This game is basically what would happen if FF14 was single player. From the overall pacing of the story to the quest design. I think this is a great culmination of FF that feels like it's been work towards since FF12 was released and the turn based system was mostly abandoned. There are certainly some touch ups that can be done but overall the formula felt well put together throughout my entire playthrough of ~55 hours to do everything I could.
Overall the game was far too easy in the action focused mode which was the hardest difficulty to start with. I have barely touched upon the New Game+ difficult (Final Fantasy) but have initial high hopes for it.
The quest design I find tremendous, but I think i've been stockholm'd by playing so much FF14. The main quest with extremely high points of just incredible action and story accompanied by side quests all designed in a way to help the player understand the world and everything else that just keeps on going despite your heroic conquests.
The music is phenomenal throughout and really accentuates the tone of some of the areas you explore and the larger, more important fights that you partake in. While the story was for the most part serviceable, I think the final hour or so of actual game leading up to the end of the game was some of the straight up coolest shit.
The combat felt really fun and snappy. It was like if you took the garbage system from Valkyrie Elysium that came out last summer (I think) and made it good. The biggest problem is that the Eikons, which essentially come down to which special ability do you like the most, didn't matter too much in the initial playthrough since everything was so easy. There are plenty of abilities to pick and choose from and I'm hoping to spend a little more time trying them out and finding all the cool nuances. I was still discovering small intricacies in the combat system even near the very end of my playthrough.
May update this review once I play more of NG+ and potentially dip my toes into the arcade stages.
Overall the game was far too easy in the action focused mode which was the hardest difficulty to start with. I have barely touched upon the New Game+ difficult (Final Fantasy) but have initial high hopes for it.
The quest design I find tremendous, but I think i've been stockholm'd by playing so much FF14. The main quest with extremely high points of just incredible action and story accompanied by side quests all designed in a way to help the player understand the world and everything else that just keeps on going despite your heroic conquests.
The music is phenomenal throughout and really accentuates the tone of some of the areas you explore and the larger, more important fights that you partake in. While the story was for the most part serviceable, I think the final hour or so of actual game leading up to the end of the game was some of the straight up coolest shit.
The combat felt really fun and snappy. It was like if you took the garbage system from Valkyrie Elysium that came out last summer (I think) and made it good. The biggest problem is that the Eikons, which essentially come down to which special ability do you like the most, didn't matter too much in the initial playthrough since everything was so easy. There are plenty of abilities to pick and choose from and I'm hoping to spend a little more time trying them out and finding all the cool nuances. I was still discovering small intricacies in the combat system even near the very end of my playthrough.
May update this review once I play more of NG+ and potentially dip my toes into the arcade stages.