I cannot recommend getting the platinum trophy for this game like I did.
That's not to say I didn't like it. I mean I wouldn't have put nearly 150 hours into this if I thought it was anything less than great. I'm just saying that I can't recommend people go through the countless hours of maxxing out armor and weapons, mindlessly searching for quest items, looking up different boss strategies, trying to get a jackpot in that goddamn casino, etc. as it can be extremely taxing both mentally and physically. I felt burnt out by the end in a way that I have a hard time comparing to anything else.
I've binged other games before, even other rpgs; but I usually bang out the story quickly and get a healthy amount of side content in before calling it quits. Yet idk what happened here, I started playing this game at the beginning of November and only finished it just last week. I wanna say that I didn't know what I was in for despite vaguely knowing about the game's "epilogue", but in all honesty it was a mix of feeling a "sunk cost fallacy" with the amount of time I had already put into the side content as well as just being so genuinely invested in the world and characters that I almost felt scared to leave them without doing everything the game had to offer.
And that's when I start to think, "do I regret 100%'ing this game?" Some parts of me say yes, as I could've spent that lost time with other games or movies or with friends/family or really anything else. But when I really think about it I think I'll come to be happy that I did finish it in the way I did. I don't 100% games often, especially jrpgs (this might be my first in that regard); but I find that the ones do fully complete are the games that feel important in one way or another. And even if this game isn't one of my all-time favorites in the genre, I can't deny just how much I've learned and grown because of it in the few months since starting my playthrough.
I didn't want to leave my party behind as I had grown attached to every single one of them very naturally. They might not as complex as Xenoblade characters, but they're my friends and I cherished them nonetheless. And once the credits rolled, I felt at peace knowing that I did everything I could for them to live happily. It might sound corny but I even dreamt about them a little afterwards, seeing pieces of how they continued with their lives through my own interpretations of them.
Again, it brings me back to the power of videogames as an artform. You are the one controlling not just the pace of the story but also how you interact with the world and it's people. It's not just about intuitive mechanics and grand story beats, but moreso how you express yourself within someone else's fantasy. And that philosophy will always speak to me.
Edit: I’ve been thinking about this game consistently since I finished it and after ruminating on it some more (especially after the unfortunate passing of Akira Toriyama making me reflect on just how much I loved the characters he designed) I’ve come to terms with the fact that this is a very important game to me. Absolutely one of my new favorites.
That's not to say I didn't like it. I mean I wouldn't have put nearly 150 hours into this if I thought it was anything less than great. I'm just saying that I can't recommend people go through the countless hours of maxxing out armor and weapons, mindlessly searching for quest items, looking up different boss strategies, trying to get a jackpot in that goddamn casino, etc. as it can be extremely taxing both mentally and physically. I felt burnt out by the end in a way that I have a hard time comparing to anything else.
I've binged other games before, even other rpgs; but I usually bang out the story quickly and get a healthy amount of side content in before calling it quits. Yet idk what happened here, I started playing this game at the beginning of November and only finished it just last week. I wanna say that I didn't know what I was in for despite vaguely knowing about the game's "epilogue", but in all honesty it was a mix of feeling a "sunk cost fallacy" with the amount of time I had already put into the side content as well as just being so genuinely invested in the world and characters that I almost felt scared to leave them without doing everything the game had to offer.
And that's when I start to think, "do I regret 100%'ing this game?" Some parts of me say yes, as I could've spent that lost time with other games or movies or with friends/family or really anything else. But when I really think about it I think I'll come to be happy that I did finish it in the way I did. I don't 100% games often, especially jrpgs (this might be my first in that regard); but I find that the ones do fully complete are the games that feel important in one way or another. And even if this game isn't one of my all-time favorites in the genre, I can't deny just how much I've learned and grown because of it in the few months since starting my playthrough.
I didn't want to leave my party behind as I had grown attached to every single one of them very naturally. They might not as complex as Xenoblade characters, but they're my friends and I cherished them nonetheless. And once the credits rolled, I felt at peace knowing that I did everything I could for them to live happily. It might sound corny but I even dreamt about them a little afterwards, seeing pieces of how they continued with their lives through my own interpretations of them.
Again, it brings me back to the power of videogames as an artform. You are the one controlling not just the pace of the story but also how you interact with the world and it's people. It's not just about intuitive mechanics and grand story beats, but moreso how you express yourself within someone else's fantasy. And that philosophy will always speak to me.
Edit: I’ve been thinking about this game consistently since I finished it and after ruminating on it some more (especially after the unfortunate passing of Akira Toriyama making me reflect on just how much I loved the characters he designed) I’ve come to terms with the fact that this is a very important game to me. Absolutely one of my new favorites.