It is clear that, at this point, Square Enix is using Final Fantasy XV as a kind of platform on which to experiment what will probably be the future of the franchise both in narrative terms and in terms of gameplay. After the mediocre Episode Gladio and the excellent Episode Prompto, waiting for the Ignis episode to be released on December 13th, we can therefore delight with a multiplayer component that wants to lengthen the longevity of Final Fantasy XV in a completely different way without fully succeeding.
MONSTER KINGSGLAIVE
Even this DLC, which initially seemed designed to propose an impromptu divertissement to those who had already finished Final Fantasy XV but just did not want to stop hunt for monsters, binds to the original screenplay telling us the adventures of an Angone – unhappy Italian adaptation of the rank Kingsglaive – survived the fall of Lucis. The game in fact connects above all to the full-length computer graphics
that preceded the release of the game in 2016: at the beginning, the avatar we created to represent us through an excellent personalization system, is recruited nothing from Libertus, the Angone helps Lunafreya escape from Lucis at the end of the film and that we never met in the game.Months have passed since the fall of Lucis and the world of
Eos is becoming darker every day that passes, so Libertus is bringing together the few Angles left alive in the city of Lestallum, the last stronghold of the human race. Our task will be to annihilate tons of monsters in order to scrape together the kilowatts needed to unlock the nodes and outposts on the map, becoming increasingly stronger and worthy of serving the new king.
In fact, the story is essentially reduced to the prologue just described and some brief dialogue or cinematic, ending in a final battle actually very spectacular, thanks to the musical accompaniment of the famous composer Nobuo Uematsu,
returned specifically to write the above song and the cloying Comrades sung by Emiko Suzuki. Narratives of battle, on the narrative front, serves to explain how Noctis knew to have to go to Hammerhead after his return in chapter 14 of Final Fantasy XV,
neither more nor less, and it’s a shame because the DLC could give us the opportunity to better explore the world sunk in the darkness and interact more with some characters that instead only make an appearance between a mission and another. In the end, in fact, Battle mates is reduced to a repetitive grind of missions in which we will have to kill a certain number of enemies, protect a goal or escort a load,
in the company of a trio of Angoni controlled by as many players or a discreet artificial intelligence. The materials collected in the mission are used to upgrade or manufacture new weapons, offering the player a remarkable variety of fighting styles.
The combat system is in fact the best feature of the package: it is substantially that of Noctis, but improved in many ways. Commands are more responsive, smoother animations, and revised and corrected hitboxes provide greater control over action and dodges. The original magic system has been completely replaced by an intuitive combination of keys that allows you to attack enemies, generate a protective barrier or heal our comrades.
The combination of the renewed control system and the spectacular nature of the action guarantees, in short, great fun during the missions, never too long and particularly funny with some friends, but the problem is just that:the assignments do not last long and you have the feeling of constantly fighting against the interface of the game and the evident inexperience of the development team in the field of online gaming. The progression is structured in an absolutely
debatable way: between a mission and the other you have to go through an exorbitant number of very long uploads and intermezzo screens, also lacking basic options that allow you to repeat a mission on the fly together with the same players or bring together the group in a hub from which to immediately start hunting.
Every time you have to start the process again: considering that to reach the final it takes between eight and ten hours, and that to unlock any content it may take many more, simply want to turn on the console when you have a few minutes and you have to spend them staring at a loading screen or restarting the game because of some bugs.
