First off, the first DLC for Fnal Fantasy XV dropped this week, Episode Gladiolus, and it has been a bit of a disappointment. As hoped for, it does finally answer the question of what Gladio did when he left the party for Chapter 7, and simultaneously came with an alternate chapter 13 showing what Gladio and Ignis did after being separated from Noctis, which was better. Both are pretty short and to the point and are so stripped down from the main game they feel completely different. Chapter 13 features a special sequence that explains what happened to Aldercept and Ravus and is totally worth playing this sequence, although it does kind of piss me off that Ardyn gave these two a shortcut, like why the hell couldn't Noctis have found that passage? But that's nothing compared to the Trial of Gilgamesh, Gladio's reason for leaving the party. Apparently this trial is for the Crownsguard and is roughly the equivalent of Noctis reclaiming for the Royal Arms. It's promising in concept and it's a fun romp to see some familiar faces in Enkidu and Gilgamesh, the latter coming with another signature Battle on the Big Bridge complete with a new remix of the song, but for the first time since Gilgamesh began his transdimensional journey, it's not the same Gilgamesh humorously breaking the fourth wall and admitting how many worlds he's been in, this time it's the ghost of the first King's Shield, the knight whose title is now held by Gladio himself. The frustrating part is that everything you did in the game goes out the window, Gladio is now at level 24 armed with a Claymore, no alternate weapons, no items except what you collect in the dungeon. Gladio has access to his own techniques which he now uses with his own meter, but there's no warp strikes, no magic, nothing but Cor having your back between bosses, but the four trial bosses you have to fight completely alone. I haven't been able to finish the final battle with Gilgamesh, largely because I blew through a lot of items fighting Humbaba, a boss that is based on the Red Giant that is the most pain in the ass demon to fight when you have a full party of four let alone Gladio alone. I did get far enough to see that Gladio got his scar from Gilgamesh when he slashes our hero across his face and Gladio continues undaunted, which answers the question of how that happened, but until I defeat Gilgamesh and see how this actually ends, the whole thing pretty much blows, I hope the other DLC are better. What I wish would have happened was that this worked like the Moogle Chocobo Carnival where you access the DLC with a save file and use Gladio with the gear, stats and items he has from the file, I even saved a file from Chapter 6 just for this. Instead, the current format lacks leveling and reduces the experience to being visually the same as the main game, but mechanically it's just a hack and slash minigame with minimal impact on the game overall. EDIT: I finished the fight with Gilgamesh, you get the Genji Blade which allows Gladio to perform Dual Master, we also find out the blade was Cor's and he used it to cut off Gilgamesh's arm, although they claim Cor did not defeat Gilgamesh, I want to know the definition of defeat when one guy cuts off his opponent's arm and is not considered as successful as the guy who gets a scar but leaves none on his enemy. Anyway, final ruling, unless you absolutely have to know exactly what Gladio was doing when he left the party in Chapter 7 or at the very least you want to play as Gladio instead of Noctis, this DLC is a letdown and not really worth it to any but the most ardent fans.
Grimm just ended in a fittingly weird way, the Destroyer came from another dimension and killed everyone leaving Nick with a choice to save his friends or kill him.Then his mother and aunt, both dead mind you, appear out of nowhere to help him do the right thing. Then Nick gets pulled into another world where none of what happened actually happened and nobody remembers it but him and Diane. Fast Forward twenty years, his son Kelly now hunts wesen with his sister Diane and the triplets Rosalee and Monroe had. Frankly I'm disappointed that we never saw the triplets nor found out whether they were Blutbaden, Fuchsbau or some sort of mutt. The ending was good, but I'm sad that that particular plotline was rushed. For the shippers out there, I think one of the triplets is a girl and falls in love with Kelly, probably a Fuchsbau, a real vixen through and through, it all started the first time she woged in front of him, while most wesen see their inner horror in a Grimm's eyes she saw the inner beauty he saw in her, his eyes reflecting the passion of love not hate, then they knew they were soulmates. Also, what if Kelly is part zauberbiest like Sean? His hand could be the part that woges, giving him super strength and telekinesis to bring weapons to his hands or throw them with heightened accuracy and brew the occasional zaubertrank or cast a spell when necessary. And back to shipping, Diana should date the blutbad son of Monrosalee, Monroe Jr. perhaps. Feel free to run with any of this with your own fan fiction, maybe we can get a convincing universe going for a possible reboot down the road.
Now for my big news, National Novel Writing Month spring Camp WriMo is beginning and now for the main event...7th Moon Mecha! After five years, I'm going to challenge myself this month to finally tackle the first sequel to 7th Moon! I attempted this years ago and botched it, but that means little, the first novel took three or four drafts over ten years, 7th Moon Mecha has only begun to fight and this time the book will be written! I will be dragging out the first three chapters I had before and continue the story of a mech war that starts with China reenacting the Three Kingdoms era, then flowing into a holy war in the holy land with clones of Tengu, then off to Europe to face vampires and steampunk mecha, and then to North America to take a tour of the last five cities on the continent and find out the truth behind the new war.
With this, I leave you to get back to serious writing after taking a break for a few months, I need to get back to work, and for the rest of the month, this blog will be nothing but updates on my writing. Next month, Tokyo Ghoul review, but that will have to wait for now...
No comments:
Post a Comment