So I really liked Ch. 13. And thinking back on it... It might be one of my favorite chapters in the game.
You're coming off of that amazing scene in Ch. 12 with Ardyn, Gentiana/Shiva and Ghost Luna in the train, and Shiva's skyscraper-sized corpse looming outside. You already feel like you're in the heart of darkness. Now you're in Gralea, stranded in a train tunnel, and the chapter kicks off with the bombastic escape sequence, disabling your weapons, forcing you to run from goblins and speed away in the Regalia. Then the car is totaled and you see what it truly represents to Noctis: His father. Felt genuinely touching after all the time spent criss-crossing the land in it. Then the crew gets separated, and you're on your own for what I'm positive was an intentionally long and exhausting experience. Also fitting for a flying mega-fortress that serves as the penultimate dungeon of the game.
It works, thematically, precisely
because it's so long. Ardyn is pushing you to your limits by taking away your weapons and your bros. But you have the Ring of the Lucii, which is a great way to refresh the gameplay. The combat becomes about zoning your opponents and managing your magic to OHKO them with the Triangle spell (or wear them down with the Square and Circle spells, but man I love the Triangle spell). Alternatively, you can hide in the clearly telegraphed vents to bypass the rogue axemen. Then after a while you get your dad's sword, but without your other powers, so it's more about pure phasing and finesse. All of this while tracking "Prompto," slowly scouring the dark corners with your flashlight, uncovering RE-style lore notes on the plague and magitek, and Souls-style environmental world-building (i.e. the empty clothes, the robes on the throne, etc). You're flipping switches and gathering keycards, you're escaping traps (the gas chambers, the closing walls), you're operating switchboards, you're backtracking to previously sealed rooms while being ambushed in new ways, and you're even pursued at several points, Nemesis-style. All while Ardyn taunts you sadistically.
Then you get your bros and your powers back, and the level closes out with the fantastic Ravus fight — an excellent opportunity to air-dance all around him, if you've been upgrading that tree on the ascension grid, since he has such a vast health-pool and you can pepper him from all sides. Also a good opportunity to use team tech attacks for immunity when he uses his area-of-effect attack. Then the game throws more daemons at you then you've ever seen, and you're racing off to reclaim the Crystal — only to be pulled inside it, while Ardyn tells you his sad tale in one of the best cutscenes in the game (albeit one where the sound mixing could've been better — lil' hard to hear Ardyn over Noct's gasping). Oh, and those Prompto scenes, full of brotherly love? So good! And the Bahamut scene that ends the chapter? EPIC.
Also, I've heard some people say the level looks sterile, but I think it's pretty darn gorgeous. In terms of aesthetics and atmosphere, it reminds me of many games I cherish: RE2, RE3, Alien Isolation. Actually, in many ways it looks like Midgar from FFVII. While we don't spend much time in the empire in FFXV, Ch. 13 does a good job conveying the military might of the Niffs, with this one flying fortress containing sprawling hangar bays full of tanks and mechs, prisons and labs full of failed test subjects, and countless storerooms lined with god-slaying harpoons, pods of elemental energy, and more. I was impressed by how immense the place felt while still being interconnected. Lots of intricate detail if you look around, too.
Here are a few screenshots I took on PS4 Pro with High detail settings:
Also, a shoutout to the amazing visual of the fallen Shiva from the end of Ch. 12. Along with the snowy forests you see outside the train windows on the ride there, it creates a strong sense of a cold and desolate place with a dark past: