This game has its flaws, and I'll start there. Despite being 60FPS, the game will hardly ever run at that unless you are in combat. The side quests are pretty basic except for a couple at the end, and when talking to characters (not in a cutscene) the animations look VERY outdated. There's no sprint button and Clive is quite slow.
But I don't care. I'll take those criticisms in stride. The narrative and scale of this game outweigh those cons. I'm an absolute sucker for world building, and this game is establishing its world every step of the way. The real-time lore entries were very helpful for this, allowing you to pause a cutscene at any time and read current descriptions of characters and places, allowing you to be fully immersed because you don't have to figure out who's who or where they are while the cutscene is playing.
The eikon battles are extraordinary. Even if this game is mild in terms of difficulty, the sheer scale of some of these fights left me in awe. The eikons FEEL like giant walking weapons of mass destruction, which is exactly what they are, and they're used in a way akin to how modern civilizations use their nuclear weapons (mostly as a deterrent).
On-foot combat is where this game really shines. I was thrilled while making my way through the hunt board, because it was just so damn fun using whichever eikonic ability was new to me at the time, and jumping into a new boss battle. Sure the dodging has ridiculous I-Frames, but they're almost necessary with such fast paced combat. I can't emphasize how much fun I had playing this FF installment. I just finished the first DLC, and while it was very short it came with probably the best boss battle in the game which I was very happy with. Counting the days until Rising Tides.
But I don't care. I'll take those criticisms in stride. The narrative and scale of this game outweigh those cons. I'm an absolute sucker for world building, and this game is establishing its world every step of the way. The real-time lore entries were very helpful for this, allowing you to pause a cutscene at any time and read current descriptions of characters and places, allowing you to be fully immersed because you don't have to figure out who's who or where they are while the cutscene is playing.
The eikon battles are extraordinary. Even if this game is mild in terms of difficulty, the sheer scale of some of these fights left me in awe. The eikons FEEL like giant walking weapons of mass destruction, which is exactly what they are, and they're used in a way akin to how modern civilizations use their nuclear weapons (mostly as a deterrent).
On-foot combat is where this game really shines. I was thrilled while making my way through the hunt board, because it was just so damn fun using whichever eikonic ability was new to me at the time, and jumping into a new boss battle. Sure the dodging has ridiculous I-Frames, but they're almost necessary with such fast paced combat. I can't emphasize how much fun I had playing this FF installment. I just finished the first DLC, and while it was very short it came with probably the best boss battle in the game which I was very happy with. Counting the days until Rising Tides.