choopercabra
2023
I have heard the criticisms aimed at this game and agree with pretty much all of them. However, my opinion of the game is not nearly as negative.
For starters, the story at first implies there is going to be a complex story with medieval politicking, lots of scheming, backstabbing, etc. But it ends up being as complicated as a heisei Kamen Rider show. Even the main villain reminds me of "Evolt" from "Kamen Rider Build", a character who's motivations were at first mysterious, but in the end was just an evil alien that wanted to blow up the Earth. The lead writer, Kazutoyo Maehiro, also worked on FFXIV A Realm Reborn, and Heavensward, both of which have similar issues to this game. The most prominent of which is the fact that some characters that seem like they should have bigger roles just don't have much of a presence in the story. He also tends to have characters show up just to die for dramatic purposes, if you are familiar with FFXIV you probably know what I mean. Regardless, I enjoyed just being fantasy Kamen Rider, the story didn't piss me off or annoy me or anything, it was just a bit too dry for its own good and would have been better if it were more anime/tokusastu.
I agree with the complaints that the combat is too easy, it definitely could have used an additional, harder difficulty level in the beginning. The fact that the trash enemies barely fight back while the larger bosses are the real opponents make this closer to a Dynasty Warriors game rather than Devil May Cry. Now this isn't too big an issue, because Final Fantasy games tend to be easy. I can't recall ever struggling with any of the ones I've played. Hell, I beat FFXV (FF15, my least favorite) barely engaging with the combat. After finishing the much more intense DLC campaigns, I'm more optimistic about action Final Fantasy, and wouldn't mind FFXVII also being an action RPG, assuming they don't make another MMO. (Please SquareEnix don't do another MMO, you do some dumb stuff but you're not nearly as bad as ActiBlizz.)
Another issue is the padding, the sidequests could have been trimmed a bit, maybe even merged some of the hunts with the sidequests. Most of the sidequests felt like MMO busywork, not really adding much to the setting. In addition, the areas weren't that interesting to explore (Again, like an MMO).
Anyway, this is much more than I would normally write. Overall, I'm more disappointed in the fact that the game is only good, when I wanted it to be amazing. Better luck next game? In a franchise this old? Who knows.
For starters, the story at first implies there is going to be a complex story with medieval politicking, lots of scheming, backstabbing, etc. But it ends up being as complicated as a heisei Kamen Rider show. Even the main villain reminds me of "Evolt" from "Kamen Rider Build", a character who's motivations were at first mysterious, but in the end was just an evil alien that wanted to blow up the Earth. The lead writer, Kazutoyo Maehiro, also worked on FFXIV A Realm Reborn, and Heavensward, both of which have similar issues to this game. The most prominent of which is the fact that some characters that seem like they should have bigger roles just don't have much of a presence in the story. He also tends to have characters show up just to die for dramatic purposes, if you are familiar with FFXIV you probably know what I mean. Regardless, I enjoyed just being fantasy Kamen Rider, the story didn't piss me off or annoy me or anything, it was just a bit too dry for its own good and would have been better if it were more anime/tokusastu.
I agree with the complaints that the combat is too easy, it definitely could have used an additional, harder difficulty level in the beginning. The fact that the trash enemies barely fight back while the larger bosses are the real opponents make this closer to a Dynasty Warriors game rather than Devil May Cry. Now this isn't too big an issue, because Final Fantasy games tend to be easy. I can't recall ever struggling with any of the ones I've played. Hell, I beat FFXV (FF15, my least favorite) barely engaging with the combat. After finishing the much more intense DLC campaigns, I'm more optimistic about action Final Fantasy, and wouldn't mind FFXVII also being an action RPG, assuming they don't make another MMO. (Please SquareEnix don't do another MMO, you do some dumb stuff but you're not nearly as bad as ActiBlizz.)
Another issue is the padding, the sidequests could have been trimmed a bit, maybe even merged some of the hunts with the sidequests. Most of the sidequests felt like MMO busywork, not really adding much to the setting. In addition, the areas weren't that interesting to explore (Again, like an MMO).
Anyway, this is much more than I would normally write. Overall, I'm more disappointed in the fact that the game is only good, when I wanted it to be amazing. Better luck next game? In a franchise this old? Who knows.
Kinda funny that this was the closest thing to an Alan Wake sequel until recently. Basically a short, combat-focused, side game for Xbox live. This game refines the combat from bad to decent. The increase to the enemy variety was also welcome, especially getting rid of those annoying crow swarms.
2010
If you heard people say the combat is bad, they aren't wrong. The shooting is below mediocre compared to any third person shooter, the dodge rarely helps, and the flashlight just seems to take just slightly too long to work on each enemy. Definitely switch the difficulty to easy, because this isn't a game you play for combat.
His name is Alan Wake, he is a writer. Is he supposed to be a good writer or a bad writer? The game leaves it up to you to decide. I think the writing in this game is pretty good, the story, presentation, all come together to create a vibe that just works.
His name is Alan Wake, he is a writer. Is he supposed to be a good writer or a bad writer? The game leaves it up to you to decide. I think the writing in this game is pretty good, the story, presentation, all come together to create a vibe that just works.
2019
It's ok. I liked the game enough to finish it, but the guns just felt underwhelming. Maybe it's because I don't have nostalgia for the build engine, but I wouldn't recommend this over other retro/retro-throwback shooters.
A prequel/reimagining of FF1 starring a grouchy guy named Jack, yelling about killing chaos could have been terrible. But, it's probably the best FF spinoff game I've ever played. The story did not need to go that hard, you WILL know why Jack is so pissed off. Combat was especially fun, smashing classic FF monsters with Jack's fists never gets old. Only downsides are that the repetitive level design made some of the areas hard to navigate, and just like Team Ninja's other ARPGs, it just dumps too much trash loot. At least the latter is solved by auto-equip.