tracks from NieR’s gorgeous soundtrack, you can do that now too. Prompto can also store 50 more photos (200 in total), which is nice since I haven't been able to save new photos for awhile. The new update also takes out the Moogle Chocobo Carnival, which I’d already used to help me get my Fishing Skill to full and done pretty much everything in. The Chocobo music player and photo capacity probably should've been in XV already and are kind of insignificant at this point, but I'll take them and enjoy them anyway. All of these additions make a pretty solid upgrade to the base experience of XV and have already given me more reasons to keep playing.

Booster Pack+

The exclusive to Season Pass holders Booster Pack+ is a small little pack of items to mostly make fishing a little easier. The lack of a ‘wow’ item in this pack is probably due to the delay of the Magitek Exosuit that is getting a redesign due to similarities to the Power Rangers’ suits and was supposed to offer invisibility and a boost in fishing skills for a limited time. But the items are a nice little token for those with the season pass regardless. The Dragon Drain Rod and Avior Reel will be helpful for those upping their fishing skill; I don't overly care for these since mine is at max and I only really fished for new recipes and trophies. What I am enjoying is the Ragnarok sword, which packs a punch in battle and mostly just looks cool when warping due to it spitting a bunch of pink electrical looking stuff everywhere. It isn't however stronger than the Blood Sword I was using, so I may retire it soon, making the Booster Pack+ of little use to me.

Being honest, the Booster Pack+ is a tad lacklustre and is absolutely not worth getting the Season Pass for. But it's an alright bonus for those like myself who have it already for the story episodes and if I ever decide to complete Noct’s fishing collection, I'm sure I'll be at least a little happy I have it.

The real standout of these two additions to Final Fantasy XV is the free 1.05 update, but both it and the Booster Pack+ add nice little touches to enhance the current Final Fantasy XV. I enjoyed driving to the latest timed-quest while listening to music from NieR, and will be eagerly waiting for future timed-quests. Final Fantasy XV has been lucky to be getting so much support so far and I hope the addition of timed-quests among the other additions is a nod towards Final Fantasy XV getting support between each of its story episodes.

You can pick up Final Fantasy XV for Playstation 4 and Xbox One at Play-Asia.com

(This is an affiliate link that helps supports my JRPG Jungle content, so if you use it, thank you!)

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What did you think of the Update and Booster Pack+? Are you still playing Final Fantasy XV?
(I sure am...but I may need to take a break for NieR Automata :|)
Leave a comment below, send me a tweet at @JRPGJungle, hit me up on Facebook, Youtube or Instagram and let's talk!

Thanks so much for stopping by!
Make sure to follow the blog here, follow @JRPGJungle on Twitter and Instagram, like JRPG Jungle on Facebook and Subscribe to the mailing list and Youtube Channel for updates on content and random musings on JRPG news and games. You're awesome! <3

Review: Final Fantasy XV (Reviewed on PS4, also available on Xbox One)

“A Final Fantasy for Fans and First-Timers”. This is what Final Fantasy XV opens with every time I boot it up and it truly echoes throughout the experience. The wide open world and the easy to learn battle system are much like a western RPG, while the story, character relationships and skill trees are closer to what Final Fantasy players would be used to. I wouldn't say it's a perfect balance of the two, with XV switching back and forth between the two from time to time, but in the end it doesn't need to be. Final Fantasy XV excels as an open world RPG and the dynamic friendship between the four men on their royal journey satisfied the Final Fantasy fan in me and created an addictive environment for me to run around and quest in with new characters I love. It’s not the Final Fantasy fans are used to, but with an open mind you may find yourself completely addicted to the open world, questing playground of Final Fantasy XV just like I am.

Final Fantasy XV is set in the world of Eos, a large world divided into three different areas, with two of the areas, Lucis and Niflheim, being in conflict. The story begins with Noctis and his friends Prompto, Ignis and Gladiolus on their way to Noctis’ wedding to the oracle from Niflheim Lunafreya, only for a lot of things to go horribly wrong along the way and Noctis’ road trip becoming a much more consequential one with his throne at stake and a lot of loss along the way. As with a lot of stories involving royalty in Final Fantasy, I found the story a little convoluted at times even with prior knowledge from Brotherhood: Final Fantasy XV and Kingsglaive Final Fantasy XV. The story can go from zero to eleven at times, with earlier chapters feeling quick and light in comparison to the more linear and emotive last through chapters which had me glued to my console wondering what would happen next. I didn’t mind though, as I found myself engaged much more by what was happening to Noctis and his friends and watching their dynamic grow and change became my focus in the story.

What makes the group so engaging is the story moments being heightened by the open world aspect of Final Fantasy XV. While there is a large and epic story to be completed, Final Fantasy XV allows it to be done at your own pace, with plenty of side quests, photo spots and areas to explore until you feel like getting back to the core story. This open world is the heart of Final Fantasy XV, with story moments given weight along the way by the group that always have a lot to say, and the frequent conversation being a great way to get to know the characters. Whether it’s Ignis discovering a new recipe, Prompto falling in love with every girl he meets or Gladiolus’ deep care for the group, each character had something to add to Noctis’ hard journey. I felt satisfied by Final Fantasy XV’s story in the end and a lot of it is due to how much I loved the four together and their genuine friendship.

While the complex story and character archetypes feel close to Final Fantasy XV’s roots as one of the most classic JRPG series of all time, battle is where it starts to move away from this. Combat is action-based, with no Active Time or Turn Based system like previous Final Fantasy games being featured in XV. Instead there are shortcuts and easy to hold down attack buttons making battle intuitive and simple. My usual strategy of exploiting elemental weaknesses changed to one of blocking in time and using the cool warp-attack on unsuspecting enemies. Final Fantasy XV’s combat can definitely have strategy applied to it, but there’s also the option of just choosing a weapon, holding down the attack button and as long as your party are at a good level and you dodge sometimes, you’ll probably win. Don’t get me wrong - XV’s combat is fun and rewarding and boss battles had their fair share of challenges thanks to status ailments and near one-hit kill attacks. But it’s a clear difference to Final Fantasy games of the past and may not satisfy fans of the more traditional Final Fantasy experience. For traditional Final Fantasy fans, skill trees, summons and special attacks are present in the battle system to tie in that JRPG layer, but it is certainly on a smaller scale than previous Final Fantasy games.

Even though Final Fantasy XV is another step away from the more traditional Final Fantasy-style game, the incredible journey I had both in the story and outside it doing quests made me not really care. Running around the world of Eos and making my own experience made me not worry about its faithfulness to the genre and as I write this, I’m still pretty addicted to the freedom I feel driving around the big world in the Regalia with four great characters. There were a few things to stifle my enjoyment occasionally, the main thing being the long load screens I faced whenever I fast traveled or loaded my save. I bought my PS4 at launch, so it's definitely not a PS4 Pro and this is the first game I’ve felt like my game should have been really going faster than it was.

A genuine issue with Final Fantasy XV is also that despite how open the world is, there are definitely some invisible walls I found myself faced a lot of occasions I decided to free run in the world like I’ve done in western RPGs such as Skyrim. Noctis can’t climb or jump down everything for some reason, so I sometimes felt frustration when I could visually see a faster path to where I wanted to go but it was impossible to access. But as I mentioned Final Fantasy XV’s cast have a lot of little conversations along the way and the pleasantness of these outweighed most frustrations I have and I learnt to either accept or play around most invisible walls that stood in my way in favour of continuing the fun journey.

Final Fantasy XV may not be the most traditional JRPG in the world, but thanks to the vast world, I came to like the blend of old and new in Final Fantasy XV. For me, Final Fantasy XV is everything I like about western open world games blended with the JRPG elements that make me feel at home. By the end of Noctis’ journey, I felt like I had truly gone on a journey with the group in many ways - I watched Noctis and the group stumble and grow stronger along the way and I explored a great new world. Most importantly, I didn’t hesitate to come back again after the credits rolled, something I haven’t felt the need to do in a main entry of Final Fantasy since Final Fantasy X. Final Fantasy XV’s journey is worth experiencing if you’re a Final Fantasy fan with an open mind or a fan of Western RPGs looking for something different. In my opinion, it was well worth the long wait for the great newest entry to the Final Fantasy series.

Score: 8.6/10

I'm so addicted to this open world that I literally have to force myself not to play sometimes. Not as 'JRPG' as other Final Fantasy games, but still incredibly fun.

You can pick up Final Fantasy XV for Playstation 4 and Xbox One at Play-Asia.com

(This is an affiliate link that helps supports my JRPG Jungle content, so if you use it, thank you!)

____________________________________________________________________________

What did you think of Final Fantasy XV? Who's your favourite of the main characters?
(I like them all but Ignis and his recipehs give me joy)

Leave a comment below, send me a tweet at @JRPGJungle, hit me up on Facebook, Youtube or Instagram and let's talk!

Thanks so much for stopping by!
Make sure to follow the blog here, follow @JRPGJungle on Twitter and Instagram, like JRPG Jungle on Facebook and Subscribe to the mailing list and Youtube Channel for updates on content and random musings on JRPG news and games. You're awesome! <3