Trophy Hunters: Final Fantasy XV – Final Episode

I finally did it! It took me a bit longer than expected at 75 hours, but I finished unlocking every trophy in Final Fantasy XV. My last trophy progress post was about a month ago, so that prediction of “a week or two to get the rest of the trophies” was a little short-sighted. The remaining trophies were the ones requiring the longest amount of time to complete – 80 sidequests and maxing out the fishing, survial, cooking, and photography skills. Of course, had I played nothing other than FFXV I likely would have finished this sooner, but there were detours through Monster Hunter, Bugsnax, and Ratchet & Clank on my recent platinum trophy quest. Let’s see what took almost another 40 hours after seeing the end credits to finish up, shall we?

Angling Expert

• Reached maximum fishing level

This was the final trophy in my way to the platinum. I had finished everything else, so it was pretty relaxing to sit back and do some fishing. I decided to sit on the dock at the Vesperpool northwest of Lestallum, which usually contains plenty of fish, so levels 8-10 didn’t take long at all…

Photo Expert

• Reached maximum photography level

I had unlocked and leveled up Prompto’s Snapshot ability pretty early on in the game, which provided more pictures after every battle and made this the first(and probably easiest) of the party to reach skill level 10. After many hours of playing, I have an entire album of memories saved from the party’s adventures across Eos.

Cooking Expert

• Reached maximum cooking level

I may have reached level 10 in Ignis’ cooking skill a little sooner had I decided to set up camp more often, rather than staying at the various hotels across the land. I’d usually stop at one to save my progress and cash in any XP previously acquired. To cover the last couple skill levels unlock the Cooking Expert trophy, I only needed to spend a little while at my campsite cooking up batch after batch of ‘Mystery Meat Sushi’ from the many, many Luncheon Meats I had picked up in Lestallum.

Survival Expert

• Reached maximum survival level

This was probably the most annoying(and time-consuming) trophy to get. Gladiolus’ Survival skill is only raised by traveling on foot – not camping, items used or anything else, ONLY walking or running across the map. I ended up setting out on a trek from Lestallum in the northwestern corner of the map all the way down to Galdin Quay at the southeastern part of it, only to more or less repeat the process a couple times to FINALLY unlock the trophy. Compared to the other skills, this one takes forever. One of my favorite aspects of FFXV was being able to kick back with the boys and ride around Eos in the Regalia while listening to the music from a range of different FF games. However, the fact I had to travel nearly everywhere by foot to get this trophy is pretty disappointing. I had a lot of fun playing through the game, but this wasn’t exactly the most enjoyable part of the experience.

Weaving a Tapestry

• Completed 80 sidequests

I’d been chipping away at all the sidequests in the game since the early chapters, which made this a little bit easier considering how the game becomes incredibly linear once you reach chapter 8 or so. Once you complete the game you have the option to return to previous areas and finish up any sidequests or other activities. The majority of these were usually simple “item requisition requests” and didn’t take too long to complete(minus the time required to travel there on foot).

Regalia Pilot

• Flew the Regalia Type-F

Speaking of riding along in the Regalia…

Over the course of the game, you’re able to transform(upgrade?) the Regalia to different types. Type-D adds off-road capability with essentially monster truck tires and once you find the Strange Engine in one of the enemy bases, Cindy the mechanic will take your mode of transportation another step by allowing the Regalia to take to the skies with a Batwing-like form. The Regalia Pilot trophy is unlocked your first flight…which is good, considering how tricky it is to land the vehicle, failure to land safely results in your entire party being wiped out and being sent back to the last save point.

Faithful Heir

• Collected thirteen royal arms

Throughout the main storyline Noctis will venture through a number or crypts and caves, receive one of the thirteen royal arms at the end. You pick up five of them as you play through the main story, but will need to do some sidequests and go a little further off the beaten path to find the rest of them. The final royal arm I needed – the Sword of the Tall was located at the bottom of the Costlemark Tower. The underground “tower” was definitely a test of combat skill…and patience as the lower levels of the tower are a series of movable blocks acting as walls and floors(somewhat similar to Control’s Ashtray Maze) which must be navigated in a specific order before finally reaching a Jabberwock guarding the final royal arm needed for the Faithful Heir trophy…

Tortoise Toppler

• Defeated the adamantoise

A special quest that unlocks post-game finds Noctis and the gang investigating the area to find out what’s behind a series of recent earthquakes that have been terrifying the nearby population. Upon closer inspection, the earthquakes are being caused by the adamantoise – an enormous tortoise that is quite literally a mountain. Next up, battling the terranean terrapin…which just so happens to be Lvl 99. and have 5,000,000 HP. The battle against the adamantoise can be a lengthy one, depending on character level and equipment – I believe it took me around 40 or so minutes of hacking away before finally unlocking the Tortoise Toppler trophy. Cowabunga!

The World Wanderer

• Collected all trophies

I did it! Another platinum trophy to add to the collection…

I had a lot of fun playing through Final Fantasy XV. I know the game has gotten a lot of hate from others since its release, but I’m glad I played through it myself to form my own opinion. I think the way it was rolled out as a live-service model, along with an abrupt shift from open-world to linear corridors about halfway through the game made for some inconsistent pacing, but had a lot of fun nonetheless. It may have not been the “traditional” FF game many gamers wanted, but there’s still elements of greatness there among those rough edges.

So, that’s another trophy run completed. There are quite a few DLC packs containing plenty of additional trophies, but I’m satisfied in what I accomplished for the time being. Another quick shoutout to Solarayo from Ace Asunder who has been playing through FFXV alongside me and posting trophy updates, it’s always interesting to check in and see where others are in-game and what trophies they tackled first.

Thanks for reading!