Prompto Argentum

Prompto Argentum is a companion of Prince Noctis and a party member in Final Fantasy XV. As of patch 1.20, he is a switchable player character. He is the player character in the Episode Prompto DLC scenario. He can also be fought against as an opponent in Final Fantasy XV: Comrades and during campsite training.
Prompto is Noctis's best friend from high school who takes photos and wants to save pictures of their road trip. Prompto is the most playful of the four, being upbeat, and easily becomes smitten with women. He suffers from an inferiority complex next to Noctis, Ignis and Gladiolus, due to his lack of nobility, and his lack of confidence. He has a lot of respect for them as friends, exchanging banter with them, often being the most talkative. Prompto is good with machines, and makes use of them as weapons.
Prompto wields firearms and uses machinery in battle making him a ranged character. As a member of Noctis's party, the player can co-opt moves with him and issue him commands. When controlled by the player, Prompto uses various ranged weapons that he can switch between, allowing the player to aim many of them manually.
==Dossiers==
:Common-born classmate of the crown prince. Prompto forged a friendship with Noctis after a fateful encounter with Lady Lunafreya's lost dog brought them closer together, and the two have been inseparable ever since. In preparation for the long road trip ahead, he practiced handling firearms under the tutelage of Crownsguard veterans. The pauper to Noctis's prince, Prompto makes up for his lack of royal prestige or combat prowess with his upbeat personality, lifting his comrades' spirits when the going gets tough. He can almost always be found with his camera in hand, snapping shots and capturing memories of the journey.
Added in Chapter 13.
:Most men are born; but some are created for a special purpose—and Prompto is one such man. Artificially generated from the genes of mad scientist Verstael Besithia, he was initially intended to serve as a test subject for of the empire's magitek experiments. The unstable scientist's plans went awry, however, when a Lucian spy operating on a hot tip absconded with baby Prompto and entrusted him to a foster family in Insomnia. Upon uncovering his inauspicious origins, Prompto plunges into an existential crisis: how can he befriend the very people he was created to kill? Yet he is pleasantly surprised to find that, when he reveals his long-kept secret to Noctis, the bond they share is not merely unshaken, but even stronger than ever.
Added in Chapter 14.
:Having once sworn to help Noctis "break down the walls and usher in the dawn of a new world", Prompto does his part to uphold the promise during his friend's decade-long absence, assisting refugees flocking to Lestallum and taking down the daemons that threaten their livelihood. Yet despite Prompto having grown and changed over the years, one thing remains constant: his devotion to Noctis. Even as the king and his royal retinue return to Insomnia, Prompto heads home not to as his liege's retainer, but as his best friend.
==Profile==
===Appearance===
Prompto is a young man of average height and a slender build, whose visage gives off the impression of a youthful punk. He has blue eyes with violet undertones, light freckles and short, unruly blond hair, which he at a point insists "does not look like a chocobo butt". He wears two bands on his right arm, black gloves, a black shirt with a white pattern, and a sleeveless black vest with a dark red flannel shirt attached underneath. He wears dark pants with a faint leopard print. He wears black boots with red soles that are lined with white fur.
Prompto's black open vest has various tags. The one below the collar reads: "It's a beautiful day now watch some bastard mess it up." (The original message was "watch some bastard fuck it up", but it was changed for the final game, although in the Windows Edition it still says this when playing in the highest settings.) The middle one on the side resembles the Harley-Davidson Motor Company logo. The back of Prompto's waistcoat reads "DEADORALIVE". Like all main party members, Prompto has skull motifs to his outfit. The buttons on his jacket have skulls, he has a belt buckle in the shape of a skull, and another skull on the tag on his trousers.
As a child, Prompto was overweight and wore glasses and a two-tone tan T-shirt with a matching wristband.
His casual outfit is a burgundy sleeveless shirt with a vest over it, and gray trousers that have this message inside a circle: "ROUTE 17 Mencemoor" (the same design he had a child), and text "Cauthess, DO NOT ENTER". His boots are brown and he wears a gray canvas belt. The Windows Edition adds details for this outfit, revealing his wrist tattoos on his left hand, covered by gloves in his other attires: a star and a stylized barbed wire . The tattoos only show when the quality is set to "Highest" or better.
At 30 years old Prompto has grown a goatee, looks more muscular, and wears the Kingsglaive uniform.
In Episode Prompto, he wears winter gear: a black knitted hat, a black winter coat and trousers lined with white fur. He wears winter boots and gear to which attach the firearms he finds. The attire is similar in design to what Biggs and Wedge wear. Other attires he can wear are the Thermal Suit for power plant workers, Magitek Exosuit bonus attire added in a patch, and the Medjay Assassin's Robe from the Final Fantasy XV: Assassin's Festival event. 
Prompto has a barcode on his wrist that he keeps concealed with a wristband. It is a mark of him being born as a clone for Niflheim's magitek infantry. The barcode, commonly misread as NH-01897, reads N-iP01357 at the bottom of his wrist, and 05953234 at the top. It is visible while wearing the Kingsglaive attire with no jacket. Prompto's code print is also on the key card Noctis uses to get through Zegnautus Keep.
Though a clone of Verstael Besithia, Prompto is unique from him. According to the developers, Prompto's cells have been diversified, and thus he wouldn't grow up to look just like Verstael; e.g. his hair wouldn't recede the same way Verstael's does.
===Personality===
Prompto maintains a playful attitude. He is described as a skirt-chasing mood maker with a chip on his shoulder from a different social status compared to his other friends, and thus feels inferior but wishes to be useful. He makes pop culture references, mimicking old song lyrics and lines from previous Final Fantasy games, and at times breaks the fourth wall by inferring their quest is like that of in an RPG. Not having been raised among nobility like Noctis, Ignis and Gladiolus, Prompto feels out of place in formal situations.
Prompto's upbeat personality makes him easy to engage in conversations with and makes him the life of Noctis's group, but he has a short attention span. When driving the Regalia in the post-credit scene of Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV, Prompto loses focus on the road and afterward, he is not seen driving again.
He is not a combat-hardened warrior, but has a knack for cheering people up and keeping things light-hearted. This stems from having had a sad and lonely childhood, and his outward mannerisms conceal a deep thinker. He tries to better himself to feel worthy of being acquainted with the crown prince, but lives his life with an imposter syndrome, always trying to please others, thinking if they discovered the truth, everyone would abandon him.
The developers put a lot of thought into Prompto's animations because of this duality, making him always moving and being more reactive than the other group members, exaggerating and overreacting. Prompto is good with machines, and tuned into technology and the latest trends. Prompto claims to being both claustrophobic (fear of narrow spaces) and acrophobic (fear of heights). He hates bugs, frequently commenting on it whenever the party defeats bug-like enemies. He complains a lot, especially about nature, but his loyalty to his friends is absolute.
Prompto has an affinity toward animals, although he claims to not be into wildlife and to be "more of a pet guy". He is excited to visit the chocobo ranch at Duscae, and once helped Pryna, one of Lunafreya Nox Fleuret's dogs. Photography has been a lifelong hobby for him and he dreams of becoming a professional one day. Fitting of his preference for guns and cameras, Noctis notes Prompto is a technophile.
Prompto's personality remains mostly unchanged during the ten years Noctis is away, though he matures to the point of being independent from his friends when hunting daemons. Noctis notes that he doesn't "seem as jumpy as before" though Prompto retorts he is just better at hiding it.
Ray Chase, Noctis's English voice actor, has commented in Prompto's design thusly:
===Abilities===
Prompto wields firearms and machinery. While he has had the least amount of training out of the group, Prompto has tremendous accuracy even when firing casually, and is an expert at quick draws and stealth takedowns. He can also use the various imperial machinery weapons found throughout the world. Like the other members of the retinue, Prompto can make use healing potions and magic flasks, as well as manifest weapons thanks to Noctis's power. In Episode Prompto, he can ride a snowmobile and use a mounted machine gun while moving.
Prompto is a skilled photographer who documents the party's adventure by taking photos of the scenery, the people they meet, the group (often in combat), as well as selfies. 
Prompto's barcode that he conceals beneath his wristband allows him to access various locked areas in the Zegnautus Keep.
==Story==
Prompto is a clone produced for military warfare by the Niflheim Empire. A codeprint is branded on his body as a form of identification that allows him and other such subjects like him to gain access to certain secured facilities. His biological father is said to be Verstael Besithia, the leading magitek engineer in Niflheim, but in truth, Prompto is a clone of him. Verstael wants to provide the empire with enough infants to make into a daemonified army, and thus uses his own genetic material to create them. When Prompto was a baby he was kidnapped from the First Magitek Production Facility by operatives working for the kingdom of Lucis, and brought to the Crown City. He was adopted by a common Lucian family when he was but one year old, from where he has his surname Argentum.
Prompto lived out his childhood in Insomnia, the Crown City isolated from the rest of Lucis by the Wall. The empire has a long-standing conflict with Lucis, and Prompto wears a wristband to hide the branded codeprint, being insecure of others questioning about it and discovering his true identity, although Prompto himself doesn't understand what the code means.
As depicted in Brotherhood: Final Fantasy XV, the 12-year-old Prompto was a lone overweight boy who (seemingly) never saw his parents and had no friends. His only joy was to take photos and eat junk food. One day he treated a puppy with an injured leg, naming it "Tiny". The puppy returned to its home with Lunafreya Nox Fleuret, the former princess of Tenebrae. She noticed the name on the handkerchief Prompto had tied around the puppy's injured leg, and had her companion Gentiana investigate.
Prompto received a letter from Lady Lunafreya expressing her thanks for taking care of her puppy, Pryna. Knowing he attended the same school as Prince Noctis for whom she had sent the dog, she requested that Prompto befriend him, since Noctis did not mingle much with his classmates. Prompto decided to approach Noctis, but stumbled. Noctis pulled him up, pointing out that he's "heavy", and left as the bell rang. The event motivated Prompto to lose weight before approaching Noctis again.
Prompto started jogging and dieting, taking photos of himself to track his progress until he had shed the excess weight. During this period, Prompto would often sniff Lunafreya's scented letter to motivate himself. With newfound confidence, a 15-year-old Prompto approached Noctis in high school pretending they had never met before. Noctis, who recognized him, greeted him casually.
At age 20, Prompto accompanies Noctis, Gladiolus and Ignis on their road trip across the land toward Altissia for Noctis to marry Lunafreya, and Prompto is looking forward to finally meeting her. As depicted in Final Fantasy XV Prologue Parting Ways, Prompto comes to the Citadel the day before their scheduled departure to pick up his Crownsguard uniform, which he is to wear for the trip. He is nervous to be meeting the people in charge and affirms he has completed his self-defense training for the journey. He promises to protect Noctis, but is told to concentrate on keeping himself safe. Prompto leaves the Citadel with Gladiolus, Noctis's bodyguard and part of their friend group. Prompto wants to show his parents his new clothes, considering it proof of being worthy to go on the trip. Prompto doesn't see them much ever since he was a kid, and when he gets home he finds his parents are not there.
Night has fallen by the time Ignis, Prompto, and Gladiolus arrive to help Noctis clean his apartment. Noctis's remaining possessions are to be taken to the Citadel, including his comic book collection at which Prompto marvels at. They finish up by playing some King's Knight at Prompto's urging.
Prompto is present when King Regis sees them off, amazed he was allowed at the palace. When the party's car breaks down, they push it to the Hammerhead service station for the mechanic Cindy Aurum to repair it. Prompto instantly takes on a strong admiration for her. In Galdin Quay the party discovers the ferry to Altissia is not running and that the Crown City has been attacked, with King Regis, Noctis and Lunafreya all announced to have died. They turn back only to find the city blockaded.
Cor Leonis, the marshal of the Crownsguard, tasks Noctis with locating the royal arms of the past Lucian kings to gain the power to reclaim the kingdom. The empire is blocking the route to Duscae, and the party splits: Gladiolus, Ignis and Prompto create a diversion near the Norduscaen Blockade, while Noctis and Cor defeat Loqi Tummelt, one of the imperial army's commanders. Cor departs, and Noctis's party heads to the city of Lestallum to meet up with Gladiolus's sister Iris, though Prompto urges they visit the chocobo ranch first.
When the Archaean Titan begins calling for Noctis, they gain access to the Disc of Cauthess with help from Chancellor Ardyn Izunia of Niflheim, although they remain suspicious of his motives. Prompto and Ignis are left behind when Noctis and Gladiolus fall into the pit, but make their way to the pair in time to help battle Titan as Niflheim's forces attack it. Noctis gains Titan's allegiance and they escape with Ardyn's help.
While searching for Ramuh, the entourage explores the Fociaugh Hollow, where a naga mistakes Prompto for her child, stealing him away when he is separated from the group. Upon rescuing Prompto, the friends ponder why a daemon would think a human was their baby. Afterward they infiltrate the Aracheole Stronghold to reclaim their car where they meet the imperial high commander Ravus Nox Fleuret. Ardyn breaks up the situation and lets the retinue leave with the car, but Prompto is surprised at his friends' familiarity with Ravus whom Ignis explains is the elder brother to Noctis's fiancée Lunafreya.
They discover King Regis's royal vessel is kept in a secret harbor at Cape Caem. While collecting mythril for its repairs, Noctis, Ignis and Prompto join forces with Commodore Aranea Highwind, for whom Prompto also expresses either admiration or attraction. He wonders if Aranea will quit the imperial army due to the empire's employment of daemons like she is considering. They reunite with Gladiolus at the EXINERIS power plant, who tells them how got his new scars.
They take the boat to Altissia where Lunafreya is to awaken the Astral Leviathan. Prompto, Gladiolus and Ignis are to help evacuate the city as Noctis prepares to forge his covenant with the sea goddess. Niflheim attacks Leviathan and Prompto rides an imperial magitek craft to take Noctis to the Astral. Noctis fights Leviathan alone, and though he gains her allegiance, he is knocked out and awakens couple days later to hear Lunafreya was killed and Ignis has lost his sight due to an injury. Prompto now usually stays by Ignis's side, helping him.
En route to Tenebrae, Noctis spots "Ardyn" on their train and chases after him, not realizing it is Prompto transformed by an illusion. Prompto is confused by Noctis's sudden aggression toward him and tries to flee. Noctis soon defends the train from an imperial attack with who he thinks is Prompto, but in truth is Ardyn in Prompto's guise. Noctis is tricked into pushing Prompto off the train and into Niflheim's custody, realizing too late he had been caught in Ardyn's illusion.
Several days later, as depicted in Episode Prompto, Prompto traverses the snowfields of imperial outlands alone. He succumbs to the cold and is found by magitek troopers and brought to a local magitek research facility. Ardyn returns Prompto his handgun and urges him to meet with his father, and tells him he was born here. Prompto is not ready to believe it, and sets out to escape the facility.
He finds various firearms around the complex and uses them to destroy the MTs swarming the place. By reading the research notes and listening to audio logs from Verstael Besithia, the leading imperial magitek researcher, Prompto learns the empire produces MTs from daemonified human clones. As he finds dormant clones in their tubes, he finds they look like him, and have the same bar code tattooed on their wrists Prompto himself has.
Prompto confronts Verstael who is turning into a daemon. Ardyn gloats this is a heartfelt father-son-reunion, but Prompto shoots the mutating Verstael, and Ardyn blames him for patricide. Aranea has infiltrated the magitek production facility as well to find the truth behind Verstael's magitek project. As she busts through the main room, she is surprised to find Prompto. She gets Prompto to his feet and gives him a snowmobile to escape the facility. Prompto rides until he is clear of imperial pursuit and camps out by a thawed lake.
Aranea finds Prompto in the wilderness and joins him. Aranea urges him to return to his friends, but Prompto hesitates because of what he has learned. He doesn't think Noctis and the others would accept him, and thinks he is the very being Noctis seeks to eradicate from the world, and still wonders if Noctis had intended to eject him from the train. Aranea assures him Noctis was deeply concerned for his well-being, insisting his origins don't matter, and that Prompto must commit to his own desires and decide what he wants out of life for himself, before leaving.
The next day Prompto explores the wilderness alone. He finds magitek troopers lying in the snow, and shoots one. He finds himself empathizing with them, and imagines himself as another MT being hunted by Noctis, and sees the MT lying in the snow with his own face. He remembers being young and living in Lucis with a secret, always hiding the weird tattoo on him, never having friends. Pryna appears and guides Prompto to a field of fallen MTs.
Prompto realizes what Aranea said about deciding his own path in life was true. He meets up with her again and wants to help her take down the monsters Verstael has been cooking up here in the remote arctic away from the emperor's gaze. Together they infiltrate another magitek facility and destroy Barbarus, Verstael's experiment to fuse magitek with a mammal.
The Immortalis has been activated, a colossal magitek monster that now houses Verstael's soul. Aranea and Prompto flee the facility on a snowmobile that has a mounted machine gun. Aranea rides while Prompto uses the machine gun to destroy the magitek monstrosity that speaks to them in Verstael's voice about how it seeks to destroy the world with its newfound power. After defeating Immortalis, Prompto declares he is heading to Gralea to meet up with Noctis and the others so he can tell them the truth about himself. Unbeknownst to him, Ardyn is spying as Prompto parts ways with Aranea.
At some point in his journey to reunite with his entourage, Prompto is recaptured by Ardyn and imprisoned in Zegnautus Keep in Gralea so the chancellor can lure and torment Noctis. Noctis's party saves Prompto and Noctis apologizes for having fallen into Ardyn's trap that led him to shove Prompto off the train. Prompto readily forgives him, glad to be reunited with his friends. Shortly after, he uses his codeprint to gain access to the Keep's throne room where the device sealing Noctis's powers is kept. Though Prompto struggles revealing his origins to the others, they immediately accept him.
After Noctis is absorbed inside the Crystal, the world plunges into perpetual darkness with roaming daemons. Prompto, Gladiolus and Ignis return to Lucis to wait for the prophesied day when the King of Light returns to banish the darkness from the world. Prompto begins training and spars with a member of the Kingsglaive. After being defeated, he leaves to train some more to later return for a rematch. According to Talcott, Prompto still attempts to earn Cindy's respect, but she is too devoted to her work to pay him much attention. Prompto matures to the point of hunting daemons alone, a stark contrast to how he used to always depend on his friends, honing his marksmanship to hit his targets in the dark and dual-wielding handguns more often than he did before.
After a ten-year slumber, Noctis returns and is reunited with his friends. Prompto is overjoyed to see his friend again, and they discuss the Kingsglaive and how some of them gave their lives to protect Noctis. Prompto's jovial and upbeat personality has not changed, causing Noctis to note he does not feel any different. After a final meal at camp, they head into the ruins of Insomnia to challenge Ardyn who has revealed his true identity as that of Noctis's immortal ancestor as an embodiment of the darkness. Though knowing Noctis must sacrifice himself to return the light to the world, Prompto tries to remain cheerful.
The party returns to Insomnia, reunites with Cor Leonis and meets with the remnants of the Kingsglaive. At the Kingsglaive Base Camp Noctis asks Prompto how things are going with "you know who", who replies that a gentleman doesn't kiss and tell. Noctis tells him to hold tight to those one loves.
They fight the Cerberus and witness Lunafreya summon the Astrals to clear a path towards the Citadel. As they head to the throne room the group fights the Fierce, Rogue, and Mystic whose statues have been enslaved by the Starscourge. Prompto defeats the Rogue and reaffirms his gratitude to Noctis and his promise to stand by Noctis's side.
Noctis asks for one of the photos Prompto took during their journey to take with him. He asks his friends to "walk tall and take care of the rest". As Noctis goes off to offer up his soul, daemons emerge from the ground. Noctis's friends are with him in spirit when he erases the Starscourge from the world by cleansing Ardyn's corrupted soul, and the sun finally rises. Gladiolus, Ignis and Prompto survive, honoring their promise to Noctis.
===Alternate endings===
In Final Fantasy XV: Episode Ignis Verse 2, Ardyn brings Ignis to the Zegnautus Keep as bait for Noctis whom he wants to inherit the Crystal's power. Noctis, Gladiolus and Prompto are brought to the Keep by Ravus, and as the train ride through the imperial lands never happens, Prompto is never captured and presumably never learns of his origins.
In Final Fantasy XV -The Dawn of the Future-, Sol tells the recently-awakened Noctis that Prompto helps Cindy transport goods in the world engulfed in the long night. Noctis heads to the Citadel alone rather than waiting to meet his friends, but Gladiolus, Ignis and Prompto follow and team up with him in time to face an army of small Bahamuts. Noctis notes how Prompto has matured and become a better fighter during the decade he's been gone. After Noctis saves the revived Lunafreya, he leaves her in his friends' care and heads to fight Bahamut who has revealed his true colors as an uncaring deity willing to destroy life on Eos. In the end Bahamut is felled and the Astrals, the Crystal and the Starscourge all vanish as dawn breaks. At Noctis and Lunafreya's wedding in Altissia, King Regis's spirit thanks Noctis's friends—Prompto included—on aiding him and the rest of humanity to survive their ordeals.
==Gameplay==
Prompto equips firearms as his primary arm, including handguns and shotguns. Prompto's secondary arm is machinery, which allows him to equip tools like Auto Crossbow and Bioblaster. He can co-opt moves with Noctis and has the lowest HP of the party. Prompto has five Techniques. He can take photos, an aspect of many quests, which the player can also upload to social media and set various filters for. Prompto can be fought during training sessions at campsites.
From Chapter 12 Prompto will be unavailable for a while. In Chapter 14 Prompto can be seen using two firearms in battle although he can still only be equipped with one. Prompto will sometimes sing the traditional "Victory Fanfare" at the end of battle. The game does not otherwise have a victory theme after battle, as it reserves it for making camp or sleeping at an inn.
Final Fantasy XV: Episode Prompto is a DLC episode where the player plays as Prompto in third-person shooter with stealth elements. After the December update, Prompto is playable in the main game as a switchable player character in battle. The player can also fight Prompto in Final Fantasy XV: Comrades.
==Musical themes==
"Home Sweet Home" is the main theme of Final Fantasy XV: Episode Prompto, composed and arranged by Naoshi Mizuta. It plays during the ending credits and on the title screen after completing Episode Prompto. "A Frozen Soul" is an arrangement by Mizuta that plays on the title screen initially before completing the DLC.
"Home Sweet Home" is track 29 on disc 1 of the Final Fantasy XV Original Soundtrack Volume 2. "A Frozen Soul" is track 9 on disc 1.
==Other appearances==
Prompto has made appearances in the following Final Fantasy XV canon works:
*Final Fantasy 30th Anniversary exhibition as a special post-game message to Noctis.
*Final Fantasy XV: A New Empire as a tutor and player leader.
*King's Knight -Wrath of the Dark Dragon- as a party member for a collaboration event.
He has also appeared in the following games throughout the Final Fantasy series:
*Dissidia Final Fantasy Opera Omnia as a playable character.
*Theatrhythm Final Fantasy All-Star Carnival as a playable character.
*Pictlogica Final Fantasy.
*Final Fantasy Airborne Brigade as a summonable Legend.
*Final Fantasy Record Keeper as a playable character.
*Final Fantasy Brave Exvius as a summonable vision.
*War of the Visions: Final Fantasy Brave Exvius.
*Mobius Final Fantasy as cards.
==Non-Final Fantasy guest appearances==
Prompto has made key guest appearances in the following non-Final Fantasy games:
*Puzzle & Dragons.
*Terra Battle as a character.
*The Alchemist Code as a playable character.
*Minecraft as a skin.
==Other media==
===LINE===
Prompto appears on a sticker set for the LINE communications app. The sticker set he appears in is titled "ファイナルファンタジーXV".https://store.line.me/stickershop/product/7501/ja
LINE FFXV Sticker3.png|
LINE FFXV Sticker7.png|
==Behind the scenes==
===Development===
Prompto's design went through an overhaul during development since he was first unveiled for Final Fantasy Versus XIII, which ended up being reworked into Final Fantasy XV. His hair was straightened, spiked up, and changed golden blond from its curly dirty blond inceptions, and his facial features were modified as well to give him a more rugged, masculine look.
His face was again redesigned from the version unveiled at E3 2013 when the game was re-announced as Final Fantasy XV. Prompto's hair and facial features were altered after receiving negative feedback so that users around the world would better receive the game. Yusuke Naora is one of three art directors on Final Fantasy XV, and one of his early tasks on the project was to update the look of the characters from their incarnation in Final Fantasy Versus XIII.
As opposed to Gladiolus and Ignis, Prompto was designed to be an average citizen with no training. His roots thus shine through in his behavior and battle skills.
It was originally envisioned all party members would be playable with Prompto able to manually aim firearms that could be used to target enemy weak points. However, the battle system was later changed to make only Noctis directly playable.
Director Hajime Tabata has explained that black has historically been treated as a special color in the kingdom of Lucis. Thus the attire of the royal family, and those in occupations closely tied to it, wear black. The art staff wanted to make it easy to distinguish the characters even though they all wear black. The team wanted to make them come alive both in technical and artistic ways, and ways to make the characters relatable were discussed endlessly. At the beginning of the development, a special unit was formed to create the cast's personal traits. The team also paid attention to feedback from players, especially in Prompto, whom many found annoying for the contrast he'd behave compared to the others. The team decided to emphasize certain parts of Prompto's character to make him more likeable, and make the game's photography feature part of his character to bring him closer to players and make them appreciate him being a party member. His depiction in Brotherhood Final Fantasy XV was also designed around the goal of making him more likable.
A Final Fantasy XV animator, Toyama, shared some details on how Prompto was animated via official social media. Using motion capture, the animators filmed their own movements either in special mo-cap suits, or in what the characters actually wear in the game. The recorded data was polished by adjusting the poses and movements, adding finger animations, etc. before the animations could be implemented. The animators checked how the character movements flowed together with the clothes, which were controlled via cloth simulator. Aside from animations, a variety of things needed also to be checked, such as SFX and VFX.Final Fantasy XV Official Instagram at Official Final Fantasy XV Instagram
Animating-Prompto-FFXV.png|Animation.
Prompto-Charm-Design-FFXV.jpg|Character design elements as outlined by Business Division 2.
Prompto-Charm-Design2-FFXV.jpg|Character design elements as outlined by Business Division 2.
Early on in the game's production, Prompto's pistol had a short, wooden shoulder stock for a handle, and a large apparatus attached to the underside of the barrel, almost resembling a grenade launcher, but with a more baroque design of a steel frame with a wooden hand rest, a basket-like guard, and a matchlock lever. The stock was removed after his first appearance in Final Fantasy Versus XIII footage, and the launcher was last seen in development footage from 2014. In gameplay following the announcement trailer for Final Fantasy XV, the apparatus was seemingly used to fire explosive shots. It may have been a precursor to Prompto's use of machinery and the origin for some of his abilities, like Starshell.
Marketing director for Final Fantasy XV, Akio Ofuji, has said that Prompto is his favorite character.
===Curiosities===
When Prompto uses his phone as an idle animation, he holds it upside down.
Prompto's reaction to having to stay at Coernix Station - Cauthess with Ardyn in Chapter 4 varies depending on the version. In the Japanese version, he asks if it was now a five-man traveling party. In the English version, he sarcastically notes that they will have to set up camp with Ardyn.
When the party explores Fociaugh Hollow, Prompto gets taken by a talking naga looking for its baby. In Japanese folklore, a nure-onna is a yōkai with the head of a woman and the body of a snake, a monstrous being who carries a small, childlike bundle, which she uses to attract potential victims. If a well-intentioned person offers to hold her baby, the bundle becomes incredibly heavy and prevents the victim from fleeing.
When Talcott and Noctis drive to Hammerhead in Chapter 14 in the main game, Talcott mentions Prompto hanging around Cindy who is too "married to her work" to notice him. This line is not in the Final Fantasy XV Pocket Edition though the rest of the conversation remains the same. Talking to Prompto in the Kingsglaive Base Camp in the Windows/Royal Edition has Noctis ask how things worked out with "you-know-who" and Prompto being coy about it, saying a gentleman doesn't kiss and tell.
The player can repeatedly rest at Hammerhead in Chapter 14 to get various bits of incidental dialogue with the party members talking about what they have been up to, including Gladiolus telling the party about his girlfriend, and Prompto asking Gladiolus for dating tips.
When the player takes the elevator at the end of the game, Prompto's gaze is locked onto Noctis the whole time. This was added in a patch, as it does not happen in version 1.00.
In Chapter 11, the "Prompto" who fights alongside Noctis is Ardyn in disguise, as revealed at the end of the chapter. He says lines Prompto has never uttered before (including when using his Techniques), and moves slightly differently, the way he stands up and his swagger walk being the most noticeable. Similarly, the "Ardyn" Noctis pursues on the train behaves in a way unlike how Ardyn normally acts, such as saying "dude, are you seriously trying to kill me", wondering what is happening and panicking when Noctis chases him in anger. In Episode Prompto Prompto remembers Noctis pinning him against a wall by his throat, which is how Noctis confronted "Ardyn" in this scene.
How much Prompto is initially aware of his origins is ambiguous. Episode Prompto loading screens call his Insomnian parents his adoptive parents, but the Comrades character profile and the dossiers in Final Fantasy XV call them his foster parents (which would suggest Prompto has not been adopted, but is being taken care of by the state). His Japanese dossier does not mention foster care, simply stating he was taken in by a commoner family. In Parting Ways Prompto simply calls them his parents, but it is also said their relationship is distant and he hardly sees them. Prompto knows he is from Niflheim, as the dossier says it is his "long-kept secret". He hides his barcode, and one of his incidental animations is to check his wrist and become concerned when Noctis glances over at him.
===Voice===
Prompto is voiced by Tetsuya Kakihara in Japanese. In Brotherhood Final Fantasy XV and Episode Prompto, his younger self is voiced by Aki Kaneda.
In English, he is voiced by Robbie Daymond, who also voiced Kurasame Susaya in Final Fantasy Type-0. His younger self is voiced by Griffin Burns. Prompto's writing changed slightly to suit Daymond's delivery, and after a few recording sessions, the localization team abandoned listening to the Japanese version, which is unusual for a dub.
==Merchandise==
Prompto is available as a Play Arts -Kai- figure.
==Gallery==
==Etymology==
Thus, Prompto's name may have been an incorrect attempt to translate "quicksilver" into Latin. 
==External links==
*Official cosplay reference guide
==Citations==
de:Prompto Argentum
fr:Prompto Argentum
ru:Промпто Аргентум
Category:Characters in Final Fantasy XV
Category:Gunners