Haven't finished this (about 23 hours in according to my ps5) but I'm not sure if I'm going to because for the past 10 hours I've been utterly bored and the game doesn't feel like it's changing any time soon. This is such a strange game because it puts so much effort into certain areas while leaving other equally (or more) important areas completely flat. There's this huge lore here with different countries and leaders but none of it seems relevant to the plot which is sort of about climate change? I think at least because rn I'm going to stop the 'mothercrystals' which draw unsubtle parallels to it but they've put barely any focus on the mothercrystals and their effects or the reasons no one else is stopping them or anything. The game's more interested in being about freeing the bearers from their slavery and oppression, since it constantly shows them being hurt or mistreated (didn't need to be shown this much to be convinced "slavery is bad") and was focused on this mostly until the mothercrystal thing came completely out of nowhere. The bearer rebellion stuff feels a bit better than the mothercrystal stuff, as you're shown this underground community of resistance but it doesn't feel like there's anything more to it than that "slavery is bad" note.

Whichever cause the game wants to push behind, it's kind of fucked either way because there isn't the character to it that I feel is needed. I haven't really seen a villain since Benedikta died, just random grunts hitting Bearers, which isn't great for pushing me to revolutionise this world. You're definitely not fighting alongside Avalanche as (aside from Cid, who dies) no one feels like they have any drive for their cause or reason to be here, they're all just sort of trucking along, doing their job. Clive has a drive and an arc for those first 10 hours which I did genuinely like. He dedicates his life to revenge and destruction and so completely shuts down when he finds out that he was the one he was looking to get revenge on, begging to be killed as it's the only purpose he knows before learning to seek redemption rather than be this endlessly spinning ball of chaos (which he learns by turning into a big dragon and punching stuff :) ). It's dumb but it's got heart and then it just feels like the game doesn't know what to do with him as he just doesn't have any character development now? (between this and Wanted: Dead, I keep playing things that have weird parallels with how I feel about John Wick lmao) People mentioned that Jill has no character and they were right! But I didn't see them mention that she's essentially the second main character, hanging about you the whole time and just having nothing going on.

I liked the combat a lot at first! It's good rollercoaster combat where it isn't that deep really but has enough going on that it works to keep you engaged and having fun in these big scripted set pieces. It is scripted and it isn't deep, but a lot of the big fights are really fun despite that because of their energy and direction. It's just when the game gets less linear and more into the RPG "here's a pack of 5 wolves" type battles you realise how little is going on and how every fight goes the same way basically. With an incredibly light skill tree that just slowly gives you new moves that you'll use in the same way as the others because they're on a cooldown.

This is very ramble-y (I didn't even mention the dull sidequests) and again I haven't finished the game but writing this has made me realise that I definitely don't like it and should just leave it lmao. Leave a comment if it gets better and the middle's just shit! I don't like disliking stuff with cool parts like this but for now r.i.p, I did my best.


my ps5's automatically gone into rest mode


i drew from an oracle deck the other day and it said about being patient, was it talking about final fantasy, should i have not shelved this fuck