This review contains spoilers
I was really surprised how much I ended up loving this game. The first 80% is incredible and rarely misses a beat. Exploring Dahna and liberating the different sections of the world was incredible and it really hit some topics and followed through with some punches I really wasn’t expecting it to. My biggest problem was that each area ended with a dungeon that went on a little too long and was uninspired in their layouts. I really feel like the game could have ended at the halfway point and that would have been a great game on its own right, but to have the balls to go “alright now play season 2 fuckers” and throw you into the aftermath of that first half is incredible.
The point the game started to really stumble is when you can tell Bamco told them “no we can’t delay anymore ship it” because that’s when they really start to fumble the themes of the game up to that point and the dungeons get bad. What started as “unbridled hate begets more hate so learn to hold those responsible accountable while not turning that hatred back on the innocent” became “my friends are my power” and while I love these characters a lot and think they hold up the worst parts of the game that message didn’t really gel with the world they had created at this point, at least to me. The game as a whole really stumbles at the end though, the final dungeon is just horrible. If your idea of a difficult final dungeon is making almost every enemy encounter a mini boss that is probably about 5-10 levels higher than the average player at that point than you fucked up big time. The final dungeon alone took me as long as one of the main areas of the first half of the game. In the five hours I spent in the final dungeon, I could have started a fresh save and beat Balseph. That is unreasonable. The final boss rush was really cool at least and that final battle at the end was the best fight in the game. Even if the game stumbled the landed a bit, I teared up seeing all the art of everyone living their lives in the credits, with the shot of Alphen and Shionne in wedding garb hitting me like a truck and really making me realize how much I loved these characters. If nothing else, they really, REALLY nailed the party members.
I just wish Ray Chase could miss once.
The point the game started to really stumble is when you can tell Bamco told them “no we can’t delay anymore ship it” because that’s when they really start to fumble the themes of the game up to that point and the dungeons get bad. What started as “unbridled hate begets more hate so learn to hold those responsible accountable while not turning that hatred back on the innocent” became “my friends are my power” and while I love these characters a lot and think they hold up the worst parts of the game that message didn’t really gel with the world they had created at this point, at least to me. The game as a whole really stumbles at the end though, the final dungeon is just horrible. If your idea of a difficult final dungeon is making almost every enemy encounter a mini boss that is probably about 5-10 levels higher than the average player at that point than you fucked up big time. The final dungeon alone took me as long as one of the main areas of the first half of the game. In the five hours I spent in the final dungeon, I could have started a fresh save and beat Balseph. That is unreasonable. The final boss rush was really cool at least and that final battle at the end was the best fight in the game. Even if the game stumbled the landed a bit, I teared up seeing all the art of everyone living their lives in the credits, with the shot of Alphen and Shionne in wedding garb hitting me like a truck and really making me realize how much I loved these characters. If nothing else, they really, REALLY nailed the party members.
I just wish Ray Chase could miss once.