THIS GAME. IS SO. FUCKING. LONG.
I mean part of it is my fault that my first run took 160 hours, because I was trying to minmax the time slots you have, but goddamn, it's hard to say anything coherent about something with this much story and optional content.
It's really, really, really good, stupid good almost.
Words can't really do the style and finesse put into this game's presentation justice, and maybe not even a video on YouTube when it comes to the combat, but everything just feels so fucking cathartic and cool to do. You could probably make a 45+ minute presentation for every menu and how and why it's laid out and animated.
There's so many things you can do and have to think about, it definitely deserves the title of life simulator.
And don't even get me started on the music, it's sharing the crown for me with the Undertale OST for my favorite video game soundtracks. The only way you're not moving some part of your body to some of these songs is, if you're either deaf or clinically dead.
If I list everything I like or is worth talking about in this game, I will be here until tomorrow, so I'll only mention one more thing:
The way mythology, literary characters and cultural allusions are used, fucking rocks. It feels very cultured and holistic that basically no part of the world is left without a little bit of representation (Ancient Egypt, Hindu culture, the Semitic pantheon, norse & european folklore, and so many more).
It feels like the game (and the series at large) is saying: "The stories we tell and pass on, become more than the sum of their parts and gain a life of their own"
A message which even I as a non-believer find captivating.
So why can't I give this game 5 stars?
Partly because of the length (I would've liked the story a bit more if the stakes stayed more personal and grounded and didn't go to the classic JRPG trope of "Teenagers fight god with the power of friendship"), but mostly because of some of the writing especially in the latter half of the game.
A lot of the confidant arcs are just kinda superficial and don't really tap into the depths of the human experience as the main story does, the Royal exclusive semester with its central dichotomy and Kasumi's arc I find laughably incoherent in terms of what it was trying to say (I'm still more on Maruki's side than that of the Thieves), and Ryuji...
Can we talk about how dirty they did my beautiful boy?
-You can't romance him or Yusuke (that's the biggest crime of them all).
-He's the butt of almost every joke (haha, getting molested by gay guys, can't imagine anything funnier -__-)
[SPOILERS START]
-And even though he has a history of being a victim of physical abuse, when he sacrifices himself for the rest and miraculously survives, he gets beaten senseless as thanks? What the actual fuck.
Fuck anything Morgana had to complain about, Ryuji should have cut all ties with them after that point, that's what I would have done.
[SPOILERS END]
Again there's so much left to say, but I don't think this is the right place for it.
TL;DR A "must-play" if you have a PS4 and like story-heavy games
I mean part of it is my fault that my first run took 160 hours, because I was trying to minmax the time slots you have, but goddamn, it's hard to say anything coherent about something with this much story and optional content.
It's really, really, really good, stupid good almost.
Words can't really do the style and finesse put into this game's presentation justice, and maybe not even a video on YouTube when it comes to the combat, but everything just feels so fucking cathartic and cool to do. You could probably make a 45+ minute presentation for every menu and how and why it's laid out and animated.
There's so many things you can do and have to think about, it definitely deserves the title of life simulator.
And don't even get me started on the music, it's sharing the crown for me with the Undertale OST for my favorite video game soundtracks. The only way you're not moving some part of your body to some of these songs is, if you're either deaf or clinically dead.
If I list everything I like or is worth talking about in this game, I will be here until tomorrow, so I'll only mention one more thing:
The way mythology, literary characters and cultural allusions are used, fucking rocks. It feels very cultured and holistic that basically no part of the world is left without a little bit of representation (Ancient Egypt, Hindu culture, the Semitic pantheon, norse & european folklore, and so many more).
It feels like the game (and the series at large) is saying: "The stories we tell and pass on, become more than the sum of their parts and gain a life of their own"
A message which even I as a non-believer find captivating.
So why can't I give this game 5 stars?
Partly because of the length (I would've liked the story a bit more if the stakes stayed more personal and grounded and didn't go to the classic JRPG trope of "Teenagers fight god with the power of friendship"), but mostly because of some of the writing especially in the latter half of the game.
A lot of the confidant arcs are just kinda superficial and don't really tap into the depths of the human experience as the main story does, the Royal exclusive semester with its central dichotomy and Kasumi's arc I find laughably incoherent in terms of what it was trying to say (I'm still more on Maruki's side than that of the Thieves), and Ryuji...
Can we talk about how dirty they did my beautiful boy?
-You can't romance him or Yusuke (that's the biggest crime of them all).
-He's the butt of almost every joke (haha, getting molested by gay guys, can't imagine anything funnier -__-)
[SPOILERS START]
-And even though he has a history of being a victim of physical abuse, when he sacrifices himself for the rest and miraculously survives, he gets beaten senseless as thanks? What the actual fuck.
Fuck anything Morgana had to complain about, Ryuji should have cut all ties with them after that point, that's what I would have done.
[SPOILERS END]
Again there's so much left to say, but I don't think this is the right place for it.
TL;DR A "must-play" if you have a PS4 and like story-heavy games