I can not continue a game like this with the promise that it gets really good later. I am current on One Piece, but can't get through A Realm Reborn. All the game has been is walking across the world to talk to a person, so that I can go all the way back to talk to another person. The story hasn't hooked me, the gameplay is monotonous, and it feels like a chore just to get to the part where I can start having fun.

This is my third time trying to get into the game, and I really want to for my friends who've spent so much time engrossed in it. I'm very interested in the social aspects, I like some of the locations I've seen, and I greatly appreciate the generous free trial. Maybe in the fourth try it'll click, but I've given this game way more leeway than basically any other.

Not as sour on this game as a lot of others are being, and I think a lot of the issues people are having can/will be addressed in patches. My big issue is that the game seems to want to appeal to a casual audience but is incredibly unintuitive, from the UI to the fighter designs. Why does every move need a paragraph explaining what it is, and why do fighters have multiple passives, inflict multiple unique statuses, and have multiple cooldowns to manage? It feels like they took MOBA characters and put them into a platform fighter without considering how that would actually feel. It's stuck in this awkward middle ground of being too floaty and gimmicky for a serious competitive scene while also being too convoluted with a high skill floor for casual players.

Bounced off this game when I first tried it about three years ago. After giving it a second chance I really enjoyed it. But I want to rant about this series' awful fanbase that spoils everything as a joke. I can't imagine how engrossing this story would've been if I didn't know the villain's identity before I even started. I also know important details on 3 and 5's stories without ever having looked for them. If Xenoblade fans can keep that game's final party member a secret for 13+ years there's no way Persona fans have to reply to every tweet going YEAH BUT X IS THE KILLER LMAOOO

Not the game's fault ofc, still enjoyed my time with it.