This review contains spoilers
Positives [+] and Negatives [-]
+ Brand-new world (Valisthea) to the FF franchise. Prior FF knowledge not needed, can play this game fully blind to the franchise.
+ Mostly linear gameplay. As much as I love open-world games, it's nice to have one path to experience the plot.
+ Fun and engaging combat.
+ Zero bugs/glitches encountered. Not even frame drops, if I recall.
- Lack of QoL settings. No UI size slider, no HUD customization (turning off damage numbers, input prompts, etc); No full customization of controller mapping. It's 2023, developers should stop using "Layout A", "Layout B", etc and simply let the player choose what each button does individually.
- Large zones don't have much reward in exploring them, might as well just follow the main quest marker without detours.
- OST is not memorable for me other than the main theme. Can't even remember what the battle theme sounds like.
- Difficult to connect with the story and characters. Felt like I was trying to force myself to be interested in it.
- Side quests are uninteresting.
As a big Final Fantasy fan and Game of Thrones fan (the game is inspired by it), I thought this would be right up my alley. Being one of the rare ones to love the XIII trilogy, the obvious changes towards the franchise are nothing to be disappointed about, combat-wise. To address the elephant in the room, I have zero issues with the cutscene runtime; it's a story-heavy game, I would rather learn the story visually than having to read paragraphs of texts. Speaking of paragraphs of texts, the Active Time Lore is definitely not needed to understand the story; I stopped using ATL after early game and had no issues keeping up with what's happening.
About the story itself, it's very straightforward, but hard for me to actually care about what's happening. In my opinion, time skips are generally bad and difficult to get it right. We should have experienced Clive and Jill's journeys before they became adults to have a better connection with their characters. The worldbuilding is really dense, but dull at the same time. So much information about the world of Valisthea, it's hard to stay invested because it's going one ear and out the other.
I searched how many chapters there are, and I have done 41/68 chapters. 41 chapters and I don't feel connected with the story. I understand the appeal of this game, it's just not for me, or at least not in my current headspace/way of thinking.
+ Brand-new world (Valisthea) to the FF franchise. Prior FF knowledge not needed, can play this game fully blind to the franchise.
+ Mostly linear gameplay. As much as I love open-world games, it's nice to have one path to experience the plot.
+ Fun and engaging combat.
+ Zero bugs/glitches encountered. Not even frame drops, if I recall.
- Lack of QoL settings. No UI size slider, no HUD customization (turning off damage numbers, input prompts, etc); No full customization of controller mapping. It's 2023, developers should stop using "Layout A", "Layout B", etc and simply let the player choose what each button does individually.
- Large zones don't have much reward in exploring them, might as well just follow the main quest marker without detours.
- OST is not memorable for me other than the main theme. Can't even remember what the battle theme sounds like.
- Difficult to connect with the story and characters. Felt like I was trying to force myself to be interested in it.
- Side quests are uninteresting.
As a big Final Fantasy fan and Game of Thrones fan (the game is inspired by it), I thought this would be right up my alley. Being one of the rare ones to love the XIII trilogy, the obvious changes towards the franchise are nothing to be disappointed about, combat-wise. To address the elephant in the room, I have zero issues with the cutscene runtime; it's a story-heavy game, I would rather learn the story visually than having to read paragraphs of texts. Speaking of paragraphs of texts, the Active Time Lore is definitely not needed to understand the story; I stopped using ATL after early game and had no issues keeping up with what's happening.
About the story itself, it's very straightforward, but hard for me to actually care about what's happening. In my opinion, time skips are generally bad and difficult to get it right. We should have experienced Clive and Jill's journeys before they became adults to have a better connection with their characters. The worldbuilding is really dense, but dull at the same time. So much information about the world of Valisthea, it's hard to stay invested because it's going one ear and out the other.
I searched how many chapters there are, and I have done 41/68 chapters. 41 chapters and I don't feel connected with the story. I understand the appeal of this game, it's just not for me, or at least not in my current headspace/way of thinking.