Review: Final Fantasy XV: Episode Ignis

Last time is a charm?

So far, Final Fantasy XV has had a mix of mediocre to positive updates. Nothing has been outright bad, and the myriad free quality-of-life updates are appreciated, but the individual story campaigns have been lacking. Gladio and Prompto are fine characters in their own right, but they didn’t really get much of a chance to shine with forced, threadbare gaidens to their name.

Ignis wants to change all that with a mini-adventure that’s more rooted in the core narrative.

Final Fantasy XV: Episode Ignis (PS4 , Xbox One [reviewed])
Developer: Square Enix
Publisher: Square Enix
Release: December 13, 2017
MSRP: $4.99 (or part of the Season Pass)

Like the others, this takes place during the events of the main campaign, but it’s far more justified as it’s in the heat of the action. Altissia is in shambles because of Leviathan, and Ignis takes it upon himself to tango with the Niflheim empire and rescue Noctis, who has collapsed after battling the beast. We also get another look at Ravus, the understated anti-hero, who may as well get his own episode at this point.

Ignis isn’t as showy as some of the other party members, but he’s resourceful, and the development team translated that pretty well with his gameplay. He’s swift, has several combat styles at the ready (with spell-swapping concessions for single/group targets), and can make use of his signature cooking skills, which make for a fun and hilarious gameplay mechanic. Same goes for the hookshot, which doesn’t take itself too seriously.

You’re in the thick of some real shit in Episode Ignis, but everything gameplay-wise is kept light enough where it doesn’t disappear up its own hubris hole. Ignis’ spelldagger melee animations look damn cool, and the setting of Altissia feels like it came straight out of a pointed, linear Platinum or (previously) Clover action game. Counter-parrying after a stumble and switching elements to address different situations also has more of a straight action feel to it than XV‘s core, even if it is still a little mashy.

But what starts off as a crazy rooftop rumble ends up being a little more heavy and expanding beyond the confines of Altissia, which is actually fine since I want to see more of this world. A chance to view a drastically different (presumably non-canon) take on the story is also a great thing to shove into a DLC release, especially since it doesn’t drag at any point (like the others, it clocks in at a few hours for a single completion).

Square Enix recognized its failures from the first two DLCs and was able to address some of them in Episode Ignis. It doesn’t entirely redeem the season pass, but it is worth picking up piecemeal for five bucks, or as part of the eventual Game of the Year edition. With the last season pass story add-on out, the cycle of Final Fantasy XV is complete.

Just kidding! Episode Ardyn is coming next year.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher. You can access the DLC from the main menu as a separate episode.]}