Last year the gaming industry was finally graced with the release of the hugely anticipated Final Fantasy XV after the long 10 year wait, in some players eyes which include myself felt that the long 10 year wait was not worth the hype that it built it along the way. Afterwards we were given DLC content which tried to expand on the storyline of XV, one of those was Episode Gladiolus which I did check out and I found it to be a decently told story with a combat system that was difficult to come back to. Now comes the release of Episode Prompto DLC for Final Fantasy which gives the weakest party member his own storyline. I will say that Final Fantasy XV's storyline is very weak in it's character and story development but Episode Prompto's storyline is convoluted and at times rather difficult to sit through as well as featuring some confusing and awkward gameplay design choices that were not thought well.
So in Episode Prompto follows our weak gun wielding protagonist traversing through the snowlands of Niflheim instead of worrying about Noctis and his other allies. Why? Cause he believes that he would find out that Niflheim was his birthplace which turns out to be an Imperial factory made for cloning purposes. There is a small backstory that reveals more about Prompto's history but however most of the plot point reflected which attempts to point out more of Prompto's past becomes really convoluted and becomes full of plot holes that didn't make all that much sense. Aranea is also there assisting him in both stopping the new Imperial being worked on there and also getting Prompto to understand that he has his place with Noctis and co while he has difficulties understanding if he really has a place with him. A lot of the story pieces in this DLC is full of nonsensical moments that often left me confused and questioning what was going on but also it also left questioning how Prompto ended up where he ended up in Chapter 13 of the main game. Thankfully all of the cutscenes can be skipped aside from 2 instances where the game throws a quick time event at you.
Episode Prompto changes it's gameplay into a form of a third person shooter being similar to another Final Fantasy game. In this game mode you use Prompto's firearms which involve his handgun but can also pick up a machine gun, sniper rifle and also a bazooka for heavy targets. You can also use his knife to perform a stealth kill and also use a grenade to damage multiple enemies at once. The problem with the combat is that none of the weapons are all that impactful aside from the sniper rifle which is decent enough for headshots, the handgun does little damage and the explosive weapons do not have any explosion impact and do such damage even if aimed at like a robot's weak point. Another thing that I don't like how weapons are handled for some reason, on the PS4 version it uses the bumper buttons for aiming down the sight and firing whereas other PS4 shooters use the trigger buttons. Thank goodness the PS4's accessibility options allow you to change the buttons around to your liking but that ain't the confusing part. You can aim down the sight on the machine gun, sniper rifle or bazooka and aim manually but with the handgun it just locks onto a nearby target which doesn't make all that much sense. Why can't you aim down the sight of the handgun as well like the other weapons or why can't all weapons use the lock on target mechanic as well. Handing Grenades is also a problem, for some reason it won't allow you to throw higher and instead allows you only to throw at the distance it wants you to throw. Grenades also do very little damage which makes that useless. For the most part I end up just using the machine gun to take down all the enemies with but the ammo runs out on it and when is out on a temporally weapon you'll drop it and have to pick up a different one. You can't even pick extra ammo for the temporally you pick up and instead have to replace it with a new one, it's just ridiculous. You can crouch behind cover to avoid enemy attacks but there are only a few spots in the game where you can take cover and the controls don't make cover all that useful. These will end up getting attack from multiple sides and even dealing with the smallest of enemies is really a pain cause you can get staggered from enemy attacks which makes a lot of the game's battles a chore cause of how bad the mechanics and controls are.
You do get Aranea who will fight on your side plus also the team attack system returns in this game which allows you to use other characters attacks when the meter is full. This system will end up being the key to winning the majority of the game's battles in Episode Prompto because most of Prompto's attacks are worthless. Prompto also does have his Crackshot technique which if you manage to knock an enemy off balance you can use it to deal massive damage which is also useful for defeating powerful enemies. Also the health system from the main returns where if your HP drops to 0 you don't die but instead go into danger state and you have to either use a potion or have Aranea rescue you out of it. If you take enough damage in that state then you'll die and have to use a phoenix downs to revive yourself.
Episode Prompto also has a snowmobile which is used for getting you to where you need to go plus you are given a campsite if you need to rest up and recover. This game has a few sidequests which upon completion allows you to earn parts which you can upgrade the snowmobile. Now can I just say that this is unneeded for a whole load of reasons. First off the majority of sidequests are difficult and will require Aranea and plenty of recovery items to help you beat them since the game doesn't have any character levelling up mechanics like in Episode Gladiolus. Second quests will change depending on certain times of the day as well as the location and you would think they would learn from Lightning Return Final Fantasy XIII. Third you only get minor rewards from completing them and upgrading the snowmobile doesn't have any actual impact the same way Prompto's weapons are handled. Fourth the sidequests are hard while the main story on the other hand isn't hard to beat that it's easier to ignore them anyway cause none of them really all that matter anyway except for one quest which will give you an unlockable trophy for completing it. It's much easier to go through Episode Prompto like a linear game and not bother with the sidequests at all.
Once you reach the end you'll fight a boss who swings all over the arena and another boss where you use a Gatling gun to defeat it which are not hard to beat. Beating the main game will take about an hour and a half without evening on the sidequests. Beating it will unlock two other modes Time Trial and the fight against Aranea who is tough but nowhere near as hard as Cor in Episode Gladiolus.
In the time trials you take on 3 courses on the snowmobile which aren't hard but however the controls and the times you need to beat do not make it so and this the perfect to mention how bad the snowmobile sections are. I can say the controls for using the snowmobile is absolutely horrible, it's easy to lose control of the snowmobile and the physics are just terrible. You can make a turn which can send you spinning clockwise, there are plenty of obstacles which can also cause you to lose control easily and I also hate that sometimes rushing right into an enemy at reasonable speed just stops you and does not run the enemy over at all, it's ridiculous. You can also slide off the ramps but landing on the ground from using the ramps causes you to bounce all the place and hit other obstacles. The time trial tracks are also badly designed, the tracks all have the speedshards that you need to pick up in order to make yourself go faster but they are often placed near an obstacle that you'll end up crashing into an obstacle wasting your time while other times are placed too far apart and in parts where turns are a little difficult to pull off. What really not makes the mode really bad is that the tracks require to be beat in such little time to get all 3 stars in all tracks to get the trophy which with the bad controls and physics makes this mode a chore to play through.
With everything that is so bad about the gameplay of Episode Prompto the game at least looks nice with the whole snowy landscape look and the snowing weather effects are incredible. In the beginning where Prompto is struggling through the ice you can see snow particles on his attire and I like how when Prompto does his Crackshot technique the game goes inverted in colour which looks cool. Some of the soundtracks are really good as well especially the new battle themes which is something that Final Fantasy XV does right for.
There are so many overwhelming problems in this DLC chapter of XV that compared to Episode Gladiolus it's painful to see some of the good they did in that DLC and then make it worse in the next DLC expansion. Episode Prompto's gunplay is terrible and in fact worse then Dirge of Cerberus FFVII and seeing how much of a disappointment that game was then you know that Episode Prompto can't be good. I'm sure that by now I do not need to recommend or not recommend cause by now people would have made their minds already cause you know this long after XV's release and Square Enix has really been milking XV the same way VII, XIII and XIV have been milked to death. With more DLC planned for XV it's likely not going to improve the universe of XV in any shape or form. Overall Episode Prompto is one poorly designed chapter that leaves one of Noctis' companions out in the cold to freeze to death which is the fate of this DLC story.
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Game Score: 3.0/10
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Game Title: Final Fantasy XV Episode Prompto
Platform: PS4
Developer: Square Enix
Genre: Action Role Playing
Age Rating: PEGI: 16+
Release Date: 27th June 2017
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The Good Points:
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The Snowy Landscapes look nice and the music is cool
The Bad Points:
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Poorly told and confusing story
Awkward Combat System
Terrible Snowmobile physics and badly designed time trial stages
Pointless Sidequests which don't add anything
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Reviewed by: Anthony Hayball (AQWBlaZer91)
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