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Final Fantasy XV: Episode Ardyn wraps up the story on March 26th

Be your own (final) boss

The game's director leaving to start his own studio may have sunk most DLC plans for Final Fantasy XV, but there's still one last story to be told. Due on March 26th, Episode Ardyn will put players in the shoes of the game's dapper arch-villain and lead him on a high powered rampage through the streets of the capital city. Still, Ardyn isn't Kefka, who mostly just burnt the world for shits and giggles - Square Enix want you to know his tragic backstory presented in the form of a free anime short. Below, twelve minutes of extreme melodrama followed by a trailer and spoilers.


Those who have already finished Final Fantasy XV should have some idea of what Ardyn's deal was, but this short (watch it before reading further, because spoilers) spells it out explicitly: The man was Anime Jesus, betrayed and expunged from the history books, so he becomes Satan, or close equivalent. Ardyn healed the sick and the demonically possessed, taking all that tasty devil-juice into himself, until his jerk brother (the king) decided he didn't need goody-two-sandals hogging the spotlight. FFXV's story is the culmination of a drunk, angry family reunion, pretty much.

Watch on YouTube

What we see of the DLC looks interesting, too. Ardyn seems wildly overpowered, cutting through soldiers and finishing them for 9999 damage - he's the final boss, after all. You get to summon Ifrit to rampage through the streets, or even directly control the big fiery bloke a bit. Ardyn will even get to throw down with the ancient magical guardians of the city that we saw a bit of in prequel film Kingsglaive. We all know how this ends (badly), but I'm rather looking forward to playing as the unrepentant villain for once. Now the game is truly finished, it's time to burn it all down.

The Episode Ardyn DLC launches on March 26th, though no price has been set yet, but the original episode DLCs cost £4/€5/$5 each on PS4 when the game first launched.

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Dominic Tarason avatar
Dominic Tarason: A freelance games critic, Dominic was a regular contributor to Rock Paper Shotgun from 2015 until 2020. In that time he wrote the site's mods column, Modder Superior, as well as flexing his indie game, first-person shooter and Path Of Exile expertise while covering PC gaming news in the evenings. He has also contributed to PC Gamer.
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Final Fantasy XV

PS4, Xbox One, PS3

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