Chapter 11 - In the Dark

Walkthrough

Chapter 11 doesn’t have much in it other than some more story building and a little bit of combat to keep you on your toes whilst on the train.

Express Train for Trouble

The chapter will start off with the friends sat down and having a little chat amongst themselves, talking through some matters before someone rather key shows up to ruin everyone’s day; more specifically Noctis! Ardyn shows up to make matters much worse and proceeds to taunt Noctis, so do try and strike him a couple of times, but he will only dodge and run away to frustrate Noctis just that little bit more. Give chase and follow Ardyn all the way to the end of the train, where a cutscene will then start to play.

Once it’s over, control will return to you and you’ll be with Prompto who is going to lend you a helping hand over the next few minutes as imperial forces start to attack the train – with no regard for innocent lives. The moment you reach the next train car you will be attacked by some Axemen, but they really don’t enjoy lightning, spears, or daggers, so keep on your toes and they should go down with ease.

Be aware that as soon as you hit the back of the train, imperial forces will blow a very large hole into the back of the train and quickly start to swarm the train. These troopers that come bombarding towards you will end up focusing more on the train than anything else, so focus on taking them out as quick as you can because the second the train’s health reaches zero it will be game over.

Whenever you take out one of the imperial Shock Troopers, keep in mind that they explode before they die so keep some distance between you and them to keep your heath bar happy and healthy!

Basically, keep doing what you’re doing until a rather large and concerning tank shows up – an enemy that you’re definitely going to want to focus on. Once it’s down and taken care, Noctis will flee back onto the train and will come in contact with a couple of flying ships that you won’t have dealt with before. There are two ways you can deal with them: warp-strike onto them, kill a Shock Trooper, and flee to let the explosion deal the rest of your job. If you’re not looking to warp-strike every 20 seconds or so, you can hop onto a turret and take them down like that – a tactic that is a little bit slower, but more efficient in the long run.

After you’ve taken down every single one of the remaining transports head back onto the train and wait for a cutscene to play and watch as Noctis loses one of his most treasured friends; at least temporarily.

That will end the 11th chapter of the game and move onto the next major part of the game!

Plot

See also: Plot

We kick off the chapter with our quadrant of heroes back on the train, continuing their travels to acquire the Royal Arms and save the land from the oppression of the empire. But also as we’ve found out in the last couple of chapters, it’s not only the empire that they need to keep an eye out for – it’s also Ardyn; who’s quite clearly established himself as quite the evil fellow.

Throughout their time on the train, the group of friends have a bit of a chat amongst themselves to pass the time and move on from any uncomfortable feelings that the group may be harbouring from previous events. Problem is, however, is that peace doesn’t stay for too long because after a short while Ardyn makes his presence known by stopping time around him and taunting Noctis into chasing him. A feat that wasn’t too difficult considering he’s the cause of Noctis’ beloved’s death and the main orchestrator of his pain.

With no surprise to anyone, Noctis tries killing Ardyn, but with every swipe of his blade Ardyn manages to dodge the strikes; proceeding to only taunt him more. Before long Ardyn makes a run for it, causing Noctis to give chase until he reaches the end of the train – which leads to meeting up with Prompto and discovering that the empire have intentions of decimating the train and all aboard it. What follows is a rush for Prompto and Noctis to make it to the front of the train to try and regroup with their comrades; all whilst Magitek soldiers commence their assault on the train to try and kill the only remaining king standing in their way: Noctis Lucis Caelum.

Considering that the game doesn’t stop right then and there, it’s safe to assume that they manage to make it out of harm’s way without too much trouble; except with one small caveat. After all, it wouldn’t be an intense scene without Ardyn popping up to make the groups day all that more difficult.

Thanks to this, Ardyn is back to his old tricks, which involves him messing around with time and Noctis’ head. As such, Noctis gives chase once more for Ardyn and encounters him once more on the top of the train – while it’s currently still in motion and being barraged with Magitek troops. Soon enough, Noctis manages to catch up with Ardyn and it’s not looking too good, because by the looks of things Prompto is currently being held at gunpoint by Ardyn atop the speeding train.

From there, it doesn’t take Noctis any time at all to intervene and proceeds to rush in without thinking, and launches Ardyn off the train as soon as he possibly can. Alas, this was but another one of Ardyn’s tricks, and in reality it was Prompto who was holding Ardyn up by gunpoint and before Noctis had even realised, he’d made the mistake of pushing one of his closest friends off a speeding train. Once again Ardyn is the perpetrator of his pain, and must return to his friends still on the train, knowing that they are now short one man; who could end up almost anywhere – knowledge that Noctis has to accept was his doing in some way.

There’s nothing that can be done for Prompto at the moment, and with Noctis currently unconscious on the very top of the train, getting back to the rest of his friends is going to be one of those things that is simply easier said than done.