This review contains spoilers
Final Fantasy XV DLC that single-handedly made me reevaluate my rating for everything else FFXV-related because I cannot in good faith rate it anything below a 3 and cannot in good conscious rate it anything above or on par to the rest. Episode Ardyn is messy and edgy and I had a great time with it, honestly. To give it some actual credit, it had some interesting concepts and imagery in there that kept me genuinely hooked. I think that the ending was a pleasant if not strange surprise that addressed FFXV's themes in a way that I had wanted from FFXV for a long, long time. Ardyn himself is fun to play as and fun to follow once the third chapter kicks in, and that third chapter is hilariously ridiculous, so much so that I was without a doubt having a great time all throughout. Lotus Juice is there! You can blow up cars and jumbotrons for shits and giggles! You can buy Ardyn different hats! Raw as hell. I would recommend Episode Ardyn on this basis alone, but fortunately for me I can say that it personally scratched an itch that may or may not appeal to you as well, if you're anything like me.
Unfortunately, beginning to Episode Ardyn is deceptively boring. The best part for me was a familiar face, you could say, and that realization eclipsed pretty much everything else going on at the time, which is dire. Its dramatic moments are laughably predictable and uninspired, but I suppose that there's SOME things you could thematically extrapolate from the fridging of a female character introduced specifically to make Ardyn sad. As for later on, I consider the sheer edge of it all to be delightfully silly, but I suppose it could be what others might call grating. Even I think that the gameplay is repetitive, for as long as I spent running around Insomnia making sure I fought and broke anything and everything that I could. That final boss has the same problem that all of the other giant-sized bosses in FFXV have, which is to say that they're janky as hell. All in all, I'm not sure if I would call Episode Ardyn good. However, I would say that it's worth it, even if for all of the wrong reasons and maybe one or two of the right ones.
Oh, and my final note is that the optional boss is fun as hell. It's goofy. Highly recommended, but I'm a guy who genuinely enjoyed Episode Ardyn, so take my opinion with a grain of salt.
Unfortunately, beginning to Episode Ardyn is deceptively boring. The best part for me was a familiar face, you could say, and that realization eclipsed pretty much everything else going on at the time, which is dire. Its dramatic moments are laughably predictable and uninspired, but I suppose that there's SOME things you could thematically extrapolate from the fridging of a female character introduced specifically to make Ardyn sad. As for later on, I consider the sheer edge of it all to be delightfully silly, but I suppose it could be what others might call grating. Even I think that the gameplay is repetitive, for as long as I spent running around Insomnia making sure I fought and broke anything and everything that I could. That final boss has the same problem that all of the other giant-sized bosses in FFXV have, which is to say that they're janky as hell. All in all, I'm not sure if I would call Episode Ardyn good. However, I would say that it's worth it, even if for all of the wrong reasons and maybe one or two of the right ones.
Oh, and my final note is that the optional boss is fun as hell. It's goofy. Highly recommended, but I'm a guy who genuinely enjoyed Episode Ardyn, so take my opinion with a grain of salt.