by Bahamut; the former is confirmed to be the canon route. Upon his return to reality, Ardyn vows to kill the True King in defiance of the Astrals. Other appearances Ardyn briefly appears in Kingsglaive as a representative of Niflheim, proposing a truce between the two nations with the marriage of Noctis and Lunafreya . He remains present during most of the film's events accompanying Niflheim's emperor Iedolas Aldercapt up to the invasion of Insomnia and theft of the Crystal. In the 2019 novel Final Fantasy XV: The Dawn of the Future, a defiant Ardyn rebels, prompting Bahamut to plan the destruction of Eos. Eventually Noctis and a resurrected Lunafreya convince him to perform the ritual of the True King in Noctis's place, allowing him to kill Bahamut, erase the Starscourge, and make peace with Somnus and Aera. Ardyn was added as a playable character to two current titles in the Dissidia subseries. He was a DLC character for both the home console and arcade versions of Dissidia Final Fantasy NT. Ardyn was the last original character added before Square Enix ended support for the game in 2020. He was added as permanent addition to the mobile title Dissidia Final Fantasy: Opera Omnia in December 2019 in Japan, and September 2020 in English regions. Ardyn, along with other characters from XV, was featured on an ability card as part of a collaboration with the mobile game Mobius Final Fantasy. He was released as a recruitable character for Final Fantasy Brave Exvius, featuring abilities based on his actions in the main game and a special attack with a CGI sequence. Different depictions of the character also feature in the Final Fantasy Trading Card Game. Outside the Final Fantasy series, Ardyn made a cameo appearance in a crossover with Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed: Origins (2017), and featured as a character skin in a collaboration with Minecraft in 2018. Reception Ardyn has received a generally positive reception from critics and players. Ardyn ranked No. 63 in the Top 75 of NHK's "All-Final Fantasy Grand Poll of Japanese players" in 2020, which tallied over 468,000 votes. Philip Kollar from Wired described Ardyn as a "particularly dandy-looking envoy from Niflheim who bears more than a passing resemblance to Tom Baker's Doctor Who". RPGamer commented while the game lacks an outstanding supporting character, Ardyn is an exception due to his mysterious characterization and manages to develop into