Final Fantasy XV Episode Ignis is the 4th and final season 1 DLC expansion for Final Fantasy XV cause if Gladiolus and Prompto had gotten their own DLC side story then so does Ignis, focusing on our expert chef and tactician's point of view it tells his own story filling in what has happened with him in the storyline Final Fantasy XV while also showing that combat is still not served very well. Just will worn you that there are major spoilers if you haven't played the DLC yet.
The story of this DLC takes place in Chapter 9 after the fight against Leviathan where Noctis and the country of Altissia has fallen and Ignis is on his own to track down Noctis before the Empire does. Ignis takes on Caligo one of the main game's villains who was never seen again later before siding with Ravus for whatever reason. That doesn't last long as they would fight to the death anyway before the final showdown with Ardyn. Like with Episode Gladiolus the focus is on how it shows what happened with the character and does a pretty good job of explaining the outcome even if the alliance between Ignis and Ravus is bizarre. However the highlight of the DLC comes within the final act where Ignis is stuck in a tough situation against Ardyn, Ignis shows off his resolve against the main bad guy and will do anything to protect his king from harm even accepting the consequences in doing so. It also does show how Ignis loses his vision in the final act as well which does show how Ignis becomes so weak in the later chapters in the main game. This moment really brings out the best of Ignis in this DLC making him arguably the best character throughout Final Fantasy XV even if the English Dub voice acting performance is very rough in plenty of the character lines. It's certainly a better told storyline then in the other DLC storylines seen so far considering that the developers really put a lot of focus onto Ignis' character which has an impact on the story from the point onward.
Episode Ignis on the other hand is a simple linear campaign which mainly lasts an hour for a first time playthrough. You mainly fight your way through waves of enemies as you go from point A to point B. Ignis uses his spelldaggers to deal quick damage but can select one of three elements at your disposal Fire, Ice or Thunder, Fire allows you to deal fast damage, Ice allows you to damage multiple enemies quite a number of times while Thunder allows you to instantly dash past enemies dealing lighting damage to them. You can use the technique Overclock to enchant his daggers with a elemental damage increase. Ignis also has a High Jump technique which not only allows you to avoid attacks put also deal great damage to multiple enemies. He also has a new technique called Total Clarity which is an elemental attack where depending on the element you are using does a different elemental attack which attacks multiple enemies or does damage to one enemy. Total Clarity does take time to build up but however with a press of the Triangle button on the PS4 version by default allows you to fill up the meter faster so that you can use it again more quicker. Total Clarity is aright for attacking multiple enemies but it really isn't all that impactful and feels underpowered. Ignis also gets his hand on a Hookshot which allows him to reach high areas which is a neat way to navigate through the city of Altissia and it can also be used to get a jump on an enemy's flag or a heavy machine to instantly take one of them out. You sadly only get the hookshot for only a short while before losing it. Ignis does have access to one ability where he can quickly cook up a meal to give him stat boosts but also may also cause poison instead although you need to unlock it in one of the chapters of the DLC before you can use it. Now Episode Ignis makes a change with the parry and counterstrike system. Instead of holding down the Square button to defend and parry attacks Ignis dodges the attacks at the cost of the MP bar, also instead of parrying you must let an enemy get a hit on you while you attack so that you can time a press of the Square button to get back on your feet and press circle afterward to unleash a counterstrike to deal massive damage. However for the majority of battles I mainly just relayed on one single element and held down the R1 and Circle buttons to take care of most of the work while the multiplayer which returns from Episode Gladiolus by the way builds up making your fights easier as long as you keep damaging the enemies without getting hit yourself. It may seem to be a stale strategy but let me be honest the combat is still not great and still has a number of problems which I'll try not to go into detail this time like I did with the main game review.
The camera can still make battles difficult when you can't see what enemies attacking you at times cause the camera view can be blocked by either trees or other big enemies. Some of the attacks like the Thunder element attacks and Total Clarity are very underpowered and lack any impactful also the Thunder element makes you dart around enemies and they tend to avoid taking damage from it making it worthless and also it makes the camera pan around also making it also tricky to see what you are doing. The Overclock ability seems cool cause it allows you to deal better damage however it picks out the element to increase damage to randomly and there are chances it won't give you the right element you want and instead might give you the wrong one like it will give you the Thunder enhancement instead of the Fire enhancement as an example. Plus the Overclock technique only lasts for a short time limit anyway and takes two technique bars to use making it kind of worthless. The new counterstrike system isn't great either, it can be difficult to pull it off all of the time because either sometimes enemies instantly deal massive damage making you unable to recover and counterattack or at times the counterstrike won't come out. Yes I swear it's true, I know how to do it and can make it work when I want to work but there are times when I need to use it but it just won't came out, either because you have to really time the counterstrike perfectly or there is a glitch with it. Some people say that you can't use the counterstrike at all if your health drops halfway but I found it works even at half health so I don't know, it could just one of those sometimes it works while other times it won't kind of mechanics. The game still has that annoying health system where if your health drops to 0 you'll go into danger state and if your max HP drops down all the way you die and have to use a Phoenix Down to revive yourself or just give up the fight and restart. I still find this system annoying cause every time you get out of danger state you lose a percentage of health and sometimes you could take just 1 hit and end up back in danger state again you have to use an elixir to restore your lost max HP. You just end up wasting a ton of recovery items and it's just annoying to spend more time recovering then actually fighting. A lot of the special effects from attacks also make the fights harder to see as well like it's not bad enough to have some fights cause of their pattern or inconsistent battle mechanics but to have the special effects make it difficult to see what you are doing.
Episode Ignis is a short DLC storyline which clocks in about an hour from start to finish on a normal playthrough unless you want to spend extra time finding the documents for an achievement. Although the city of Altissia is really big and has a few things to find however there is little much to see besides collecting documents or finding some materials which can be sold for recovery items or tools to unlock some technique or whatever. Shame it's going to be used in other modes so it's better off ignored. Finishing it will unlock an alternate route for you to take which will allow you to unlock different endings which changes the fate of the storyline even though the impact thrown on Ignis in that route doesn't make all that much sense considering that Ignis is supposed to lose his vision from using the Ring of Lucii.
After beating the main game and the alternate route you also unlock the Friendly match mode where you take on Noctis and it's where all of the DLC's biggest problems truly lie. Noctis isn't hard because he is the final and optional boss of the DLC but because of the inconsistency of the game mechanics and also the cheapness that you'll witness when you dare to do it yourself. Noctis has access to all his royal arms and weapon types and can deal massive damage plus also attack overly aggressively that you'll sometimes won't be able to dodge effectively all the time. He also dodges your counterstrikes and also his attacks go through a building so trying to recover from this guy becomes a real chore. In fact the whole fight is completely frustrating and at times unfair when Noctis easily gets the advantage against you and the other mechanics from using Overclock to Total Clarity do not work all that well in the fight. You just have to pray that the counterstrikes come out and that Noctis doesn't spend too much time countering your attacks so that you can finally get the edge on him and get that well deserved A+ rating. If you are able to do that then give yourself a pat on the back because that fight is just frustrating to put up with even more so then Cor in Episode Gladiolus. Like I said in my Episode Gladiolus review instead of providing a reasonable challenge you have to put up with the cheapness of the boss and will no doubt waste every single recovery item you have just to try and take this guy down. None of any of the problems I'd have with the combat wouldn't be so bad if for the fact that there is no levelling up like with the other episodic content and that alone makes combat a challenge if the character doesn't have that much stats to survive the challenges to come.
Now that I've finally done all of the season 1 DLC content for Final Fantasy XV I will say that between this, Episode Gladiolus and Episode Prompto I have that Episode Prompto is the worst of them all with Episode Ignis possibly being the best mainly because of the storyline which alongside Episode Gladiolus fills in the missing pages to the story and shows what really happened to Ignis and how he ended up losing the vision. They all have their biggest shares of problems especially Episode Prompto since a lot of the issues from poor gameplay and story really leave the spiky dude out in the cold (no pun intended) while the other issues that one DLC content have spreads into the other and it's a shame Square Enix has still no polished out the issues with the combat and camera. Getting back into Final Fantasy XV after playing other good RPGs on the PS4 like Tales of Berseria and Persona 5 really makes Final FantasyXV's combat inferior by comparison. Yes I know that Persona 5 is a turn based RPG but still compared to this game there is depth and strategy to be taken with both Tales of Berseria and Persona 5 and are still fun to play where as Final Fantasy XV's combat and camera make the game difficult to come back to.
Okay I've gone of track there, look Episode Ignis is decent enough for the storyline but however the combat is not best served and still suffers the same problems as the rest of the game. It's available to download for a cheap price and if you really want to see what has become of Noctis' faithful companion then check it out otherwise give this one a miss. Wither or not you'll stop caring for Final Fantasy XV like I'll be soon it won't stop the fact that there will be more DLC content for Final Fantasy XV plus also the recent release of the Royal Edition which will allow the season 1 DLC to be sold together as well as the PC port. To be honest I'm not sure how the DLC releases of Final Fantasy XV could get any worse, how about that will be an Episode Ardyn, an Episode Aranea or an Episode Noctis despite that we already play the main game anyway as Noctis. I really don't know why Square Enix is going to keep going with all the DLC garbage for Final Fantasy XV instead of just ending the whole story and stop the whole milking of the Final Fantasy XV Universe. Anyway if you enjoyed this review be sure to comment, give your thoughts on the Final Fantasy XV storyline and in the next review I'll take a look at the Royal Edition of Final Fantasy XV to see if they have improved the game for better or worse.
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Game Score: 5.3/10
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Game Title: Final Fantasy XV Episode Ignis
Platform: PlayStation 4
Developer: Square Enix
Genre: Role Playing
Age Rating: PEGI: 16+
Release Date: 13th December 2017
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The Good Points:
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1. Fills in the missing blanks of the Final Fantasy XV universe
2. Ignis' resolve and determination to protect Noctis
The Bad Points:
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1. Inconsistent combat mechanics and the camera's still a problem
2. Underpowered abilities
3. The friendly match is frustrating, inconsistent and at times unfair
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Reviewed by: Anthony Hayball (AQWBlaZer91)
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