Sloppening the 3rd: The Hundred Hour War (of MID)
SLOP III is a really strange one because it had every recipe to be an absolute giga-banger; graphical upgrade, soft-reset, new cast, time-skip and at times it is GOOD but it seems to be set on fighting against itself in the attempts to be consistently GOOD. The new cast is great (minus 98% of Musse) and so much easier to care about, but they're constantly sidelined because the story has to be structured to where 2 old cast members return to save the day woo! It rips them from their deserved utilization and slaps you with the "oh you remember this character!!! they were your favorite right!?" which got really annoying especially after being repeated 6 times simply because I only really care for 3 reappearing cast members (Fie, Jusis and Emma) and just don't like Rean. Not that this a new concept either, Trails SC did the same and while nothing inherently wrong with this structure; the fact it was so repeated and the returning characters adding bare minimum of additional value other than to increase the runtime is what irks me (clocked 70 hours by the time all of old C7 returned out of 110 total). The game did get better after everyone returned and from the end of chapter 4 uptil the end, it was actually GREAT. The plot point utilisation, lore-drops, twist, rising stakes, tension, action, simple final dungeon and most importantly no filler. It was EXCITING. Shame because this is what the game could've been throughout.
On the positive note; the graphical improvement is fantastic, few models look a bit wonky but are good, the environments look modern, sledgehammer is great, I love the button set actions, music is more enjoyable than previous games (imo), and once again the new cast is great.
TL;DR
+ Graphix
+ New cast
+ Better gameplay
+ Great final chapter
+ Good final dungeon
- Pacing issues
- Old cast
- Too much padding
- Rean (he just sucks)
Overall: 3.5/5
SLOP III is a really strange one because it had every recipe to be an absolute giga-banger; graphical upgrade, soft-reset, new cast, time-skip and at times it is GOOD but it seems to be set on fighting against itself in the attempts to be consistently GOOD. The new cast is great (minus 98% of Musse) and so much easier to care about, but they're constantly sidelined because the story has to be structured to where 2 old cast members return to save the day woo! It rips them from their deserved utilization and slaps you with the "oh you remember this character!!! they were your favorite right!?" which got really annoying especially after being repeated 6 times simply because I only really care for 3 reappearing cast members (Fie, Jusis and Emma) and just don't like Rean. Not that this a new concept either, Trails SC did the same and while nothing inherently wrong with this structure; the fact it was so repeated and the returning characters adding bare minimum of additional value other than to increase the runtime is what irks me (clocked 70 hours by the time all of old C7 returned out of 110 total). The game did get better after everyone returned and from the end of chapter 4 uptil the end, it was actually GREAT. The plot point utilisation, lore-drops, twist, rising stakes, tension, action, simple final dungeon and most importantly no filler. It was EXCITING. Shame because this is what the game could've been throughout.
On the positive note; the graphical improvement is fantastic, few models look a bit wonky but are good, the environments look modern, sledgehammer is great, I love the button set actions, music is more enjoyable than previous games (imo), and once again the new cast is great.
TL;DR
+ Graphix
+ New cast
+ Better gameplay
+ Great final chapter
+ Good final dungeon
- Pacing issues
- Old cast
- Too much padding
- Rean (he just sucks)
Overall: 3.5/5