This is it. This is the one.
Absolutely fantastic game with a fantastic system and fantastic characters. It doesn't have an incredibly complex multi-layered story because it doesn't need one. Sometimes all you need is a solid plot with great, believable characters, and voila, one of gaming's masterpieces.
It takes everything FFIII tried (and failed miserably at) and refines it to the highest degree yet. There is so much variety in what you can do, and nothing feels inviable. Leveling jobs works the way you would expect it to, and you're incentivized to play around and learn the systems and how to make it the best for you. Coming off of FFIV fun was not something I expected from playing this.
The difficulty curve is there, but it's not nearly as bad as some people say. It just requires a little bit of thinking and tinkering with the jobs. I ended up beating the two superbosses without any grinding outside of job xp for one class, and didn't have much trouble with either (5 retries is not bad at all for the hardest one). It rewards the player for thinking outside the box and creating their own dream team, so I would guess if you stay in your comfort zone and don't mix and match classes it can get tough.
The characters are great. All of them feel like genuine people instead of "I'm the mage guy, I'm the monk guy, I'm the sword guy", which gives the game plenty of opportunities to have them interact and talk about things other than the plot or "I'm the wizard so let me cast spell!".
This makes it so you have a good understanding of each character and their personality, and it's something people usually take for granted, despite only FF2 getting characters right up to this point. There are several character events, some silly, some serious, it makes it feel like a real group of people going on a real adventure.
Not just that, but there's tons of NPCs you meet that are equally distinct and important. Gilgamesh being the most famous one, and I can definitely see why. Not knowing why he was so famous, getting to encounter him throughout the game was a lovely surprise.
Then there's the main villain, Exdeath, which is a really simple evil villain. That's great! You don't need super complex motivations or five plot twists and three movies to try to explain why he's a bad guy, he's just a bad guy and that's it. Beat him up. Mind-blowing artwork for him, too.
Overall, I love this. The bar is set so incredibly high I can't wait to see what FF6 is going to do with it.
Absolutely fantastic game with a fantastic system and fantastic characters. It doesn't have an incredibly complex multi-layered story because it doesn't need one. Sometimes all you need is a solid plot with great, believable characters, and voila, one of gaming's masterpieces.
It takes everything FFIII tried (and failed miserably at) and refines it to the highest degree yet. There is so much variety in what you can do, and nothing feels inviable. Leveling jobs works the way you would expect it to, and you're incentivized to play around and learn the systems and how to make it the best for you. Coming off of FFIV fun was not something I expected from playing this.
The difficulty curve is there, but it's not nearly as bad as some people say. It just requires a little bit of thinking and tinkering with the jobs. I ended up beating the two superbosses without any grinding outside of job xp for one class, and didn't have much trouble with either (5 retries is not bad at all for the hardest one). It rewards the player for thinking outside the box and creating their own dream team, so I would guess if you stay in your comfort zone and don't mix and match classes it can get tough.
The characters are great. All of them feel like genuine people instead of "I'm the mage guy, I'm the monk guy, I'm the sword guy", which gives the game plenty of opportunities to have them interact and talk about things other than the plot or "I'm the wizard so let me cast spell!".
This makes it so you have a good understanding of each character and their personality, and it's something people usually take for granted, despite only FF2 getting characters right up to this point. There are several character events, some silly, some serious, it makes it feel like a real group of people going on a real adventure.
Not just that, but there's tons of NPCs you meet that are equally distinct and important. Gilgamesh being the most famous one, and I can definitely see why. Not knowing why he was so famous, getting to encounter him throughout the game was a lovely surprise.
Then there's the main villain, Exdeath, which is a really simple evil villain. That's great! You don't need super complex motivations or five plot twists and three movies to try to explain why he's a bad guy, he's just a bad guy and that's it. Beat him up. Mind-blowing artwork for him, too.
Overall, I love this. The bar is set so incredibly high I can't wait to see what FF6 is going to do with it.