I guess having finished the game in two times might have diminished its ending's impact a little bit, but I still fucking loved it.
So let's see: the whole Chapter 14 is pretty nice, but it need much more: it needed to let you explore some of Lucis and see how fucked up the world has gotten; it should have let you go find your friends doing whatever they were doing during that timegap (hunting, cooking, whatever), making the chapter much larger in length and scope; Insomnia (fucking great use of Somnus, I tell you that) should have been bigger and more intricate (like Gralea, I would have killed for some citizen interaction or something).
I mean, we NEVER get to see Insomnia's life. We don't get to see what you're fighting for. That really diminish Noct's goal (before the whole "save the world" thing becomes more apparent). It's a shame that a game with such a lived-in world didn't get that right, and I'm assuming it was mostly out of time restraints. A big shame; even flashbacks could have done the job.
The monsters in Insomnia were very, very fun (fuck that mech thing, though; I'm guessing I'll return at a later time to kill it). The soldiers were the most satisfying ones, as well as Yojimbo. King Behemoth was cool, although I spent the whole battle by myself, as I didn't really want to waste items (I had a shitton of them, though).
Ifrit. Man, what a fucking beast of a design. The battle(s) was nice enough; I actually had a blast with it.
Ardyn's battle was... well, I don't know. It should have been a little longer or at least allow us a new phase (whether he would have had a "FF demon/angel/god form"™ or not). I enjoyed it, but the second part where you go SSJ wasn't very fun, much like during Leviathan.
So OK, in regards to plot now: how Noctis goes to sleep (it was predictable as fuck, but I still dislike this device for timeskips) and then wakes up in a fucking island is so weirdly done: no weight or importance. Your landing in Galdin Quay was actually cool, with some strong creatures and the realization that everything had gone to shit (poor waitress...). I honestly was shocked to see the Demon Wall (ran away like a chicken) and actually got my second summon in the whole game against Master Tonberry (first one was Titan; this one was Leviathan, which was very awkward as I was inside a cave).
And then fucking Talcott picks you up. I mean, I wasn't truly surprised, but I really wanted to go all the way up to Insomnia by myself. His dialogue as you cross Leide is both cool and frustrating: cool because you get insight about this world, about Talcott himself (the Cactilio toys were a great touch, although I didn't get a single one for him lol) and about the guys; frustrating because, well, it would have been great if you had been able to discover all of that by yourself and could reunite with ALL of them.
When you meet your friends again... man, how are all of them that fucking cold. It's your friend you haven't seen in 10 years! Considering everything else, however, I wasn't really shocked. The music that sounded during the camping scene was amazing, goosebumps. Also, I mentioned this earlier, but does Gladio have a girlfriend now? Nice for him!
Entrace in Insomnia is, again, underwhelming, although the first scene is cool (the one during E3). Now, onto Ardyn and Ifrit. I fucking love the concept of Ifrit in this game, but they barely explain anything and just let you fight him. OK, why not.
When Noctis asked for a picture, I knew what was coming, if it wasn't clear enough already. I played it safe and picked the first one with the Regalia (was about to pick the one in Caem, but I felt that the journey was about these four friends rather than the others, who barely appear).
Now we get a great scene (which is, sadly, incredibly weird in this game): how you get illusions of Aldercapt (underused), Regis (underused), Luna (underused) and Nyx (really nice surprise!). It was so creepy, and when Noctis calls him a jester and that the throne is for the king... That was some nice dialogue there. Of course, your mates are quickly incapacitated and you get in the final fight.
I liked the exchanges, Ardyn's tragic background and all of that. Also his fighting style, for obvious reasons. His goal, too, and you could say he actually succeded in achieving it. What a great man
.
The farewell scene was well done, what with all the POTTERY in regards to mirroring the first scene. And the CG scene was beautiful as well (really killed me that Regis didn't say a word, although it made it even more fucked up. I guess that if he had had a bigger role in flashbacks and such, I wouldn't have needed a single word there, though). When they're inside the crystal and kill him, that was cool too (btw, Noctis using all the Royal Weapons to kill Ardyn really reminded me of AC Cloud).
And that's it. Then you get the campfire scene, which DESTROYS me for two reasons: first of all, because it's really well done (great acting by all of the actors, especially Noctis') and makes the ending even more bittersweet: they manage to bring light back to the world, but there you have Noctis, a guy who's barely 20 and couldn't even have a life at all; second of all, however, because I really needed more scenes like this in the game. What a missed opportunity :/
The Luna and Noctis scene was beautiful too (great design Noct has there too, without the beard and with that kingly attire). The logo transition, and I'm not joking, is one of the most GENIUS things I've seen in a game. Really, really beautiful, surprising and impactful. Also nice workaround in regards to Etro being gone while the logo still makes sense (I honestly hadn't though a single second about it during the entire game).
So yeah, really good ending, the best part BY FAR of the entire game in regards to plot and storytelling, with great acting, nice writing and gorgeous visuals. A shame this is not the standard for the whole game, although luckily, when they got it right was in probably the most important moment. They really needed to nail this, and I think they did.
So, my interpretation of the ending, which I guess has been said countless times: Noctis fulfills his destiny and dies, reuniting with Luna in the after life (I've seen some people saying that scene was mostly Noctis' own final fantasy before dying, which I fucking love even though it's really sad at the same time).
Gladio, Prompto and Ignis wreck those petty Iron Giants and lead the world to a new dawn, rebuilding Insomnia (and the world in general), with the Royal Family being gone for good and Noctis being considered the King of Light forever and ever, being honored in his own castle where he died.
PS: one more thing: WHERE THE FUCK IS MY BOY COR? Seriously, not only they don't feature him in KG (what a shitty bodyguard I tell you), but they also just let him be with you in stupidly early and boring missions to just fuck off forever. Hell, he could have accompanied you (along with Iris, Aranea...) to Insomnia and, I don't know, sacrifice himself in the most cliche way. Even that would have been a better ending for him, he just dissapears.
This is the one of the most glaring problems I have with this game in regards to characters: here's where you can see where they had to cut (Cor, Aldercapt, Verstael...). And to think Cor was (during 2013 and 2014) my most hyped character of the crew (when it was kinda shown he would be a main party member)...
) And yeah without food buffs its hard, what level were you when you went through? I went through at level 50 so food buffs were sort of optional to me.
