A huge leap forward for the franchise. An amazing sequel with solid storytelling, world building, and mechanics.

I have to say this has been my favorite of the originals so far. Being my 8th FF game to play (only 5th finished though) I enjoyed this one from beginning to end. It truly feels like they pulled everything that worked from the prior games and utilized the better tech available to create a near perfect game.

The story is not dissimilar from the prior 3, and is nothing to write home about, but the storytelling and worldbuilding are the best yet. It's the same old fated heroes tasked with saving the world from evil, and it involves crystals. This one changes things up a bit though where you start out as a dark knight, on the wrong side of things and makes the decision to leave that path behind. All of the characters feel truly unique with pretty decent dialogue. This one also offers a lot more storytelling through cutscenes (including battle sequences) that truly add to the depth of the game. The story is fairly linear, with an open world, but there are some side quests you can miss out on if you're not paying attention. The end game was a challenge, but was pretty rewarding in my opinion.

Gone are swappable classes (or jobs), and magic is no purchased this time around. You learn new magic at certain levels based on the characters predefined class. Though characters swap out in your party throughout the game, it did not feel like a burden. You had a pretty consistent core of characters with one or two that change periodically. There weren't a whole lot of puzzles, and the dungeons were fairly straightforward, with secret paths throughout.

Combat felt really good and varied. You had to use your characters abilities and specialties more, and it didn't feel forced. Mini-bosses and bosses felt like a proper challenge, and progression made feel like you had to grind too much to continue on in the story.

Exploring the world was pretty straightforward as well but you get an airship much sooner. There were a number of dungeons littered throughout the world, and a couple other zones related to the story (no spoilers).

The game felt cohesive, challenging, interesting, and fun. All of the game systems, story, and world made for a remarkable experience.

I played this entirely on Steam Deck and it ran flawlessly. 60hz/60fps and didn't break a sweat (not surprising, but still nice). I had 0 crashes or frame dips. The deck is tailored for this kind of experience. It took me just over 22 hours to complete.

Overall, this is one of my favorite Final Fantasy games. It had awesome storytelling, the progression and combat felt solid, and it was just a fun experience. Highly recommend for any RPG/JRPG fan.

A huge leap forward for the franchise. An amazing sequel with solid storytelling, world building, and mechanics.

I have to say this has been my favorite of the originals so far. Being my 8th FF game to play (only 5th finished though) I enjoyed this one from beginning to end. It truly feels like they pulled everything that worked from the prior games and utilized the better tech available to create a near perfect game.

The story is not dissimilar from the prior 3, and is nothing to write home about, but the storytelling and worldbuilding are the best yet. It's the same old fated heroes tasked with saving the world from evil, and it involves crystals. This one changes things up a bit though where you start out as a dark knight, on the wrong side of things and makes the decision to leave that path behind. All of the characters feel truly unique with pretty decent dialogue. This one also offers a lot more storytelling through cutscenes (including battle sequences) that truly add to the depth of the game. The story is fairly linear, with an open world, but there are some side quests you can miss out on if you're not paying attention. The end game was a challenge, but was pretty rewarding in my opinion.

Gone are swappable classes (or jobs), and magic is no purchased this time around. You learn new magic at certain levels based on the characters predefined class. Though characters swap out in your party throughout the game, it did not feel like a burden. You had a pretty consistent core of characters with one or two that change periodically. There weren't a whole lot of puzzles, and the dungeons were fairly straightforward, with secret paths throughout.

Combat felt really good and varied. You had to use your characters abilities and specialties more, and it didn't feel forced. Mini-bosses and bosses felt like a proper challenge, and progression made feel like you had to grind too much to continue on in the story.

Exploring the world was pretty straightforward as well but you get an airship much sooner. There were a number of dungeons littered throughout the world, and a couple other zones related to the story (no spoilers).

The game felt cohesive, challenging, interesting, and fun. All of the game systems, story, and world made for a remarkable experience.

I played this entirely on Steam Deck and it ran flawlessly. 60hz/60fps and didn't break a sweat (not surprising, but still nice). I had 0 crashes or frame dips. The deck is tailored for this kind of experience. It took me just over 22 hours to complete.

Overall, this is one of my favorite Final Fantasy games. It had awesome storytelling, the progression and combat felt solid, and it was just a fun experience. Highly recommend for any RPG/JRPG fan.

Amazing narrative game giving you more of the story for any fan of The Expanse.

I'm a little biased as I loved the show and Camina Drummer was my favorite character. I have not read the books yet but it is on my to read list and will be interested if my opinion changes after that. This is my first foray into the Telltale games though, and it won't be my last.

The story is set prior to the events of the show, and shows Drummers rise to a more prominent role in the belt. You're faced with a number of tough choices which shape the narrative (as I've heard all Telltale games do). Your choices feel like they have weight and it is awesome to see things play out.

The gameplay was a mix of cutscenes with quick time events, and third person exploration. Being in space and dealing with low/no gravity made the exploration bits pretty enjoyable, and there were enough breaks in the main cutscene/qte content to make it not get boring. I felt it was really balanced all the way through.

The DLC with Avasarala was also quite enjoyable. More of a mystery/puzzle narrative, but felt like they really understood her character to it's core.

I played this entirely on Steam Deck and it ran flawlessly. 40hz/40fps and didn't feel like it had any issues. Overall the game took me about 6 hours to beat (including the DLC), and I enjoyed it all thoroughly.

I highly recommend this for any fan of The Expanse or Telltale games. It's just long enough to get you invested in the story and characters, and makes you feel the weight of your choices.

A solid sequel that offered some really good mechanics, but felt like too much of an experiment at times.

Continuing to work my way through this franchise has brought a new appreciation for it. I really enjoyed the mechanics and levelling overall, but some of it (including the "jobs" system) felt like an experiment that didn't hit the mark quite right.

The story was more of the same, fated heroes must save the world from dark forces. The world was a bit more unique starting on what looks like a floating island, and expanding to to a bigger overworld. The tie between the story and expansion of explorable world was new and appreciated in this, and there was a thicker plot with dialogue and more interesting NPC's than the prior two entries. There was also more side content you could miss than the earlier ones, making it so you could blow through the game or spend some time getting the last few summons and weapons which I appreciated.

Gameplay overall felt good, but you really need to grind at the end to not be at the mercy of the RNG gods for the final act. I liked the concept of the jobs system (which is essentially classes), but it made it a little too "gamey", since you could just switch your core job at will. It also kind of made choices feel like they didn't matter in regards to your character because you could just change everything at will.

Combat felt a little more tight though with enemies using more varied attacks and strategies, and needing to be more balanced. I honestly felt like I could just go to auto battle for every encounter in the first two games and this one did require a bit more strategy which I liked.

I feel like this game was a branch between the original NES entries and the more story driven games we get later, but it just felt a little too much of an experiment felt a little off.

I played this entirely on Steam Deck and it ran flawlessly. 60hz/60fps and didn't break a sweat (not surprising, but still nice). I had 0 crashes or frame dips. The deck is tailored for this kind of experience. It took me just over 21 hours to complete.

Overall I really enjoyed the game. The story and combat felt like a step up, but the jobs/classes didn't feel like they had any weight or reason to choose them other than what the story dictated at different times, and the end game was a bit too grindy. With all that said I still highly recommend it and it is a good time.

Amazing narrative game giving you more of the story for any fan of The Expanse.

I'm a little biased as I loved the show and Camina Drummer was my favorite character. I have not read the books yet but it is on my to read list and will be interested if my opinion changes after that. This is my first foray into the Telltale games though, and it won't be my last.

The story is set prior to the events of the show, and shows Drummers rise to a more prominent role in the belt. You're faced with a number of tough choices which shape the narrative (as I've heard all Telltale games do). Your choices feel like they have weight and it is awesome to see things play out.

The gameplay was a mix of cutscenes with quick time events, and third person exploration. Being in space and dealing with low/no gravity made the exploration bits pretty enjoyable, and there were enough breaks in the main cutscene/qte content to make it not get boring. I felt it was really balanced all the way through.

The DLC with Avasarala was also quite enjoyable. More of a mystery/puzzle narrative, but felt like they really understood her character to it's core.

I played this entirely on Steam Deck and it ran flawlessly. 40hz/40fps and didn't feel like it had any issues. Overall the game took me about 6 hours to beat (including the DLC), and I enjoyed it all thoroughly.

I highly recommend this for any fan of The Expanse or Telltale games. It's just long enough to get you invested in the story and characters, and makes you feel the weight of your choices.