Opening thoughts/TLDR
This was something of a milestone for me. Some of my friends on here will have realized I only seem to play old games - this is simply because for the last ten years I haven't been able to afford either a new console or an upgrade to my potato laptop. I finally got a new computer, and so this 12 year old AAA-game is actually the most technically-advanced game I've completed. As such, my experience with this game reminds me of my experience as a teen watching the Star Wars prequels and Matrix sequels in theaters - I was blown away by the presentation initially, until the spectacle gradually faded and the whole package lost its luster. This is a damn beautiful game that dared to experiment, and the results can generally be summed up as "this is so cool, but..."
So much has already been said about this game's more divisive features, but I'm going to try to unpack my thoughts below.
On combat
The 'auto-combat' style is a common complaint against the gameplay, but I found it quite refreshing and deceptively deep. Much of the battles are spent watching and occasionally changing paradigms which sounds boring, but in practice it freed me up to observe the flow of the battle and make larger-scale decisions without getting caught up in micromanagement. Some ways into the game I started noticing small inefficiencies in the allies' (very adequate) AI and started choosing more actions manually, which added another layer of involvement to the battles. I also need to praise the difficulty curve and difficulty level, which was great for the most part; very little cheap jank but some surprisingly tough fights which I won by the skin of my teeth.
I do wish the game allowed me to switch which member I was controlling at any time instead of only the party leader - it would have allowed for more expressiveness in how to handle various combat situations as well as the opportunity to compensate for more of the AI's inefficiencies. I also wish there was a way to control the character positioning somewhat, as my designated tank would often provoke enemies to attack him but then stand right next to the other party members so they'd still get hit as collateral anyway!
Generally I enjoyed the combat, but it suffered from a more structural issue in the larger context of the game: the all-in laser-like focus on it. The infamous lack of towns or exploration or any sort of downtime for most of the game, while justified in-universe, made what would otherwise have felt like a refreshing combat system feel monotonous at times. It also meant the story felt like it didn't have time to breathe, which brings me to...
On storytelling
The story was quite good - while it gets a tad convoluted, that's par for the course for any FF game. The datalog was a nice touch, adding information about the lore of the world and summarizing key plot points the player may have forgotten, but it also proved to be a double-edged sword. Many of the cutscenes looked great but didn't always do a good job of conveying what was going on, while the datalog entries were usually more detailed and less ambiguous - this meant that for every cutscene that played I would need to open up the datalog to read about what just happened, which broke the immersion and bloated the experience somewhat.
I have to say I really liked the main cast by the end - they bounced well off each other, and each went through satisfying arcs and character development. Sazh was the standout for me, being immediately likeable and gaining lots of depth as the game went on. My fondness towards the characters also comes with a caveat though: they were kneecapped by the in-media-res opening. Starting the game right in the thick of the action was good for the spectacle, but as even their basic motivations weren't addressed until several hours into the game, most of them came across as unlikeable and opaque for much of the early game. Only revealing their backstories and motivations several hours in was a cheap trick to create the illusion of more character development, and one that I would say wasn't necessary given the strength of the cast and how much the writers had to work with.
On linearity
The 'corridor simulator' description is probably the most invoked criticism of the game, and while linearity doesn't often bother me, it is the in-media-res opening that exacerbates the issues here because it does a poor job of establishing anything about the characters, what they're trying to do or why we should care about them. Contrasting with say FFVII, which immediately establishes you as a mercenary working with eco-terrorists to bomb a reactor, the opening here saw you take control of five different characters trying to track down a being called a Fal'cie, each with their own reasons... but you don't know what they are until far later. This proves to be the pattern for most of the first 8 chapters (and there are only 13 in total): you're not trying to find the lost king, you're not trying to save your friend, you're just trying to get to the end point of the map for an unknown reason that the game will only tell you later.
The game does open up about halfway through but I actually also found that section rather weak for different reasons. A collection of fetch quests that didn't even try to hide that it was a collection of fetch quests, it was beautiful but mechanically dull. The game was at its best when it was linear and the characters were fully established, which unfortunately made up for just about 15% of my total playtime.
Final thoughts Final Fantasy has always been a series that loves experimenting. This particular experiment threw out very mixed results but that said I'm still looking forward to playing the sequels. Fortunately I've heard they aren't as long!
This was something of a milestone for me. Some of my friends on here will have realized I only seem to play old games - this is simply because for the last ten years I haven't been able to afford either a new console or an upgrade to my potato laptop. I finally got a new computer, and so this 12 year old AAA-game is actually the most technically-advanced game I've completed. As such, my experience with this game reminds me of my experience as a teen watching the Star Wars prequels and Matrix sequels in theaters - I was blown away by the presentation initially, until the spectacle gradually faded and the whole package lost its luster. This is a damn beautiful game that dared to experiment, and the results can generally be summed up as "this is so cool, but..."
So much has already been said about this game's more divisive features, but I'm going to try to unpack my thoughts below.
On combat
The 'auto-combat' style is a common complaint against the gameplay, but I found it quite refreshing and deceptively deep. Much of the battles are spent watching and occasionally changing paradigms which sounds boring, but in practice it freed me up to observe the flow of the battle and make larger-scale decisions without getting caught up in micromanagement. Some ways into the game I started noticing small inefficiencies in the allies' (very adequate) AI and started choosing more actions manually, which added another layer of involvement to the battles. I also need to praise the difficulty curve and difficulty level, which was great for the most part; very little cheap jank but some surprisingly tough fights which I won by the skin of my teeth.
I do wish the game allowed me to switch which member I was controlling at any time instead of only the party leader - it would have allowed for more expressiveness in how to handle various combat situations as well as the opportunity to compensate for more of the AI's inefficiencies. I also wish there was a way to control the character positioning somewhat, as my designated tank would often provoke enemies to attack him but then stand right next to the other party members so they'd still get hit as collateral anyway!
Generally I enjoyed the combat, but it suffered from a more structural issue in the larger context of the game: the all-in laser-like focus on it. The infamous lack of towns or exploration or any sort of downtime for most of the game, while justified in-universe, made what would otherwise have felt like a refreshing combat system feel monotonous at times. It also meant the story felt like it didn't have time to breathe, which brings me to...
On storytelling
The story was quite good - while it gets a tad convoluted, that's par for the course for any FF game. The datalog was a nice touch, adding information about the lore of the world and summarizing key plot points the player may have forgotten, but it also proved to be a double-edged sword. Many of the cutscenes looked great but didn't always do a good job of conveying what was going on, while the datalog entries were usually more detailed and less ambiguous - this meant that for every cutscene that played I would need to open up the datalog to read about what just happened, which broke the immersion and bloated the experience somewhat.
I have to say I really liked the main cast by the end - they bounced well off each other, and each went through satisfying arcs and character development. Sazh was the standout for me, being immediately likeable and gaining lots of depth as the game went on. My fondness towards the characters also comes with a caveat though: they were kneecapped by the in-media-res opening. Starting the game right in the thick of the action was good for the spectacle, but as even their basic motivations weren't addressed until several hours into the game, most of them came across as unlikeable and opaque for much of the early game. Only revealing their backstories and motivations several hours in was a cheap trick to create the illusion of more character development, and one that I would say wasn't necessary given the strength of the cast and how much the writers had to work with.
On linearity
The 'corridor simulator' description is probably the most invoked criticism of the game, and while linearity doesn't often bother me, it is the in-media-res opening that exacerbates the issues here because it does a poor job of establishing anything about the characters, what they're trying to do or why we should care about them. Contrasting with say FFVII, which immediately establishes you as a mercenary working with eco-terrorists to bomb a reactor, the opening here saw you take control of five different characters trying to track down a being called a Fal'cie, each with their own reasons... but you don't know what they are until far later. This proves to be the pattern for most of the first 8 chapters (and there are only 13 in total): you're not trying to find the lost king, you're not trying to save your friend, you're just trying to get to the end point of the map for an unknown reason that the game will only tell you later.
The game does open up about halfway through but I actually also found that section rather weak for different reasons. A collection of fetch quests that didn't even try to hide that it was a collection of fetch quests, it was beautiful but mechanically dull. The game was at its best when it was linear and the characters were fully established, which unfortunately made up for just about 15% of my total playtime.
Final thoughts Final Fantasy has always been a series that loves experimenting. This particular experiment threw out very mixed results but that said I'm still looking forward to playing the sequels. Fortunately I've heard they aren't as long!