I think I love this? I was wondering what I would feel at the end of this journey. You have to look back at a couple of nagging issues and ask how much do they deter this?
Lets start with the thing I grew to love but still have to admit has issues… combat. The opening of this game is stiff as hell. You feel limited by all means in terms of execution. Yes this game has you learn things through weapon use, but as opposed to just learning skills like magic etc, you learn things that change how you execute attacks. Think the core combo is too limited, use a weapon that extends your base combo. Want to link your artes to basic attacks, learn the skill for it. Want to learn altered artes? Well learn the skill that you use to pair with your core artes . Want to link artes and altered artes? Theres a skill for that. It’s astonishing how much what you can do in combat evolves and its about tuning execution and links, the game feel drastically evolves, but should you have to deal with the length by which it takes to open up? Does that make up for the enemy jank that shows up in terms of their invincibility and how it can make combat less fluid. Dealing with enemy stagger and your own staggering can make you so frustrated. However when you are able to customize the feel to your style of play, it’s marvelous. It’s crazy that I focused on one character and there are 6 other characters with different touches and focuses to get into. Judith in air options sound so astounding and I still struggled to execute chancels to improve the feel and player expression further. I loved this when it was at its best and think if I had any fighting game skill, I would be in awe further. The feeling of doing a mystic or burste art is really elite gaming.
I also wonder how to feel about the core story here. If you ask me to explain the Adephagos? I couldn’t tell you. If you ask me to explain how aer relates to the adephagos or the Blastia, I might have a few words. Theres a moment in the game where Rita starts setting up the core reason plot and the formula and I just tuned it out. It felt like incredible world building at times, Myorzo is wonderful. Learning the history of the guilds and even why the main villain has beef. But I drifted in and out of it, and I don’t know if I can say plot wise this has anything to chew on.
You know what you can chew on? Characters. This is an elite cast. Yuri Lowell is truly a gaming icon. This is very much a game about how Yuri changes others , rather than how Yuri grows. It’s marvelous to see a JRPG protagonist get their hands dirty in the ways they perceive and engage villains as well as justice. That evolves Karol,Estellise and Flynn. Flynn and Yuri’s dynamic is immaculate. In particular the way that Aurion really starts to wrap the bow on the world, really sets the stage for the emotional beats to be wrapped up with the crew. Seeing Karol and Raven’s arc in the story is just genuinely beautiful. They get sensational emotional beats.
Add on top of this beautiful graphics. Great skits that make you smile and inject the feeling of growth. Some good music (I can’t believe I said that Matoi Sakuraba is very hit or miss for me). Some fun dungeon maneuvering. It leaves me feeling great. Something small is missing to take this adventure over top, but when I think of the ideal JRPG, this is what I will think of. The one thats not trying to be anything outside of the shonen energy and plays the cards straight but smartly straight? This is it.
Lets start with the thing I grew to love but still have to admit has issues… combat. The opening of this game is stiff as hell. You feel limited by all means in terms of execution. Yes this game has you learn things through weapon use, but as opposed to just learning skills like magic etc, you learn things that change how you execute attacks. Think the core combo is too limited, use a weapon that extends your base combo. Want to link your artes to basic attacks, learn the skill for it. Want to learn altered artes? Well learn the skill that you use to pair with your core artes . Want to link artes and altered artes? Theres a skill for that. It’s astonishing how much what you can do in combat evolves and its about tuning execution and links, the game feel drastically evolves, but should you have to deal with the length by which it takes to open up? Does that make up for the enemy jank that shows up in terms of their invincibility and how it can make combat less fluid. Dealing with enemy stagger and your own staggering can make you so frustrated. However when you are able to customize the feel to your style of play, it’s marvelous. It’s crazy that I focused on one character and there are 6 other characters with different touches and focuses to get into. Judith in air options sound so astounding and I still struggled to execute chancels to improve the feel and player expression further. I loved this when it was at its best and think if I had any fighting game skill, I would be in awe further. The feeling of doing a mystic or burste art is really elite gaming.
I also wonder how to feel about the core story here. If you ask me to explain the Adephagos? I couldn’t tell you. If you ask me to explain how aer relates to the adephagos or the Blastia, I might have a few words. Theres a moment in the game where Rita starts setting up the core reason plot and the formula and I just tuned it out. It felt like incredible world building at times, Myorzo is wonderful. Learning the history of the guilds and even why the main villain has beef. But I drifted in and out of it, and I don’t know if I can say plot wise this has anything to chew on.
You know what you can chew on? Characters. This is an elite cast. Yuri Lowell is truly a gaming icon. This is very much a game about how Yuri changes others , rather than how Yuri grows. It’s marvelous to see a JRPG protagonist get their hands dirty in the ways they perceive and engage villains as well as justice. That evolves Karol,Estellise and Flynn. Flynn and Yuri’s dynamic is immaculate. In particular the way that Aurion really starts to wrap the bow on the world, really sets the stage for the emotional beats to be wrapped up with the crew. Seeing Karol and Raven’s arc in the story is just genuinely beautiful. They get sensational emotional beats.
Add on top of this beautiful graphics. Great skits that make you smile and inject the feeling of growth. Some good music (I can’t believe I said that Matoi Sakuraba is very hit or miss for me). Some fun dungeon maneuvering. It leaves me feeling great. Something small is missing to take this adventure over top, but when I think of the ideal JRPG, this is what I will think of. The one thats not trying to be anything outside of the shonen energy and plays the cards straight but smartly straight? This is it.