Brotherhood is a theme so overt in Ultimate Fantasy XV that it’s the title of the sport’s five-episode prequel anime. An outlier in a sequence that often leverages expansive and numerous casts, FF15 as a substitute focuses solely on a highway journey with 4 lads. Tehy spend most of their time cruising round in a convertible, sightseeing, discovering new recipes, and tenting. Alongside the way in which, there’s quite a lot of groanworthy quips, awkward selfies, and good-natured cajoling.
The plot is an excessively severe mess with some baffling twists and clunky writing, and the moment-to-moment expertise is commonly foolish: a bunch of bros hanging out doing stuff. Considered one of them simply so occurs to be the True King destined to sacrifice himself to rid the world of an important evil.
By the tip, you’ve spent dozens of hours with the Prince Noctis and his non-public guards/BFFs Gladiolus, Ignis, and Prompto as all of them hurdle in the direction of this inevitable, heartbreaking tragedy. FF15 earns one of many greatest endings in gaming historical past due to how devoted it’s to expressing masculine comaraderie. Greater than eight years after the sport’s preliminary launch, there’s one specific scene that has caught with me.
FF15’s first act focuses on Noctis’s obligation as king of a nation at struggle and his impending marriage to a childhood buddy. It kind of makes the highway journey really feel like an impromptu bachelor get together, however the deep bonds of brotherhood that develop make for the actual coronary heart of this story. All 4 of the principle characters expertise self-doubt and religious disaster on a couple of event, and every has to make nice sacrifices. Their religion in one another is the one fixed that retains all of them afloat. When one wavers, the others are there to elevate them up.
Because the prophesied True King, Noctis is destined to rid the world of the Starscourge spreading darkness and daemons around the globe. Doing so, nevertheless, will price him his life. “Many sacrificed all for the King; a lot the King sacrifice himself for all,” the deity Bahamut tells Noctis in the direction of the tip. Noct has to hibernate in a Crystal for 10 years to assemble sufficient energy to eradicate the Starscourge, and he spends all that point dreaming reminiscences of the distant previous and of his personal life. In the meantime, his retinue by no means wavers. They spend the last decade preventing the rising darkness figuring out that their king will return. There’s a deep disappointment that emerges as soon as all of them be taught the reality.
Earlier than the ultimate battle, the bros share one final campfire that’s largely silent till Noctis begins fumbling for phrases. “…Dammit. The hell is that this so onerous?” he gasps on the verge of tears. “I’ve made my peace. Nonetheless…figuring out that is it, and seeing you right here, now, it’s…greater than I can take.”
They weep overtly, and solely the sound of the crackling hearth punctuates the silence. What may anyone actually say in a scenario like this? Noctis goes willingly to his dying, and his mates waited 10 lengthy years to assist him on that path. Their selections converse volumes to their dedication to at least one one other. They don’t have to say something throughout their final night time collectively, so Noctis makes a easy and real looking expression of affection.
“What can I say?” he manages. “You guys…are the perfect.”
All of the driving and tenting and cooking and consuming will get annoying and tedious throughout dozens of hours, however this scene forces us to replicate again on it as Noctis does with a sense of wistfulness. It retroactively makes us cherish each second. The voice performing does quite a lot of heavy lifting right here, however even it weren’t pretty much as good, the scene would stay a standout.
The simplest criticism one can stage at Ultimate Fantasy XV is about its poor illustration of girls, and it will be legitimate. You may use the script to clarify the Bechdel take a look at to someone. Even Noct’s bethrothed, Lunafreya, exists purely to meet his future. Different feminine characters are poorly drawn at greatest.
However the sport’s healthful strategy to masculinity and brotherhood goes above and past to specific how essential it’s to belief your folks sufficient to be susceptible. There’s the Aristocracy in that. Even a king is a human being first and a royal second. FF15 offers a superb blueprint for male friendship in a method that’s not historically masculine. It’s about loyalty and the households we selected, how mates turn out to be brothers, and the significance of being susceptible.
“Prompto. Gladio. Ignis. I go away it to you,” Noctis says in his farewell to them. “Stroll tall…my mates.”
This echoes what Noct’s father mentioned to him in the beginning of the sport: “Stroll tall, my son.” King Regis knew on some stage that the neighboring nation of Niflheim would break the peace treaty, kill him, and begin a struggle. However he additionally knew his son’s function to play within the occasions that will observe. It pains him that his son should die, however it’s the obligation of their lineage. Noctis was ignorant to the gravity of the scenario and kind of shrugged off his father’s heartfelt goodbye in the way in which that youngsters do. Then he spends his total journey reflecting on what it means for him to stroll tall as not solely a king, however as a person.
The love between mates who turn out to be brothers is each bit as essential because the love between a father and son, which is why Noct leaves the world to Prompto, Gladio, and Ignis. “I really like you all,” he says to an empty throne room. “The time we had collectively, I cherish.”
Inform your folks that you simply love them extra typically, and cherish the time you will have collectively—even in the event you often must push a broken-down automotive to a mechanic.
