DLC Review: Episode Ignis (Final Fantasy XV DLC, PS4/Xbox One/PC)

As DLC tied to my favourite character of Final Fantasy XV and two satisfying previous DLC episodes, I had high expectations for Episode Ignis’ story. As expected based on the last two Episodes, Episode Ignis gives unique fighting mechanics to Ignis to suit his fighting style and reveals what happened in a part of the game he was absent. Unique to Episode Ignis however is a special Extra Verse portion that puts a new twist on big moments of Ignis’s story that had a fan of Ignis and XV’s core story like myself captivated in all the right ways. Delivering the kind of quality expected from the last few DLC chapters coming to XV, Episode Ignis mostly delivers and is a story chapter that fans of Ignis and Final Fantasy XV won’t want to miss.

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.

JRPGs I Played In July 2017

July was a very simple month in terms of my gaming time. I’ve been trying my very best to conquer the difficult tactical JRPG God Wars: Future Past and have also been trying not to get distracted so I actually finish it because it's taking a bit of time. I touched a few of my favourite console games when I needed a break and I also logged into some new and old mobile favourites to get some character rewards and be reminded I’ll never have enough time to truly conquer them. Although it was a straightforward month of JRPGs, I mostly enjoyed what I played and at the very least having a solid gaming direction, so here are all the JRPGs I played in July.

Why I'm Not Ashamed of Playing on Easy Mode

Booting up most games these days, I’m met with a decision. A decision that affects important parts of my game experience, such as challenge or the time it takes to play, which has a large effect on my overall game enjoyment. This decision is choosing a difficulty mode. I find changing difficulty modes along the way distracting, so I want to get it right the first time and there’s a very easy way to tackle this decision - choosing Easy mode.

There may be a slight stigma towards playing games on Easy. I imagine some people have thoughts such as "It takes the skill or challenge out of playing", "It’s not really playing the game", "It’s for weaklings" etc etc, or at least that’s the internal dialogue I had with myself the first time I made the switch into easy town. But playing on easy mode has allowed me the opportunity to try more games by giving myself a little speed boost and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with wanting a relaxing experience in one’s gaming downtime.

JRPGs I Played in June 2017

With the main games and DLC I wanted to play releasing in the later half of last month, my gaming time was pretty free for a bit, so I took the time to play demos, platinum and finish some stuff before new release time. I was kind of all over the place in my gaming time at first, but I did set a few solid goals that I completed. I finished all of NieR Automata’s main routes finally, played SINoALICE, God Wars and Episode Prompto at launch and platinumed Persona 4 Dancing All Night (because why not, right?). Most of all, I tried a few new interesting experiences I'm excited to talk about, so here are the JRPGs I played in June.

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

In terms of DLC, Episode Prompto is an experience of its own. It feels complete and fleshed out in its two hour play time and it delivers on its promise of giving a deeper look into Prompto. Episode Prompto is the strongest of the two pieces of Final Fantasy XV story DLC to date and gives much needed background to events that happen later in XV’s main story. Along with being able to play shooting mechanics very true to Prompto’s fighting style and having a decently detailed map to explore with different exploration methods, Episode Prompto feels like a well-rounded experience for a pretty reasonable price and this fleshed out DLC feels very much like a worthwhile chapter of its own.

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

Feel free to watch the video version here!

Prompto’s journey takes place fittingly from when he is separated from the group after Ardyn’s trick leaves him stranded and questioning his friendships. His main mission in Episode Prompto is to make his way out of captivity, but it’s also a battle of personal demons as he struggles to come to terms with his past. If you've seen the Final Fantasy XV Brotherhood anime or certain in-game cutscenes with Prompto, you'll know he already has some insecurities and the Prompto in this episode is still the happy one we know, but it mostly sticks to exploring the more emotional side of his character.

Prompto was always a character I thought was developed enough thanks to his Brotherhood episode, but I liked watching him grow throughout Episode Prompto’s journey much more than I had anticipated. Despite being two hours long, the story has a clear plot points with conflict and resolution, a start, middle and end, and while these are story fundamentals, in such a short amount of time, I really did feel like I went on an emotional journey with Prompto by the end of it. Like Gladiolus’ Episode, Prompto goes through a struggle and overcomes it, but to the merit of Prompto’s Episode, it features much more obvious highs and lows that made it really feel like its own Episode and even though other important characters are featured, Prompto is truly the main focus and I finished the Episode feeling a bigger connection to his character.

Since we know Prompto as the party’s shooter in Final Fantasy XV, Episode Prompto’s main fighting style is using third-person shooting mechanics and stealth, which suits Prompto’s goal of escaping captivity well. There’s a small variety of guns to use, such as rifles, sniper guns and even bazookas which all have their own specific purpose and were interesting to try out, even if shooting mechanics aren’t exactly my forte. I liked that since you can’t level up, choosing the right gun was the main strategy. Having to think of things such as if it was worth it to use up my super powerful sniper with limited ammo on a small group of enemies was an interesting new decision for me to make and I liked that were enough guns to give shooting variety, but not too much to be overwhelming. If shooting mechanics aren’t something you’re used to like myself, there is also the option of fighting melee style with a blade which came in handy many times I was surrounded by enemies and couldn’t decide which gun was best for the job. Prompto doesn’t have the same warp abilities as Noctis, but it was nice to have something more familiar to fall back on in sticky situations.

Along with new fighting mechanics, Episode Prompto features a new mode of transportation in the form of a snowmobile. Since I haven’t played the new update for XV, this was my first time driving off-road in XV and it was pretty cool, even if it wasn’t a perfect driving experience. I really liked driving downhills, speeding past enemies and occasionally taking them down with the vehicle and although the vehicle was much easier to control on downhill sections rather than rockier snow areas, it’s a novel vehicle choice that I’m really excited to try out more.

One thing that really pleasantly surprised me about Episode Prompto were the reasons to explore its map. Hidden around the first area are a bunch of Research Logs that gave a deeper look into XV’s world and events that related back to Prompto. These logs provided lore that told their own story and made this side of XV’s world feel more fleshed out. There are even a few side quests to help Prompto upgrade the snowmobile and while I didn’t do many of these, the fact that any were included helps Episode Prompto feel like a deeper experience than the last Episode and it’s something I look forward to going back to if I decide to go back to play through Episode Prompto again.

Side quests aren’t the only thing worth coming back to Episode Prompto for. Like Episode Gladiolus, there’s a Time Attack mode, but this time featuring a speed gem collecting time trial on the snowmobile to beat your own and others high scores. There’s also a battle with Episode Prompto’s co-star Aranea, which provides its own level of challenge with its lack of items and her powerful combat style that I was pleased to see differed a lot from the fight with Cor in Episode Gladiolus. With these features, a world with hidden lore and side quests, Episode Prompto feels like it really gave me a lot and as paid DLC, that’s something I very much appreciate.

Episode Prompto is a big step in the right direction for story DLC in Final Fantasy XV and adds a lot for fans of Prompto and XV’s story. The journey I went on with Prompto in the two hour experience was one that was touching and while I didn’t cry like the trailer had me thinking I would, I left the experience liking Prompto more and feeling like I really did witness a full story by the end of it. Even though I still prefer the melee combat in XV, the shooting elements had a nice amount of strategy incorporated into them and I like the thought put into making the combat fit the world, along with the other little details that made the places in this DLC feel interesting. Episode Prompto may only be DLC, but the well-told story and experience is certainly in my top chapters for Final Fantasy XV and I hope it’s what can be expected of the next Episode to come.

Score: 8.6/10

This score is much higher than my score in time attack.

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Will you try Episode Prompto? If you have, what did you think? Are you as excited as I am for Episode Ignis?

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!
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JRPGs I Played in May 2017

Remember how last month I was tossing up between three JRPGs? What if I told you I played none of those games and spent most of the month finishing Persona 5 and beginning a platinum run for it? Would you be surprised? Probably not.

I eventually chose my May JRPG as Summon Nights 6, only to see it be delayed, which pushed me towards taking a little more time on my Persona 5 review and getting back to NieR Automata to try finish it properly. I also took some brief time to try some new experiences, such as Fushigen TOD Reloaded and some Japanese App Store experiences. Although I'm sure I'll have more of a direction in what JRPGs I play next month, I enjoyed trying new experiences and spending more time with some new favourites, so here's a look at what I played in May.

Feel free to watch the video version here!

My favourite JRPG of May 2017:

Persona 5

Since I didn't play any new releases this month, and I fully finished Persona 5 mid-May, I’m putting Persona 5 as game of the month for the second month in a row. Finishing it was bittersweet because I found it so wonderful and while it ended in a way I was satisfied with, it was sad to know I wouldn’t experience the magic of my first playthrough with it again. I spent quite a few late nights with Persona 5 because it was sucking me into the deeper meaning of each dungeon and other plot twists along the way made me not want to put it down. I’m satisfied enough to try platinum it, just like I did with Persona 4 Golden and I’m enjoying my second playthrough at my own pace. I’m taking time to enjoy the little things in Persona 5 like the trend recommending NPCs and vague nods to future story events from other characters. Honestly, it’s just a really fantastic game and I’m going to be playing it on and off for a very long time, I’m sure.

Fire Emblem Heroes

Another month of Fire Emblem Heroes and playing it in small bursts, except this month is a little special. In the Gacha draw focused on Female Mages, I got my favourite Fire Emblem character Tharja, gave her all of my level crystals and put her into my party. My party is full of half five star ranked characters, so I’m hoping to either get more five star characters to join or to rank my other ones up. Anyway, I’m still playing and it’s still pretty fun.

Persona 2

I didn’t play nearly enough Persona 2 in May because I was writing a lot when I was on the go, but I did notice something a little interesting. My battle skills in Persona 2 improved drastically while I was also playing Persona 5. Persona 2 is pretty light on explaining mechanics, so it was almost like I needed Persona 5 to remind me how to play Persona properly and then jump back in with the knowledge I needed. I’m hoping to story picks up a bit more soon at this point, but it is a lot more enjoyable now I’m playing better.

Final Fantasy XV

I logged into Final Fantasy XV briefly to check out the 1.10 update and check out some Stinky Tofu (no, really). It isn’t a huge update, although the new Stinky Tofu recipeh did provide some very interesting stat changes when I tried to do this latest timed quest (which is tough by the way!) with it’s HP dropping capabilities while boosting other stats (you can imagine my shock when I saw my 9999HP Gladio go to 900. That was sort of scary.). I also did the one-question survey where they asked what future content fans would like to see in XV and if you guys did it, I’d love to know what you answered with out of sheer curiosity. Avoiding spoilers, I chose the Story Content regarding a Disappearance, but all of the ideas are ones I wouldn’t mind seeing in XV.

Fushigi TOD Reloaded

Since I enjoy finding random JRPG demos to play on my PS4, when I saw in screenshots the roguelike-JRPG elements I remembered from Sorcery Saga: the Curse of the Great Curry God, I decided to give Fushigi TOD Reloaded a go when I saw it on the Japanese PSN Store. A lot of it’s dungeon mechanics do remind me of Sorcery Saga (minus the curry brewing) with it’s roguelike nature and mechanics. It seems to be a pretty dialogue heavy game with lots of talk about ghosts and things I don’t know the meaning of in Japanese and probably some throwbacks to the Touhou game is was inspired by. I enjoyed its music and gameplay, so I may talk about it more in a First Impressions sometime, but my first (accidental) look into a Touhou Doujin game was pretty interesting and made me want to get back into roguelikes more.

Omega Quintet

Let me be straight: I only played Omega Quintet for about five minutes while getting footage for my last video, but I was reminded that I still really want to play Omega Quintet. I had enough hype a couple of years ago to buy it in Japanese when it came out because I feared that it wouldn’t be localised, and even though I don’t have the now-available English version, I was reminded by the cute singing and dancing, and the fun Final Fantasy XIII-esque combat system that I would like to eventually play this Idol-JRPG to completion. Whether I play it in English or Japanese and even whether it’s good or not, there is a still a piece of me that really wants to play it.

NieR Automata

I only played a tiny bit of NieR Automata last month thanks to cranking out my Persona 5 review (and Persona 5 in general), but I have an itch to get back into it and get those main endings I haven’t seen. I actually tried to play a few times this week but my PS4 was having errors, but hopefully I’ll have better luck before June’s releases to at least finish route C. The plot is getting weird and I like it.

Phobos Children

I had the idea of re-purposing my horribly cracked old iPhone into a phone with the Japanese App Store (I still use the Australian one) so I could play all the Japanese mobile games I see ads for on the train and on Twitter here. My good friend Dennis (the lovely designer of my logo and video intro, check out his work!) suggested a game called Phobos Children and knowing there were also a bunch of other games I probably wanted to play, I took the small amount of time to finally make this happen and played a bit of Phobos Children.

I haven’t played that much, but I liked the gameplay of Phobos Children a lot. Battles are done through tapping buttons coming up the screen and pressing matching colours to make combos was pretty fun. There were a few localisation imperfections in the dialogue, but regardless I found myself kind of wishing I had my other phone with me on the train for something different to play, so I hope to return to it in future (hopefully when I get an iPhone to HDMI cable to stop looking at my super cracked screen).

Dissidia Final Fantasy Opera Omnia

Dissidia Final Fantasy is the first game I go to at arcades here because it’s so pretty and has so many Final Fantasy characters I love in it, and I’ve been interested in checking out the cute character sprites I’ve seen from Dissidia Final Fantasy Opera Omnia on Twitter, but it’s not available in English yet. With my Japanese App Store iPhone in hand, I checked out a little bit of Opera Omnia and while I haven’t made any real progress in it yet, I love how many characters are available and the fact that they actually interact with each other in cutscenes. This is one game I definitely plan on returning to and since I haven’t had much experience with the other Dissidia titles, I’m interested to see what it’ll be like.

June JRPG Plans

Episode Gladiolus feels like it was forever ago, so it’s very much about time for Final Fantasy XV’s Episode Prompto to come out and reveal just what that sobre trailer means. On top of finally playing Episode Prompto, I’m also hoping it includes a trailer for Episode Ignis because Ignis is my favourite character from XV and after seeing how fun it was to play as Gladio, I’d like to do the same with Ignis. I also really like Prompto, so I’m curious about what they’ll do with his character story-wise and if they’ll add special mechanics like they did in Episode Gladio.

As for full JRPGs I want to play in June, I’m planning to play the Japanese Valkyria Revolution demo to help me make my decision. I played the God Wars: Future Past demo a few months ago and thought the mythological story looked interesting so that’s definitely on my list, but the Valkyria Revolution trailer looks really good too. There’s also my hope to continue playing through NieR Automata and with most of the new JRPGs next month coming out after the 20th, I’ll hopefully get a bit of time.

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What JRPGs did you play in May? What will you play in June?

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 @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

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!

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

The PS4 Is Finally Becoming a Worthy JRPG Machine

I remember getting my PS4 at launch in late 2013, ready to play games like Final Fantasy XV and Kingdom Hearts 3, thinking I would need a PS4 ASAP for their eventual but surely not far off releases. My PS4 was in my home all 2014, but other than the new toy hype and one week playing Child of Light, it was barely used and I found some concern creeping in, as my PS Vita and even my PS3 at the time were getting much more use. The PS4 begun with a lack of JRPG support, with big JRPGs like the Final Fantasy X HD Remaster originally coming to PS3 and not PS4 initially (thankfully, it’s on all current gen PS4 consoles now). Fast forward to now and I’ve only played one of the two games that were my system sellers for the PS4, but I’ve found myself able to keep my PS4 plugged in much more consistently since last year and it has finally become my preferred home console. Here’s a look back at the PS4's journey into not only being a console for the players, but for the JRPG players too.

Feel free to watch the video version here!

(For simplicity, I'm only covering JRPGs released in the west for this post)

Launch Lineup

The contrast between the PS4’s lineup now and then is very evident in PS4’s launch lineup, as well as my initial struggle to find JRPGs on it to play. There were no JRPGs at launch, leaving a JRPG lover like myself a little at a loss. I had some fun with non-JRPGs such as Resogun and Contrast in the first month of the PS4s release, but there was a bit of playing PS4 only because it was my new PS4, rather than for a game I was really keen on. And yes, part of this is my own fault for deciding to jump on the PS4 train for games without solid release dates and I have certainly learnt my lesson (in saying that, you put the words new Final Fantasy and new Kingdom Hearts in a new console game lineup and I’ll probably be interested in your console). Regardless, the launch lineup for the PS4 isn't all it had to offer and things did slowly begin to look up throughout the console's life.

2014

2014 was fairly light on JRPGs on the PS4. In fact, I only played one, Child of Light, which isn’t even from a Japanese developer but was, regardless of origin, a magical JRPG experience. Many people would agree that Child of Light was unique take on the JRPG genre with gorgeous and poetic story-telling and was the first game that felt like what I was looking for on the console. It’s not the longest game in the world, but it was a worthy start to seeing JRPGs on the PS4, even if I spent way more time playing JRPGs on my Vita in 2014 and didn’t touch the other JRPG, Natural Doctrine, that released later that year.

2015

JRPGs were still a little on the light side in 2015, although things were starting to pick up compared to the first ones. A few JRPGs such as Disgaea 5, Final Fantasy Type-0, Dragon Quest Heroes and Omega Quintet were all released in 2015 and while that year featured a little more or less than enough JRPGs to count on one hand, welcoming two bigger JRPG series such as Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest to the PS4 gave me a bit of hope for my beloved high-tech black box of developing dust. For me, I still didn’t find myself using my PS4 much, although I did pick up Omega Quintet when it came out in Japanese, but didn’t really play it much due to the language barrier. But having some big JRPG series and a few quirkier ones seemed a step closer to the PS4 I wanted, even if it was still taking awhile to get there.

2016

Early 2016, I plugged my PS4 into my TV for the first time in awhile and played a JRPG experience that made me fall a little in love with my PS4: Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth. It was the deep JRPG experience I was looking for on PS4 and probably my first consecutive 50+ hours with the console. 2016 was when things really started looking up with the release of some of my new favourite JRPGs such as World of Final Fantasy (my game of the year last year) and Final Fantasy XV, alongside other JRPGs on PS4 I missed like I Am Setsuna and the remaster of Valkyria Chronicles. 2016 had over 10 JRPGs for the PS4, pretty much doubling the PS4s JRPG lineup and paving the way for a fantastic 2017.

2017

Along with ending the long running hype train for Persona 5 this year, the first half of 2017 has been pretty fantastic for JRPG fans and I still feel a lot of joy seeing some current games media articles with titles saying ‘JRPGs are making a comeback’. There's been Persona 5, NieR Automata and Kingdom Hearts 2.8 HD this year so far, Final Fantasy XV will be getting extra episodes and later this year Final Fantasy XII will be released in remastered form for the PS4, along with any unannounced JRPGs that will may or may not appear on the system later this year. The best part of the major JRPG releases so far this year is that it has seen more high quality JRPGs appear on the system, with NieR and Persona 5 currently having a lot of buzz and curiosity, giving JRPGs a prominent home on the PS4. If you're a JRPG fan, at this point in the PS4’s life there is probably something for you, with tactical, action and turn-based JRPGs all having some kind of home on the system now.


The PS4 is in its fourth year as a current gen console and is finally looking like a worthwhile console for JRPG fans. And the future continues to look bright for JRPGs on the console, with a Final Fantasy VII Remake in the works, another great looking Digimon game coming out next year and Kingdom Hearts 3 still being in the works (that will hopefully be a standout JRPG on the system). The PS4 has become the console I wanted it to be when I bought it - one with high quality JRPG experiences that are better than the ones I played on PS3 and the home of sequels to some of my all-time favourites. Despite having many PS3 games in my backlog, I’m having such a good time with my PS4 these days I’m reluctant to unplug it and I’m honestly glad the great experiences available on PS4 have finally made me feel that way about my late 2013 console purchase.

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What's your favourite JRPG on the PS4? And what made you/would make you buy a PS4? (game, feature or otherwise!)

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 @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

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!*

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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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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!

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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