Final Fantasy XV finally saw it's release on the gaming market last year after the long 10 year wait, dispute selling millions of copies worldwide and gain some defence for the huge amount of promise they had going for the Episode Duscae Demo the full game did not live up to the long overdue hype. Cause if games are going to take that long to eventually see a full release it just takes away all that hope and build up away. Eventually we also got the release of the Brotherhood Anime and the Kingsglaive film which all tried to resolve the storyline of XV that the game did so poorly at. This is now the case with the release of character DLC storylines which give each their own points to the XV storyline and it begins with Episode Gladiolus which explains his storyline where he went to after leaving Noctis and his pals in one of the game's chapters.
In Episode Gladiolus after the end of chapter 6 in the main game where Gladiolus got defeated by Ravus he leaves Noctis and the gang feeling unfit to serve as Noctis' shield and decides to undertake the trial of the legendary blademaster where he must challenge the blademaster himself Gilgamesh another popular staple villain. To do this he enlists the aid of the Marshall Cor to guide him to his trial where he must gain the power in order to challenge the mighty blademaster. The premise I'll admit is decent and the overall voice performance on the characters is really good. You do get some background on Gladiolus and his father plus learning about the blademaster and Cor's attempt to challenge him which is a nice touch.
Now the game controls like the original game so that for the most part you can easily pick up and play and also uses some of the mechanics as well but without any of the Levelling up aspect. The DLC gameplay has you going through one huge single area going from battle to battle tackling waves of enemies till you reach the door leading you to a boss trial to overcome. Once you beat the boss trial you can unlock a new ability and move on to the next. There are about 4 bosses in the trial and there are no side points to see or do in the DLC it is linear but at least the dungeon is detailed rather nicely.
Gladiolus fights are handled a little differently from Noctis, he doesn't have a warp ability instead he has Glaive Arts and his attacks are a lot slower but deals a lot of damage. You can block attacks with a shield but can only can so for a time before becoming invulnerable for a few seconds. You use the attack button to perform a regular combo of attacks but can also do different attacks with while using the left analog stick in a certain direction. One of which involves Gladiolus throwing his sword which is useless cause it does weak damage and leaves him open to attacks. You can use Glaive Arts with the triangle button on the PS4 version by default and using one of those attacks is dependent on how high the Valor meter is. The Valor meter builds up as you deal attacks on the enemies and the higher the meter you use a different Glaive Art which deals more damage then the other ones. Gladiolus also has a rage meter which builds up if you successfully block enemy attacks but the effect is better if you parry enemy attacks at the right time. If you can parry correctly you can counter attack or sometimes grab an enemy into a group of enemies. By building up the rage it increases his attack power greatly and allows you to do overkill damage and combining it with the the highest Valor allows your best technique to do tons more damage. Gladiolus can pick up heavy columns from posts which can be used to smack heavy armoured enemies can only sustain a few uses before breaking apart. Gladiolus can also link with Cor to do a link chain attack and instantly kill an enemy which can also be useful against large groups of enemies.
The regular enemies don't take long to go down, they just take a few hits and they don't pull off any status effects on you which is decent enough. Usually it's easier to play defensively as supposed to fighting recklessly cause enemies can wreak you down if you are not careful. The 4 boss trials are also not so hard as well as long as you know how to beat them, they also have a pattern such is exploitable which will allow you to build up the rage and valor to take them down. You can use recovery items like you can in the main game
When you beat the 3 stage trials you the fourth and final trial awaits, battling the blade master himself Gilgamesh and fighting him is the highlight of the DLC. He has two forms and the series of attacks that you must be careful of otherwise you'll go down easily. Once you parry his attacks at the right time and build the meters up you can beat Gilgamesh and win the game. His remixed tune called Fight on the Big Bridge is by far the best that has been composed.
In addition to the main game you get a score attack which challenges to use all your skills to go through the game and also the final trial mode which pits you against the hardest fight in Final Fantasy XV yet, Cor the Immortal. Fighting Cor is a frustrating mess of trial and error instead of providing a challenge. Cor can easily dodge your attacks and also counter attack with attacks that can kill you if not in 1 hit when you least expect it plus his other attacks can be difficult to time the parry. He can also go into a state where his attacks become unblockable and his attacks do more damage to you. His attack pattern can really mess you up if you dare to fight normally which what makes the fight so bad alone stands to how the battle system and controls work. Like in the main game it can be easy to get overwhelmed by enemies and they tend to wreak you quickly. What doesn't help is that Gladiolus' attacks are slow, like I said his sword throw attack is useless and also I hate it in the Cor fight that even when he is staggered and is in range of your attack one of the attacks go right through him and deal no damage. I swear I had that happen to me a few times when I was fighting Cor. Also with the enemies their pattern some don't make it so that you can easily get a parry on them cause they might waste your time standing there which is something to take note of when doing Score Attack. Still if you manage to defeat Cor then you deserve a pat on the back and get the trophy for doing so.
While Episode Gladiolus does reasonably well in giving Gladiolus a little side story what the developers have the audacity to take the gameplay of Episode Gladiolus and try to expand on one of the worst chapters of the entire game. That would be Chapter 13 verse 2 where you take control of Gladiolus with Ignis on your side. The storyline in verse 2 just contains more nonsense which me question the storyline and neither do I care about the storyline.
Playing through Episode Gladiolus and playing Final Fantasy XV again after the developers have spend the time to patch the game out has been difficult for me to get back to after playing through Tales of Berseria. This is because Tales of Berseria's combat system has got a ton of depth of replay value that you want to master each character's artes and combos that can give you the edge against even the toughest of enemies. Final Fantasy XV on the other hand there are tons of ways the enemies can get the edge on you combined the camera which can also be a problem in Episode Gladiolus where it can be difficult to see where enemies are attacking from.
Episode Gladiolus does offer up a neat plot where he wants the power to protect his king but the main game is short and some of the combat problems from the main game return here plus the fight against Cor is frustrating. It's worthwhile if only for the boss fight against Gilgamesh and also and also to get a few new items for the main game like a powerful new sword and also a shirtless outfit for Gladiolus to wear. It might not cost much but if you want to explore Gladiolus' sidestory and take on one of the more difficult challenges in Final Fantasy XV then by all means purchase it and also the upcoming DLC content that is coming out like Episode Prompto which I will check out soon.
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Game Title: Final Fantasy XV Episode Gladiolus
Platform: PlayStation 4
Developer: Square Enix
Genre: Action Role Playing
Age Rating: PEGI: 16+
Release Date: 28th March 2017
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Game Score: 5.0/10
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The Good Points:
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Good storyline premise and character background
Fighting Gilgamesh with his remixed track
The Bad Points:
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Cor can be a serious pain to beat
Not so good hit detection plus the combat system can be difficult to get come back to
Chapter 13 verse 2 is rather pointless
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Reviewed by: Anthony Hayball (AQWBlaZer91)
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