This is the first time I actually dropped a game of my own fruition
I want to like this game, I really do. I enjoyed the first game and was excited to get into the sequel. While I was optimistic for the first 2 hours, the next 5 were just filled with apathy and indifference. I really do want to continue and find out what happens next in the story, but I just don’t care about it anymore.
The combat is definitely more layered and complicated than the previous game and I do actually like the gameplay quite a bit. My problem with the gameplay is a combination of 3 things: complexity, pacing and exp distribution. Individually, these things wouldn’t be a problem, but because all 3 of these things are an issue simultaneously, it becomes a major issue for me. I like the increased complexity, and I don’t mind the slower paced combat or the splitting of exp among party members…but…there are times in this game where I had to grind. The increased complexity led to a much slower paced game, plus, if you got 1000 exp, it would split that 4-ways to 250 exp each. It takes ages to level up. Because of this, I got annoyed and bored really quickly.
Now…I’m not sure if I missed an area or anything like that, but there were a few times where I was suddenly going up against mooks that were way more powerful than anything I was previously going up against. To put this into perspective, I went from doing roughly 80-90 damage to about 20-30, and on some characters, I’m doing less than 10 damage. Honestly, was I missing something?
If my issue wasn’t necessarily my levels, but equipment, that just means I needed to grind for money and items to sell…which also takes a bit of time. Speaking of equipment, the way you get skills in this game is pretty dumb if you ask me. If you played something like Final Fantasy 9, think of that, but more convoluted; you need to equip certain pieces of equipment and then do a bunch of killing to get those skills. In FF9, you just needed to equip one piece and then do a bunch of quick killing and you got your skill or spell. In Valkyrie Profile 2, not only do you need to make sure that the correct runes in your equipment slots are placed next to each other, but you also need to make sure it’s the correct color as well, making you fiddle with your inventory way more than you should.
The short version is this: If you want any of the good stuff, or if you want to get anywhere in this game, you need to do some serious (and tedious) slow-paced grinding. Unnecessary complexity is what killed my enjoyment of this game.
Just because something is more complex doesn’t make it better.
I want to like this game, I really do. I enjoyed the first game and was excited to get into the sequel. While I was optimistic for the first 2 hours, the next 5 were just filled with apathy and indifference. I really do want to continue and find out what happens next in the story, but I just don’t care about it anymore.
The combat is definitely more layered and complicated than the previous game and I do actually like the gameplay quite a bit. My problem with the gameplay is a combination of 3 things: complexity, pacing and exp distribution. Individually, these things wouldn’t be a problem, but because all 3 of these things are an issue simultaneously, it becomes a major issue for me. I like the increased complexity, and I don’t mind the slower paced combat or the splitting of exp among party members…but…there are times in this game where I had to grind. The increased complexity led to a much slower paced game, plus, if you got 1000 exp, it would split that 4-ways to 250 exp each. It takes ages to level up. Because of this, I got annoyed and bored really quickly.
Now…I’m not sure if I missed an area or anything like that, but there were a few times where I was suddenly going up against mooks that were way more powerful than anything I was previously going up against. To put this into perspective, I went from doing roughly 80-90 damage to about 20-30, and on some characters, I’m doing less than 10 damage. Honestly, was I missing something?
If my issue wasn’t necessarily my levels, but equipment, that just means I needed to grind for money and items to sell…which also takes a bit of time. Speaking of equipment, the way you get skills in this game is pretty dumb if you ask me. If you played something like Final Fantasy 9, think of that, but more convoluted; you need to equip certain pieces of equipment and then do a bunch of killing to get those skills. In FF9, you just needed to equip one piece and then do a bunch of quick killing and you got your skill or spell. In Valkyrie Profile 2, not only do you need to make sure that the correct runes in your equipment slots are placed next to each other, but you also need to make sure it’s the correct color as well, making you fiddle with your inventory way more than you should.
The short version is this: If you want any of the good stuff, or if you want to get anywhere in this game, you need to do some serious (and tedious) slow-paced grinding. Unnecessary complexity is what killed my enjoyment of this game.
Just because something is more complex doesn’t make it better.