World Fantasy Convention 2019

I'm going to be at the World Fantasy Convention this coming week and I have two panels.

California Screaming: Modern Golden State Horror Stories and Writers
31 Oct 2019, Thursday 14:00 - 14:55, Marquis 4-6

The Fantasies of Hayao Miyazaki
2 Nov 2019, Saturday 14:00 - 14:55, Marquis 4-6

Feel free to catch me at either of them. I expect to be at the convention all four days though, so even if you can't make those, I'll be running around, or possibly be working in the lobby!

After all, NaNoWriMo is starting and if I have a few minutes to myself I might break out the laptop and get a few words in.

RPG Talk: Divinity: Original Sin

In which I talk (write) about RPGs from a storytelling perspective...

Platform: PC (though it's also on PS4 and XB1)
Release: 2014 (classic), 2015 (enhanced edition)

This week was supposed to finish up my series on Final Fantasy XV, but seeing as I'm still struggling with the last of my DLC, I'll resume the series in a couple weeks after the World Fantasy Convention. In the meantime, I realized that I never actually posted my RPG Talk for Divinity: Original Sin, which I had finished earlier this year. So here it is now.

I do play western RPGs, though my article list suggests otherwise. It's just the ones I do are so few and far in between that the last one I played, Dragon Age: Inquisition, was released before I started blogging regularly. For a while, the Dragon Age series alone was enough to scratch my itch, but in the void of waiting for a fourth game I've found I needed to look elsewhere.

There were lots of candidates for that old school computer RPG feel; Pillars of Eternity, Tyranny, Wasteland 2, but I settled on Divinity: Original Sin. I found out about the series through articles on Kotaku, and it sounded like people were having fun, setting their characters up with shenanigans involving status effect spells, terrain effects, and general creativity such as walling off a room from enemies by putting down paintings. You could steal just about everything from everyone and looting was a valid source of income.

(Having primarily grown up with JRPGs, where it's intended that the player can take everything that's not nailed down, I've had difficulty abandoning the habit in western RPGs. If it's there, it's meant to be taken, and I am very sad that the town guards don't see it the same way.)

I decided to start with the first Original Sin game since it was heavily discounted during a summer Steam sale, and played the Enhanced Edition. My first impression of it was not that great though. It took a while for me to settle into the game world and get a feel for its cities, factions, and gods. The lore doesn't pop in the same way that it does for Dragon Age and I suppose that's because when I read a lore book I feel more like I'm reading someone's world building notes rather a treatise that is part of the world itself. But there are some things that the game does extremely well, especially if you're willing to do a little role-playing.

Since Original Sin can be multiplayer, there are two main characters and in multiplayer mode the players each control one. Whenever a questionable conversation comes up, one that the player might want to weigh in on, the two protagonists can choose separate answers. In multiplayer it must be a lot like role-playing in a table-top game when different characters might have different opinions on how to do something. But this option is kept in single player.

And it works really well as a storytelling device if the two protagonists disagree even if they're controlled by the same player. My two agreed perhaps 70-80% of the time, but the 20-30% they didn't was enough to mold them into different personalities working towards the same goal, and it allowed them to snipe at each other in unprompted conversations that felt perfectly in character. It was an experience I'd never had before with player created party members.

Another thing I liked is that early in the game it becomes apparent that there is something special about our two protagonist Source Hunters, and that they may be the reincarnations of previous heroes. At the first whiff of such foreshadowing in an RPG, it's a given to assume that it's true, and I was afraid the game would beat around the bush about confirming it. Though it does take a while for the characters to really consider it (and to be fair, from their perspective it's not obvious), the game gets it out of the way early in Act II, which is pretty good. That's before the halfway point, and allows exploration of their predecessors' doings while knowing these actions were at one point their own.

Much of the lore fun is learning about their pasts, what went wrong all those years ago, and how that ties into the present day. Also the more powerful, inhuman NPCs will acknowledge who the protagonists have been in their past lives, or be amused by the fact they would rather "pretend" to be a mundane Source Hunter when they are clearly demigods.

Divinity: Original Sin also subverts things in unexpected ways. We learn early on that there's a cult, but surprisingly, when we confront their leader, we learn that she doesn't believe in her goddess or any of her religious teachings. Her organization is a cult because it was the most effective way for her to lead a bunch of devoted followers and get what she wants.

The game is also populated with a number of distinct female characters. Half the recruitable party members are female, including an older woman who is on the verge of retirement. Madora gives an air of been there, done that, came back with the t-shirt, and serves as the group's cranky veteran, which is amazing. She's also a front line fighter with a two-handed sword. Since my party was mostly ranged, we were all hiding behind the bulwark that was Madora.

This makes it a shame that the primary villain, Leandra, only seems to have gone bad because she was on the losing end of a love triangle. She began as an otherwise interesting villain (what I mentioned about leading a cult when she doesn't believe in the goddess she preaches about) and I was disappointed when I found out that she and her sister Inara only started to have problems because there was a man they both liked and he chose Inara.

There's more to it than that, but because that's when Leandra leaves her it makes it look like that was the pivotal moment, and a petty one at that. Even when we learn more, we never truly see what happened to cause her fall, which prevents us from properly reframing her transformation into a villain.

I really enjoyed the first act of Original Sin, because it's different from the standard fantasy RPG. It opens with the Source Hunters being dispatched to Cyseal to investigate a murder that was potentially done with Sourcery (the game's punny way of making a Source Hunter a hunter of sorcerers). While there is some of the usual orc and undead bashing around the outskirts of the city, most of the act is spent inside Cyseal itself hunting down clues as to what actually happened the night of the murder.

It's a lot of fun, with red herrings and suspects right under your nose. You get tons of experience running around town and leveling up by doing your investigation, which makes for a brainy way to progress through the game. And due to the layout of the map with the city in the center, going out into the city surroundings felt like side trips, keeping the city the main hub of all activity.

The second act loses a lot of this and comes off much more directionless, even a bit forced. Though the Source Hunters supposedly have the option to call it a day once they find out the reason for the councilman's murder (that he was part of the cult and the person who killed him is trying to stop the cult), the game railroads them into chasing down his murderer and investigating what the cult is really trying to do.

Though stopping the cult is a good idea, the Source Hunters' motivation for doing so feels rather weak, probably because the protagonists are allowed to debate over whether it's part of their organization's business. I think if the game had made it more clearly an extension of their original mission this would have come off better.

Aside from that, Act II just felt too large, with too many quests spread across the map (including a mammoth side area) without a clear grouping or order in which to tackle them. I even had one quest break on me because I happened to have an item in inventory that an NPC wanted to me to get, but I already had (since there are several Blood Stones throughout the game, not just the one he specifically asks to be retrieved).

It didn't help that the Source Hunters' personal story ended up slowing to a crawl, though that will not be everyone's personal experience, which I'll get to shortly.

Fortunately, once the player gets to the Phantom Forest and the third act of the game, the story pulls itself tighter again like it was back in Cyseal. Hunter's Edge has a lot of interconnected quests, so there's a lot to do in a small area that feeds into itself. The Phantom Forest map also sees the resolution of multiple companion subplots and builds itself on the bones of the backstory laid out in previous acts.

By this time the player will have stopped the undead in Cyseal, learned about soul-forging, freed Icara, and learned of Leandra's plans to unleash the Void Dragon that is basically eating all of creation starting from the future going back.

There was just one tiny problem, and it turned out to be a pacing issue that I didn't know existed until I found myself unable to proceed in the game. I'd found a door, but it wouldn't open, and it turns out I wasn't the only person looking up the solution online.

As I mentioned, we gradually find out the stories of our Source Hunters' previous lives as heroes who were eventually elevated to immortals. There's a decent chunk in Act I. Each time the player discovers a Star Stone, a new chamber opens in Homestead, the player's home base at the end of time, and in each room we get a letter, journal, or the like detailing the actions and thoughts of two ancient generals.

We also know that Leandra is corrupting Star Stones into Blood Stones, and the player will find several across their journey, but Blood Stones are not mandatory to use and heal the party to full on top of removing all status effects, so I tended to save them unless required for a side quest. (After all, such things would be better used in a truly difficult boss fight.)

Using up a Blood Stone also counts for purposes of discovering a Star Stone, which means that by saving mine up, I delayed learning the backstory for my heroes, and it's only after the Source Hunters know everything about their past that they can get through the door near the end of the game. This means that I got multiple chamber/backstory unlocks in a row in the second half of Act III rather than being more evenly parceled out over the course of Acts II and III.

I feel like having the backstory unwind naturally through the discovery of stones (Star or Blood), rather than making up any Star Stone deficit by using Blood Stones, would have improved the pacing a lot. I would have learned more backstory while my interest in the game was flagging (I actually took a break of several months in the middle) and then I wouldn't have gotten stuck at a door for the obtuse reason that the game wanted to make sure my protagonists knew everything before proceeding.

What I did like about the Source Hunters' past lives though, is that it turns out that they weren't great people. In a way, they were massive failures. Though they were hailed as heroes for defeating the Void Dragon in the distant past, we can see from their writings that they flamed out spectacularly afterwards, with one becoming a bloodthirsty warmonger and the other withdrawing from the world entirely. When the gods finished sealing the Void Dragon in the Godbox and wanted it guarded by immortal Guardians, the two only volunteered out of guilt. They knew they had messed up, not only after the battle, but during it as well. They only won because a third general had died had rallying them when they were too terrified to fight.

When the Void Dragon eventually escaped, the two Guardians chickened out (not believing they could beat it without their third), and left the goddess Astarte to fight the dragon by herself. Unable to handle their latest failure, they tore themselves out of time so history would no longer remember them and they would no longer remember themselves. And eventually, who knows how many years later, they were reborn as the two protagonist Source Hunters, who are still very much their own people, if you choose to play them that way. And I like that the two Source Hunters can be completely disappointed in their prior selves (though they can also be sympathetic if you want).

The story beats are fairly predictable aside from the Guardians themselves. Once everything is in order, the two protagonists go off to pop the Void Dragon and reseal it, thus redeeming themselves and saving existence. There is a nice moment at the end though where they go report in to headquarters and their boss asks about Councillor Jake, and by that time it's been so long it was a little funny to see how this all started by investigating a councillor's murder.

I think with some pruning and a little more depth to the side characters this could have been a really good story, but instead it falls a bit short.

RPG Talk: Final Fantasy XV - Episode: Ignis

Unlike the other Final Fantasy XV party member DLCs, Episode: Ignis is flawlessly integrated with the main game, so at no point do you feel something was missed or rushed. It takes place at a time when Ignis is naturally away from Noctis, during the attack on Altissia, because all the party members are separated from him. This also means that unlike Gladio and Prompto's episodes, it's harder to see where his story is going or what it's going to cover.

In some respects, that's a good thing. Episode: Ignis's most dramatic moments are ones we had no idea existed, and make perfect sense given that Ignis is not the type of guy to toot his own horn. But on the other, Episode: Ignis is not really a self-contained story. It covers things we didn't see in the battle of Altissia, and heck it even fleshes out Ravus and Ardyn's motivations in ways the original game neglected, but even though Ignis makes for a compelling protagonist, the story told is not about him in the same way it was for Gladio and Prompto.

Rather, Episode: Ignis is a showcase for Ignis's dedication to Noctis.

Imperial forces are still swarming Altissia after Noctis's battle with Leviathan ends, and in the main game we just skip to everything being over and Noctis waking up in a hotel room to discover Lunafreya left the Ring of the Lucii to him and that Ignis has been blinded by an injury. Episode: Ignis covers everything that happened after the moment the battle with Leviathan ended.

Surprisingly, Ignis, Gladio, and Prompto are all together at the start of the DLC, since it was implied that they split up (and Prompto is even flying solo during part of Chapter 9 when he picks up Noctis to try to bring him closer to Leviathan). When the three try to retrieve Noctis following his victory over Leviathan, the fighting with the imperials destroys the bridge they're on and Ignis is separated.

What follows is Ignis desperately battling his way through the city to reach Noctis. He's largely on his own, because the evacuation must continue, and it's a little funny when other people are the ones telling him not to do something stupid since he's usually the party's voice of reason. Combat aside though, the first half of Episode: Ignis is pretty light on story, though we do get to see the return of one of the side characters. If you wanted to see the demise of Caligo (the imperial officer the party fails to kill in the Chapter 6 base infiltration) he finally meets his ignoble end here.

The second half sees Ignis partnering with Ravus so they both can rescue the people they care about most; Noctis for Ignis, and Lunafreya for Ravus. This gives us better insight into Ravus and his nonsensical hatred for Noctis. We still don't entirely understand why he joined the imperial army in the first place, but now it's extremely obvious why he's slated for execution in later chapters. Not only does he call back all the imperial soldiers over the course of the battle, but he ends up attacking Ardyn, the imperial chancellor, after he and Ignis find Noctis and the dying (or possibly already dead) Lunafreya.

Episode: Ignis might not flesh out Ignis's backstory as much as Prompto's did, but it makes it explicitly clear just how devoted Ignis is to his prince. It's not to say the rest of the bros aren't, but we get to see Ignis at his most desperate, knowing that he might not be able to reach the prince before something happens to him. This forces him to cooperate with Ravus, who he has reason to distrust (given that Ravus is a general for the other side), and once the unlikely pair reach Noctis and Lunafreya, they are forced to confront Ardyn, who as usual, appears to hold all the cards in his hand.

This DLC visually shows Ignis's gradual loss of control through his hair and his outfit. So he begins the storyline in his usual Crownsguard uniform, but after the bridge collapses, he's dunked into the canal and loses his jacket. After his boat is blown up by Caligo he's soaked and some of his immaculately coiffed hair comes down. By the time he's apprehended by Ardyn's escort, he's lost his glasses and his hair is completely plastered wet around his head.

When it looks like Ardyn is going to kill Noctis right in front of Ignis, you can feel his despair. We know Ignis isn't capable of fighting Ardyn alone and Ravus has been restrained as well, but there is a tiny light of hope in that the Ring of the Lucii has landed next to Ignis, leading to one of the ballsiest moves in the game.

Ignis puts on the ring, and since he's not of royal blood it starts to burn him from the inside out, but because he's fighting to protect Noctis, the Lucian kings allow him to use it just long enough to go toe-to-toe with Ardyn and drive him off, allow the rest of the gang to eventually catch up. This gave him the injury that permanently blinded him in the main game. It's a really awesome moment, and a powerful sacrifice, but unfortunately it could have been better telegraphed, and even as I was reveling in the moment, I wanted it to be better.

There are two things that bring me up short. The first is that Ignis and Ravus get to be a bit of a break midway through their battle through the city, and it's possible to ask Ravus about his prosthetic arm. At this point I don't remember if it was in secondary media or later in the main game, but Ravus lost it because he tried to put in the Ring of the Lucii, but was declared unworthy. Ravus does not mention this when asked about his arm, so it's possible the player will not know ahead of time what the penalty is if a non-royal puts it on.

The second is that Ignis mentions that if a Glaive can manage wearing the ring in service of the king, he should be able to as well. This is a problem because it's a reference to the Kingsglaive movie (which the player might not have seen) and also because Ignis should not have any knowledge of the events in that movie since he was not in Insomnia when the relevant Glaive made that sacrifice. The only character in the main game who knew about the Glaive putting on the ring was Lunafreya, who Ignis only catches up with when she's already dead/dying.

If Ignis and the player were both on the same page, I think it would have made the event that much more powerful. Because Ignis gives up more than his eyesight.

When he nears Noctis and Lunafreya earlier in the DLC, he meets Pryna, Lunafreya's otherworldly dog, who gifts him a vision of the future. So when Ignis reaches Noctis, he already knows that the prince is destined to sacrifice himself in the future. After the battle, when Noctis is recovering, Ignis visits him and asks if he would reconsider his journey. Noctis refuses, since it would mean throwing away everyone else's sacrifice, including Ignis's, and Ignis does not further try to dissuade him. It feels very much in character for Ignis to not bother telling Noctis how he lost his sight, or what the future has in store for him. Ignis asking Noctis not to continue is a selfish request, and when Noctis is not interested, he backs down.

But for those who would prefer Ignis to have made a different decision, there is an alternate ending!

The alternate ending splits from canon when Ardyn has captured Ignis and Ravus, and jokingly offers a chance for Ignis to come work with him. Canonically Ignis continues fighting (and it's the only option you can take on first playthrough), but the player can choose to play along instead, which leads to Ardyn leaving Noctis and taking Ignis all the way to Gralea.

Though Ignis is supposedly playing along, it narratively doesn't hold up very long before he and Ardyn start fighting again so Ignis can preserve Noctis's future. Ardyn makes it clear that he has nothing personal against Noctis. He's just really bitter about not being selected by the Crystal as the first of the Lucian kings. It's not much revelation into his character, but it's still something and clearer than it was in the main game.

This battle sees Ignis once again use the Ring of the Lucii to make him Ardyn's equal, and from a storytelling standpoint it does something cool. When he puts on the ring he's given the choice of doing so with the understanding he will risk his life for his king, or that he will sacrifice his life for his king. "Sacrifice" makes him the strongest, but puts up a timer after which Ignis will burn out and die, no longer being able to control the ring's power.

But this is the toughest fight in the DLC and you have limited healing items, so more fumbly players (like me) are probably going to want to choose "risk" a couple times before the game forces the "sacrifice" option to extend the duration of the fight without killing Ignis. While I needed the extra time, it just didn't feel quite as heroic, since Ignis is ranting about how he does not want Noctis to die and he will do anything to prevent that.

And it looks like he beats Ardyn well and good, possibly permanently since Ardyn dematerializes and it seems involuntary.

Noctis and friends catch up shortly, since Ravus defected to help them, and Noctis goes into the Crystal voluntarily this time to reach his full power so he can better protect his friends. This leads to an alternate ending where it seems the long night has come, but Noctis does not sacrifice himself to end it. Instead, he gets to rule as king, making for a happier ending.

Episode: Ignis doesn't give itself the time to explain the particulars about how this works though (probably because it's an alternate ending). As the credits roll we see people going about doing things in daylight, but then we also see Ardyn lurking around the empty throne in Insomnia (is he dead or a ghost?). It's nighttime when older Noctis and friends return to the Citadel, but instead of leaving his friends behind to face an army of daemons while Noctis goes up the steps to sacrifice himself, he meets up with older Ravus, who gives him his father's sword, as he'd meant to do in the main game if he'd lived long enough.

And then from there we see daylight and all seems well again.

Ardyn wasn't the root cause of the eternal night, but was tied to the daemons that came with it, so it makes sense that they wouldn't go away with his death. But it's not clear how or why Noctis doesn't need to die this time around, other than somehow Ignis's sacrifice allowed Noctis to forgo his own.

For these reasons I don't find the story in Episode: Ignis quite as put together as Episode: Prompto. It fills in some nice gaps, has some cool scenes, and presents an alternate ending, but it doesn't feel entirely well thought out. This is probably because it's trying so hard to contribute to a larger story that even though Ignis is unquestionably the star, it doesn't feel like the story is about him. There's not even really a plot per se. It's just a chapter we didn't get to see in the main game. In the end, it's still about Noctis and not a personal story that belongs to Ignis himself.

The canon DLC storyline even bookends the story with Noctis as a child taking Ignis's hand, and then Noctis (post-timeskip) doing it again just before they head to Insomnia, in gratitude for everything that Ignis has done for him. And I suppose that was done to give a better sense of conclusion since there is otherwise no character arc for Ignis. He goes in much the same man as he comes out.

I came here expecting I'd like Episode: Ignis the most, since he's been my favorite of the bros and this DLC was well reviewed, but I actually liked Episode: Prompto more.

RPG Talk: Final Fantasy XV - Episode: Prompto

I enjoyed enjoyed this DLC much more than I thought I would, even though I already knew the key details of Prompto's backstory that were skimmed over in Chapter 13 of the main game. It takes place several days after he's been pushed off the train by Noctis in Chapter 11. By this time Noctis and the others have already met with Aranea in Tenebrae, placing Episode: Prompto during Chapter 12.

Following his separation from the rest of the party, Prompto is desperately trying to catch up with everyone and he's trekking through the snow to get to Gralea, where the group had been heading, but he passes out from weakness and the cold and is brought by magitek troopers to a research facility. Why did they capture rather than kill him? Most likely because of Ardyn, who appears in this DLC for no discernable reason other than to offer zippy one-liners and send Prompto on his way with a physical handgun since the one he would normally summon as one of Noctis's retainers doesn't appear (presumably because Ardyn is blocking it).

It's a pretty flimsy setup, but it gets the meat of the story rolling as our poor guy is trying to find his way out of a hostile facility full of magitek soldiers who would love to kill him. Yes, after dragging him there in the first place.

We know from the main game that Prompto is a sort of proto-magitek soldier. Magitek soldiers are created by infecting babies with the plasmodium parasite that turns people into daemons. When the infected babies sublimate as adults they're ultimately turned into the magitek cores that power the mechanical soldiers. But the main game doesn't really go into more than that. Prompto brings it up when he returns to the party, but it's kind of awkward as he goes through the cliff notes version of his backstory in about 30 seconds and then it's over.

Episode: Prompto draws out everything we couldn't see, but was implied to have happened off camera. There are some really nice touches too, as we see Prompto discover research notes and draw his own conclusions about his origin.

The first time he activates a door lock at the facility he uses his barcode by accident, just by bringing his hand up to the door. But the second time he encounters a locked door, it's only after he's discovered the research into daemonifying human infants and learning that one of them was stolen from the facility by a Lucian. He's been in denial that he could be a part of this, despite the mounting evidence (like his barcode matching the established guidelines issued to every infant based on their birth year), and he knows that if he uses his barcode to open that door he's acknowledging this facility as a part of his past.

It's a really good scene.

Prompto is so much better when he's allowed to be more than the goofy comic relief and deal with his own insecurities. Though it's not directly spelled out, the reason he is the comic relief who generally gets picked on by the other guys is because he's terrified of getting kicked out of their social circle. Being the man of least influence is better than not having friends at all.

But once he learns the circumstances of his birth, he begins to question whether there's a place for him within that circle at all. After all, he was created to attack his friends' homeland. Prompto begins to see himself inside the magitek troopers he's fighting, and at one point even hallucinates Noctis trying to kill him just like the prince had killed many of those soldiers in the past.

After he escapes the facility with help from Aranea, he looks at the barcode tattooed on his wrist and contemplates burning it off, but even if he tries (player's choice) it can't be removed. It's irrevocably part of who he is.

Gradually though, with a little tough love from Aranea, he comes to accept that he can't help where or how he was born, but he can choose how he wants to move forward with his life, and that leads to striking back against his researcher father, who is one of the imperial faces early in the main game who inexplicably never returns again (until this DLC).

It's pretty good stuff and we see genuine character growth from the Prompto who started this DLC to the one who ends it, which I really wasn't expecting, and it's too bad we don't get to see this transformation over the course of the main game.

Prompto has his terrible reunion with his dad, who he was cloned from. He takes out a magitek factory. His episode covers how much researchers in the empire knew or didn't know about what they were doing. It makes the cold unpopulated opening to Chapter 13 make sense. Sure, we find out later in the main game why everyone's gone, but if we'd gotten that information chronologically at the same time Prompto did it would have prepared the player in advance.

But at the same time Episode: Prompto is designed to be played after Chapter 13. With a couple tucks I think it could have been made to run concurrent to the main game's Chapter 12. It shouldn't matter whether we find out Prompto's origin from his own mouth in Chapter 13 versus his father's research in Episode: Prompto.

The problem is that the ending of his episode shows Prompto waking up imprisoned in Chapter 13, though we don't know why/how other than Ardyn probably had something to do with it. We see Noctis and company rescue him, and in the post-credits scene Noctis apologizes to Prompto for pushing him off the train and basically saying that it doesn't matter where Prompto came from.

It was nice having Noctis apologize, since he never does it in the main game, but if we cut the credit roll scene and post-credits scene, we wouldn't have any Chapter 13 spoilers and you actually could play Episode: Prompto right after Chapter 11 when he gets booted off the train and it would work seamlessly with what's already in the main game.

And there are ways the main game could have been altered a bit to make Prompto's "by the way" bombshell a little less of a surprise, especially since most players probably ended up going through the main game first, making Prompto's origin reveal all the more awkward. If, for example, the player could discover research notes not just related to humans being turned into magitek soldiers, but that one of the infants had been kidnapped to Lucis that would have helped. Just little tips that would eventually make the player realize before Prompto returns that Prompto was born to turn into a magitek soldier.

That would better set up the fact that the rest of the party tells him it's no big deal that he was born in the Niflheim Empire, because they, and the player, would have already had time to process that information.

One small thing that still sticks with me after the DLC though, is that Prompto used to be chubby as a kid, and that's how he looked when he first met Noctis and was encouraged by Lunafreya to befriend the prince. It seems like becoming the trim person that he is in the present day is likely part of trying to look like a presentable member of the team, one worthy of being a companion to Noctis. So it comes off as cruel now that one of the main game's party banter conversations is Prompto asking if they can check out the Crow's Nest diner for food, and Ignis telling him that's fine if he wants to put on weight.

Ignis is probably not trying to be mean, as that doesn't seem to be in his personality, but considering he already knew Noctis at the time Noctis met Prompto, I find it difficult to believe that he's completely oblivious to the fact Prompto used to be overweight.

The fact that Episode: Prompto has made me think a lot about it following the ending and recontextualize conversations in the main game makes it a solid addition. I can't speak much for the gameplay since I'm not a shooter fan, but for non-shooter fans it's not too difficult to complete even on Normal difficulty thanks to the existence of healing potions.

Next week I'll take a look at Episode: Ignis, finishing off the party member DLCs.