This review contains spoilers
I have so many mixed feelings about this.
I LOVE every single FF out there, they're my shit, they're perfect for my little heart. But I also can criticize them and I will.
The game starts really well, setting up a very interesting story and interesting characters. It goes on by introducing Benedikta to you and I honestly grew so attached with her I had a very hard time accepting she later dies. She seems to be one of the most important characters in the entire game and she... dies. Very soon, I might add. The problem is: the game does this with every Dominant. They seem to be very important and then they only have like 3 or 4 scenes about them and it's over. For me, that's not much. The game fills the narrative holes with the logs and infos about the world, story and lore, but that's not enough for a game like this, which is held up by its plot and cutscenes. The only Dominants we get to know a little better are Joshua and Cid, none of the others.
One thing the game does wrong is focusing too much on useless and boring side quests, instead of taking the chance to make more insightful quests and cutscene about the secondary characters. It would have felt like a better and more thoroughly done story, but it just misses on the opportunity and that makes me sad.
That said, I have to add that I really liked the emotional weight this game carries, it made me tear up and cry many times and it just hits the right spots even it makes you suffer like an animal. So it's overall good as a generic game and really great as a Final Fantasy game.
(I still think japanese authors have to work a little more than this to give us a full and well done "western fantasy" experience, tho. The west and the east of the world just have different ways of telling a story).
It's an 8/10 for me
I LOVE every single FF out there, they're my shit, they're perfect for my little heart. But I also can criticize them and I will.
The game starts really well, setting up a very interesting story and interesting characters. It goes on by introducing Benedikta to you and I honestly grew so attached with her I had a very hard time accepting she later dies. She seems to be one of the most important characters in the entire game and she... dies. Very soon, I might add. The problem is: the game does this with every Dominant. They seem to be very important and then they only have like 3 or 4 scenes about them and it's over. For me, that's not much. The game fills the narrative holes with the logs and infos about the world, story and lore, but that's not enough for a game like this, which is held up by its plot and cutscenes. The only Dominants we get to know a little better are Joshua and Cid, none of the others.
One thing the game does wrong is focusing too much on useless and boring side quests, instead of taking the chance to make more insightful quests and cutscene about the secondary characters. It would have felt like a better and more thoroughly done story, but it just misses on the opportunity and that makes me sad.
That said, I have to add that I really liked the emotional weight this game carries, it made me tear up and cry many times and it just hits the right spots even it makes you suffer like an animal. So it's overall good as a generic game and really great as a Final Fantasy game.
(I still think japanese authors have to work a little more than this to give us a full and well done "western fantasy" experience, tho. The west and the east of the world just have different ways of telling a story).
It's an 8/10 for me