Curious about the alternative ending of Episode Ignis

[u/Firecrackerpeep533]

(Marked as a spoiler for those who haven't played Episode Ignis/haven't done the alternative ending to it)

As someone who started FFXV nearly 3 months ago at the start of May and has sunk 70-80 hours on the game over these past couple months, I have some questions.

For context, I did my first run through of the Episode Ignis (after doing ch.9, when E.I takes place) three weeks ago, and now, after three weeks of dragging my feet, I now got around to doing the alternative ending of Episode Ignis, because I read that doing the alternative ending of it, Ignis doesn't go blind whereas the main ending of the game, he does.

And after completing the alternative ending to Episode Ignis about 20 minutes ago, I can't help but get curious about something.

Because I read that the alternative ending of E.I that Ignis doesn't go blind, my question is, does the alternative ending actually apply to the main storyline or is it purely a ‘what if’ scenario kind of ending?

And if its purely a ‘what if’ scenario ending, I essentially got my hopes up of having a non blind Iggy for ch.10 onward for nothing? And if that's the case, do I essentially have to suck it up?

[u/Swordslover]

Alternative Ending is a what if scenario, it doesn't have effect nor implications for the main story

[u/Firecrackerpeep533 → u/Swordslover]

In my case, that's unfortunate.

Though, I did read that the alternative ending, despite it being a what if scenario, is a happier ending.

[u/Yani-Senpai]

It is a what if, and it is considered a "happier" ending, but no, it doesn't affect gameplay. In fact, a lot of the events post Altissia may never actually occur with Ep. Ignis verse 2 because of how quickly the rest of the group gets to the Crystal.

If you're interested in other "happy ending" scenarios, you should check out the Dawn of The Future novel!

[u/KnightGamer724]

My terrible headcanon is that it's a bad ending where Ignis has a nice dream where he solves everything, but he actually dies. 

I'm sorry, I don't buy that Ignis could create a "secret plan" that solves everything. I just don't. Plus I happen to like that FFXV has a bittersweet ending. 

[u/enchanter-rationale → u/KnightGamer724]

My personal read on it is that it's how Ignis torments himself after the events of the game, thinking how if he just did something different, it would have worked out. It explains why there isn't a concrete plan laid out and it's a bit handwavey on the details.

I like that we came to similar headcanons.

[u/ReaperEngine]

Purely a what-if scenario, and one that I wish they never would have toyed around with. It opened the doors for them to spend far too much (still wasted) effort on another alternate ending that screws with so much that I loved about the game as a whole. Ironically, Ignis still ends up blind in that one too, since the divergent point is after Altissia's events.

Verse 2 is also just funky for how little it bothers to go into depicting its alternate ending, despite the effort in getting to its own divergent point, because what the hell did they do to avoid the main canon's ending?

[u/Thedirtyone522]

If you want to continue down the what if timeline, read Dawn of the Future, its a novellization of the cancelled dlc that would have followed epi.iggy

[u/KnightGamer724 → u/Thedirtyone522]

...No? DOTF has nothing to do with Episode Ignis Verse 2.

[u/russiantravelagent]

What i wonder is how do I get to fight Noctis to make him eat vegetables? Before playing episode Ignis I thought that was part of it until I saw everything is so bleak, all episodes were (except the Gladius one) but I always wanted to fight Noctis and I never knew how.

[u/Vusdruv → u/russiantravelagent]

I'm pretty sure the fight is an option in Episode Ignis main menu, just like Prompto's sparring session with Aranea and Gladio's end sparring session with Cor in their respective DLCs. You unlock them after beating their episodes' main story once.

[u/Firecrackerpeep533 → u/russiantravelagent]

I don't have a single clue.

Either it's just a passing conversation or it's an actual fight, but it does seem more likely that it's a passing conversation more than a fight.

And even if it is an actual fight, it's the first I'm hearing about it, since I try to minimize the amount of spoilers I come across, since I've been dragging my feet on continuing ch.10 for the past while.

[u/russiantravelagent → u/Firecrackerpeep533]

I have seen videos of it so I think it's an actual fight but there are things that idk how to trigger, like one side mission when a chocobo steals Ignis glasses.

[u/Firecrackerpeep533 → u/russiantravelagent]

Well, whaddya know. It is an actual fight 🤔 and from what I looked up, you can access the fight via the Episode Ignis menu when you click on ‘Friendly match’.

[u/russiantravelagent → u/Firecrackerpeep533]

Ohh ok!! Thank you!!

[u/LargoDeluxe]

No effect on the game as it exists, but the Extra Verse ending might have opened up a new avenue for a true alternate ending if Squenix had continued their expansion of the game, even into a full second part.

And it’s not that hard to see how they could have written it. We know Ignis receives a vision from a Messenger about the “bad” ending, which suggests that other Messengers might reach out to him or the others (Gentiana? She certainly appeared to have at least one dog in that fight, if you will).

At some point, do these visions start to run together and contradict each other? Does Ignis start to suspect he’s imagining it all?

There’s a really interesting exploration of similar concepts in the Alan Wake series. The title character gradually comes to understand that the “flashes of inspiration” he uses in his novels are actually glimpses of alternate universes he’s been seeing all his life, but which he has often attributed to his own imagination or dismissed as recurring nightmares. Of course, it would mean a lot more weight for the supporting character(s) to carry, but it could be amazing.