+combat is overall very solid, with good rotations to work with in the later dungeons (aka the lvl 40-50 set during 2.0). I was playing summoner/scholar after starting as arcanist and I really appreciated that I could switch between dps and healer at will without having to worry about separate leveling for each.
+I like the way it weaves in concepts from other final fantasy games, such as getting to fight in magitek armor. lots of cute references that work well in an mmo environment
+once I started unlocking dungeons the fun opened up in a big way; I like this style of cooperative questing. a couple of the dungeons even approach something like a tabletop rpg when you queue with a group of friends.
+some of the bosses are really good too: shout out to the aurum vale ones, the final boss of qarn (i think?), and the second-to-final boss of the game. a lot of fights that keep me on my toes and awaiting the upcoming hard mode dungeons and raids
+controller play is honestly very solid in fights. traversing the interface and menus was initially difficult to do but combat was set up very nicely overall, even when I had to add double-trigger taps to my hotbar line-up
-the story isn't really bad at all but there are definitely questlines during the MSQ that drag, which i'm pretty sure it a problem many people have with this campaign. the goal is definitely to flesh out the world more than to deilver a compelling story which totally makes sense to set up the expansions, but it's a little dry going through it now. I got a preferred world exp bonus however, so at the very least I got a big leg up than people starting as of right now.
-a lot of dungeon mechanics for 2.0 have been nerfed and/or rendered obsolete by how good everyone playing is. level sync is a smartly done mechanic, but there are still plenty of fights that require no thought and end in <45 seconds, especially in the final two dungeons.
my girlfriend got back into this game with the free trial after having not played it since 2.0 launched, and she ended up bringing me along for the ride. without a question this was my preferred way to experience the game; I would not have enjoyed this anywhere near as much if I hadn't had friends to play it with. once I settled into it as a nice game to pair with a podcast, I was able to move through the MSQ a bit quicker and finally reach the end as of today. I'm really looking forward to later duties with more complicated mechanics, and I'm hoping to at least hit heavensward before my subscription runs out at the end of the month.
+I like the way it weaves in concepts from other final fantasy games, such as getting to fight in magitek armor. lots of cute references that work well in an mmo environment
+once I started unlocking dungeons the fun opened up in a big way; I like this style of cooperative questing. a couple of the dungeons even approach something like a tabletop rpg when you queue with a group of friends.
+some of the bosses are really good too: shout out to the aurum vale ones, the final boss of qarn (i think?), and the second-to-final boss of the game. a lot of fights that keep me on my toes and awaiting the upcoming hard mode dungeons and raids
+controller play is honestly very solid in fights. traversing the interface and menus was initially difficult to do but combat was set up very nicely overall, even when I had to add double-trigger taps to my hotbar line-up
-the story isn't really bad at all but there are definitely questlines during the MSQ that drag, which i'm pretty sure it a problem many people have with this campaign. the goal is definitely to flesh out the world more than to deilver a compelling story which totally makes sense to set up the expansions, but it's a little dry going through it now. I got a preferred world exp bonus however, so at the very least I got a big leg up than people starting as of right now.
-a lot of dungeon mechanics for 2.0 have been nerfed and/or rendered obsolete by how good everyone playing is. level sync is a smartly done mechanic, but there are still plenty of fights that require no thought and end in <45 seconds, especially in the final two dungeons.
my girlfriend got back into this game with the free trial after having not played it since 2.0 launched, and she ended up bringing me along for the ride. without a question this was my preferred way to experience the game; I would not have enjoyed this anywhere near as much if I hadn't had friends to play it with. once I settled into it as a nice game to pair with a podcast, I was able to move through the MSQ a bit quicker and finally reach the end as of today. I'm really looking forward to later duties with more complicated mechanics, and I'm hoping to at least hit heavensward before my subscription runs out at the end of the month.