This review contains spoilers
Beat the game, did all the sidequests, and killed all the notorious marks. I'm pretty much in agreement with the general praise and complaints.
Stellar combat that carries the moment-to-moment experience all the way through, incredible setpieces with gloriously spectacular visuals and memorable music, great vocal performances, and a super strong start. Changing up my abilities constantly kept things fresh and exciting for the 72 hours I played, even with the game's relatively easy difficulty. Focusing on doing flowing, stylish combos and putting up the biggest numbers possible is the way to go!
Story was compelling on an emotional level, up until maybe over halfway through when it completely devolved into the worst tropes of fantasy RPG drivel. Clive was easy to root for, but the game struggled to replace Cid with another character that's as magnetic after his death, so none of the big dramatic beats in the back end of the game really hit for me.
Structure and flow are rigid and predictable for both main and side quests, with pacing issues in the latter half compounding those problems. Side quests in particular have narratives that are either real satisfying or sleep-inducing/eye-rolling, so it's a crapshoot whether or not you'll find one that's worth doing.
It's a linear action game with some side stuff, and approaching it as such allowed me to look past the complaints about crafting/gear/exploration.
Still had a good time with it overall, and I enjoy the combat too much that I've already done all the trials and the first couple of main quests in NG+ on Final Fantasy mode (while skipping all the cutscenes of course). Outside of having certain tough enemies show up way earlier, I don't see why this mode is locked behind beating the game though. Wish I could have played the game the first time through on this difficulty setting!
Only have two trophies left to get for the plat, so I'm probably going for that 100% completion.
Stellar combat that carries the moment-to-moment experience all the way through, incredible setpieces with gloriously spectacular visuals and memorable music, great vocal performances, and a super strong start. Changing up my abilities constantly kept things fresh and exciting for the 72 hours I played, even with the game's relatively easy difficulty. Focusing on doing flowing, stylish combos and putting up the biggest numbers possible is the way to go!
Story was compelling on an emotional level, up until maybe over halfway through when it completely devolved into the worst tropes of fantasy RPG drivel. Clive was easy to root for, but the game struggled to replace Cid with another character that's as magnetic after his death, so none of the big dramatic beats in the back end of the game really hit for me.
Structure and flow are rigid and predictable for both main and side quests, with pacing issues in the latter half compounding those problems. Side quests in particular have narratives that are either real satisfying or sleep-inducing/eye-rolling, so it's a crapshoot whether or not you'll find one that's worth doing.
It's a linear action game with some side stuff, and approaching it as such allowed me to look past the complaints about crafting/gear/exploration.
Still had a good time with it overall, and I enjoy the combat too much that I've already done all the trials and the first couple of main quests in NG+ on Final Fantasy mode (while skipping all the cutscenes of course). Outside of having certain tough enemies show up way earlier, I don't see why this mode is locked behind beating the game though. Wish I could have played the game the first time through on this difficulty setting!
Only have two trophies left to get for the plat, so I'm probably going for that 100% completion.