an enigma of a game. with most video games that put me off, i'm able to, in some capacity, contort myself into going "well here was the intention and here was the demographic". i truly cannot do that with this game, because who on earth at square enix played dark souls and went "we should add a terrible loot system and necessitate grinding"? it's a damn shame too, because this game has such great catharsis when it works. jack's violent animations just feel good to get, the level design is usually pretty engaging, and boss fights have a nice spectacle to them that fit in with the final fantasy aesthetic while still creating this new, obscene and violent performance.

but i cannot stress enough how shitty the game gets by endgame when it turns out that you basically have to grind your eyeballs out just to get armor that will stop you from dying in two hits, or get equipment with job affinities you want. it's shitty! it sucks! why did they add this! it's another example of square enix getting in their own way with a genuinely great game concept. you could argue that this was always in team ninja's design doc, but i heavily doubt it and more expect the shitty aspects of this game were direct demands from square as a publisher. regardless of how it happened, it just sucks outrageously that this got bogged down with mechanics that actively made the experience worse and turned this unexpected hit into a turbo-mid product.