Spent most of my play time wondering how everyone I've ever met or thought about gave this a 7/10, only to hit the point in the game where it goes "Let's get this shit over with" and flips everything on its head in the last 10% of the campaign. I stand corrected. This is what a 7/10 looks like.
But son, let me tell you right now, there is nothing better than shoulder-slam-express-mailing some stupid goblin into a wall at highway speeds. Actually, there is, and it's using the Gambler passive (making people leave the lobby) until someone sticks around long enough to let me play blackjack in the middle of their boss fight. The combat's just good, there's so much room for creativity and skill expression with the way you can mix and match skills and weapons and jobs and use the unique properties of these attacks and their "cancels" to fly through the levels like a caffeinated hurricane of blades and magic and bullets.
Jack rocks. Dude cares about one (1) thing. Talking about the past? Talking about the MacGuffin? Pipe down, pencil-neck. If it's not about killing Chaos I'm not hearing it. Multiplayer is actually made better by forcing the other players to dress up as your party members - watching Jed and Ash bop around the stage with you in a way that makes them feel like people instead of Pikmin. But, uh, just one thing. A lot of things, actually-
Why does Sophia show up and then only talk like twice? Why are the "quick" versions of the executions on normal enemies still 45 minutes long? Why is it so hard to see anything on some of these levels? This bloom got me feeling like it's 2008 again. Why is there NO gear variety? Why is auto-dismantling located in system settings when I've gotta update it every sixteen seconds? Why is the level design so... unambitious? What's up with that framerate? Why is the last act paced like that?
To be clear, I like more than just the combat - there are so many little things they get right that keep the flaws from sinking the whole project (despite the pacing, I like the plot, I like Kenjiro Tsuda, I love the soundtrack, I could go on). Can't say I'm smitten with it or anything but when it works, it really, really works. That pacing issue just keeps rearing its head when I think about this game though, how it feels like the game ultimately just gives up on proper execution of plot beats and goes "here's 'end game', this is what you're here for, right?" and drops you back into the menus assuming that you'll figure it out. Not really sure that the game holds up to that endgame grind either, unless we're giving bosses new attacks - the red/purple attack system is a little too generous to the player when the bosses already telegraph their moves so far in advance.
But son, let me tell you right now, there is nothing better than shoulder-slam-express-mailing some stupid goblin into a wall at highway speeds. Actually, there is, and it's using the Gambler passive (making people leave the lobby) until someone sticks around long enough to let me play blackjack in the middle of their boss fight. The combat's just good, there's so much room for creativity and skill expression with the way you can mix and match skills and weapons and jobs and use the unique properties of these attacks and their "cancels" to fly through the levels like a caffeinated hurricane of blades and magic and bullets.
Jack rocks. Dude cares about one (1) thing. Talking about the past? Talking about the MacGuffin? Pipe down, pencil-neck. If it's not about killing Chaos I'm not hearing it. Multiplayer is actually made better by forcing the other players to dress up as your party members - watching Jed and Ash bop around the stage with you in a way that makes them feel like people instead of Pikmin. But, uh, just one thing. A lot of things, actually-
Why does Sophia show up and then only talk like twice? Why are the "quick" versions of the executions on normal enemies still 45 minutes long? Why is it so hard to see anything on some of these levels? This bloom got me feeling like it's 2008 again. Why is there NO gear variety? Why is auto-dismantling located in system settings when I've gotta update it every sixteen seconds? Why is the level design so... unambitious? What's up with that framerate? Why is the last act paced like that?
To be clear, I like more than just the combat - there are so many little things they get right that keep the flaws from sinking the whole project (despite the pacing, I like the plot, I like Kenjiro Tsuda, I love the soundtrack, I could go on). Can't say I'm smitten with it or anything but when it works, it really, really works. That pacing issue just keeps rearing its head when I think about this game though, how it feels like the game ultimately just gives up on proper execution of plot beats and goes "here's 'end game', this is what you're here for, right?" and drops you back into the menus assuming that you'll figure it out. Not really sure that the game holds up to that endgame grind either, unless we're giving bosses new attacks - the red/purple attack system is a little too generous to the player when the bosses already telegraph their moves so far in advance.