In Episode Prompto you can find tape recorders laying around that you can listen to. While listening to these is completely optional, they do provide a good deal of insight into the story of the Magitek Troopers, Prompto’s backstory, and even Verstael himself.
The above video contains all nine audio files found in the Episode. Transcripts of the files can be found below as well the location of each.
The first six are found within the first facility. Once you leave the facility you can not return so be sure to pick them up on the way through. The last three are found in the last facility before the final bosses.
Research Log: Year 722, Day 189
This will be the first one you come across in the room where Prompto comes to. It’s on a counter along the side of the room.
Verstael Besithia: Research log: Year 722, Day 189. I received a proposal regarding a way to improve the infantry’s performance by leaps and bounds: outfit the troopers with magitek cores. Preliminary tests suggest sublimating daemons for fuel will result in an unstable infantry unfit for the field. If the calculations he provided are correct, though, this could solve all our problems. The Deathless Project marks the advent of a new age. No longer will our soldiers fall on the field of battle. The empire shall rise and soon, all the world shall bask in our glory!
Research Log: Year 722, Day 294
The second one is found in the hallway where Prompto finds the dormant Magitek Troppers in the adjoining large room. It’s on a bookcase right before you exit the hallway.
Verstael Besithia: Research log: Year 722, Day 294. I acted on the proposal mentioned in my log of Day 189. My attempts to infuse the troopers’ magitek cores with daemonic energy proved successful. Only in the most basic sense, however. While the soldiers are indeed deathless, they are far from fit for fighting. Thus, I’ve decided to take a different approach: rather than relying on daemons to power the magitek infantry, why not use humans instead? Frankly, I had never considered emplying my fellow man in any magitek-related experiments. But countless men and women succumb to the plasmodia each day. Rather then let them die victims of an ignominious disease, why not help them ascend to nobler heights? I’ve lost many a comrade on the field of battle, and I’ve no intention of allowing any more of theirs deaths to go in vain.
Prompto: How could even think of using those innocent people for his twisted experiments?
Research Log: Year 722, Day 339
The next one is found on a bench in the next hallway where you stealth kill the magitek trooper.
Verstal Besithia: Research log: Year 722, Day 339. Another day, another mental breakdown. All my tests so far have resulted in the former soldiers suffering ego deaths. Today, however, I developed a new hypothesis: I will continue to sublimate daemonified humans to harvest the miasma, but, if a sense of self is the source of these snags, why not inject infants with the plasmodia instead? We’ve little time. If we are to combat the Lucian threat, we must explore new options. I, too, will set aside my personal misgivings and do what I must for the empire.
Prompto: What kind of amaniac experiments on kids?
Research Log: Year 723, Day 70
The next one is found in the Production Hanger Reference Room on some crates to the right.
Verstael Besithia: Research log: Year 723, Day 70. I pondered how I might find the necessary number of infants, and then it dawned on me: why not make them myself? If I clone them from my own genes, I can eliminate the pesky process of breeding them. Mass production remains a pipe dream for now, but I’m confident I can create a massive infantry once the process picks up. If everything goes according to plan, the empire will boast a million-man army in no time at all.
Prompto: All this time, those things I’ve been fighting have been…*gags*
Research Log: Year 736, Day 123
You can find the next audio file on the other side of the room on a bookcase.
Verstael Besithia: Research log: Year 736, Day 123. It seems my laboratory is not nearly as secure as I once believed. Some thief – likely a Lucian – made off with one of my experiments. Absconding with a single infant will do nothing to enlighten them of the grandeur of my research. That said, I will see to it that such an incident never arises again. I’ve posted magitek troopers around the facility and instructed them to keep a vigilant watch. It is their home, after all.
Prompto: The kingdom kidnapped one of those infants? Does that mean I…? No, it couldn’t be. There’s no way.
Research Log: Year 756, Day 98.
The next one is found in the Production Hanger: Reception Room, the room right before you encounter Verstal. It’s sitting on a table.
Verstal Besithia: Research log: Year 756, Day 98. Finally my daemon infused magitek armor is complete. I have christened my creation “Diamon Weapon”. It has exhibited an extremely unstable psyche, immediately unleashing unmitigated horrors upon activation. It’s destructive capabilities, however, are indeed beyond compare. Not even the “impenetrable” Insomnia could withstand its onslaught. Why, the Crown City would fall in a mere matter of minutes. The Stone of legend will soon be mine. To think that, in less the a month’s time, the Crystal will be mine to play with as I please!
Prompto: So he’s the one behind the attack on Insomnia…He planned the whole thing. Everything we lost that day is gone because of him.
Research Log: Year 745, Day 325
This one is found in the second facility you go through. It’s on a bookcase in the first hallway after the first room.
Verstael Besithia: Research log: Year 745, Day 325. Today marks a momentous triumph for our great nation. The Glacian herself graced us with her presence in the Ghorovas Rift, and, through the combined efforts of the magitek infantry and my precious daemons, we killed her. The resulting casualties were great, but these sacrifices afforded us something far more valuable then a few units. With the data I collected, I intend to begin developing a new magitek weapon codenamed “Godslayer”. Soon all the Astrals shall bow before me and the might of my magitek. Soon, they shall know my wrath.
Prompto: What the hell is wrong with this guy?
Research Log: Year 724, Day 297
This one is found in the hallway with the Ebony Vending Machine in the second facility. It’s on a bookcase.
Verstael Besithia: Research log: Year 724, Day 297. Mass production of the magitek infantry was a success. We’ve overwhelmed the Lucians with our numbers and surrounded Insomnia. But to rest on our laurels now would be unthinkable. On occasion, harvesting the plasmodic miasma produces some “side effects”. The daemons born of this process have been disposed of on site – until now. How foolish I was to let these sublime creatures go to waste! What they lack in adaptability, they make up for in sheer power. I realize now that I ought to channel my efforts into exploring the true potential of these daemons for the sake of the empire. Perhaps this has been my true calling all along.
Prompto: He’s mad. This guy has completely lost his mind.
Research Log: Year 756, Day 190
The final audio file is in the hallway before you fight Barbarus, on a bookcase.
Verstael Besithia: Research log: Year 756, Day 190. At long last, my life’s work is complete. Not only have I found a way to preserve the ego, I’ve also managed to sustain that consciousness through the sublimation process and transfer it into my magitek troopers. The prototype has proven slightly less powerful then the Diamond Weapon, but this presents no real problem. After all one’s consciousness can be transmuted again and again and again. All that remains is to fully surrender myself to my research and become my own final test subject. I will conclude my mortal life by offering a word of thanks. Chancellor Ardyn Izunia, your assistance has proved invaluable. You have earned my eternal gratitude. It is through your aid that I have completed my work and begun my ascension to an existence beyond divinity.
Prompto: Of course it was Ardyn…Everywhere we go, his name just keeps coming up. Everything that’s happened to us, it’s all his fault.
📸 LOKTON 📸 
You must be logged in to post a comment.