Giving up on this - probably the biggest disappointment I've had with a game in a long time. Everything about it is so unbearably slow, everything feels so archaic in a it's a 'classic JRPG' but in all the worst ways possible. It needs a hell of a lot of balance and QOL changes before it resembles anything like a decent game, and it's very clear it was released half-baked. The story isn't particularly engaging, but it's the painfully slow gameplay that's really turned me off it, particularly sections that involve 'take 2 steps here, cutscene, fight, take 2 steps, cutscene, fight' repeated ad nauseum, which is made worse by the fact that all dialogue and animations take about 3 seconds longer than they should to finish.

I do feel like there's a great game in here somewhere, but it's such a chore to get through that I'd rather put it down and consider coming back to it in the future if they manage to make some serious adjustments.

Chapter 11 is one of the worst things I've ever played. I know people shit on the game for the linearity but I was really enjoying it up until you reach the tedious, boring, and bland open field in that chapter. The worst thing the game did was 'open up'.

If you don't do the monotonous side content that forces you to backtrack over and over again, you'll be severely underlevelled, and even if you do them the fights are still miserable.

Will probably take a break from FF for the minute and just move straight onto XIII-2 after a while.