Spoilers up to the end of 'Buried Memories' chapter/ getting 'Acceptance' achievement
This thread can be used to freely discuss the game up to the point where you receive the 'Acceptance' achievement / end the 'Buried Memories' chapter.
You can feel free to post unmarked spoilers about this portion of the game in this thread.
...So.
Wow, once again a lot has happened since the last thread! I suppose that's to be expected given how far apart the story progression achievements are.
The character I liked most of all in the game, Benedikta, died basically right after I said I hope she joins our team. Go figure. I'm not sure I care that much for the other major characters, sadly, but I am definitely more invested in the story at this point. I do like Gav, and I suppose I like the other characters, but they really do lack in personality.
I understand that the main character has to be some broody dude because, well, he's the main character in a dark RPG, let alone the Fianl Fantasy series. Cid is a bit broody too, though, and so is Jill. I think it's the medieval theme, the 'mature' theme, that is kind of blocking us from getting the more eccentric characters we see in FFs past. Still, it would be nice to get some kind of depth to the characters... like, even with FFXV, we had a character that loved ramen, a character that loved photography, a character that loved cooking. Why can't our characters have things about them other than their dark past? Or at least have a little more variety in personality? Cid deals with his dark past mostly through dark humour, which I can appreciate, and Jill seems to be solemn, which is fine, but it's the lack of other characters in the main party that are hurting the 'fun' part of Final Fantasy games in this iteration.
I'm button mashing 80% of the boss fights, still. I use square and I use R1 sometimes, and that's basically it. Very rarely triangle, I suppose. Perhaps it's my fault for using the auto-dodge and auto-attack items but I don't like having to learn combos, I like having menu options that I can pick from. Sadly it's all combos in this game so button mashing it has to be. The cinematics in the battles are incredible, although I find myself not able to pay full attention to them because I'm bracing myself for when to button mash next. Still, very, very cool.
Generally, I'm still enjoying myself, just not as much, nor in the same way, as in previous Final Fantasy games.
I got a lot of FFXIV vibes from the monsters we've seen since the last achievement - basically they are direct pulls from FFXIV, appearance-wise and to a degree attack/mechanics-wise. This is a good thing in a lot of ways, because it's giving me nostalgia, and I feel like I understand some fights before they even happen.
The mechanics that the enemies use as they fight are cool enough. But they're all so... weak. xD I think they need to make the visible AOE attacks hit a little harder so you're forced to pay more attention (although maybe I'm just saying that because they're so familiar to me from FFXIV that I dodge them well?).
I've not been close to death once, the only times I go below half health are when I'm fighting a boss that has a longer boss fight and then I use a potion or two and bam, back to normal. I've never run out of potions, either. I think this game might actually have been able to make use of a harder difficulty in the first playthrough. And no, I'm not on story mode.
I really hope there's a fishing game in this somewhere because the swamps made me want to go fishing so much. There are areas around the game we can't access yet, and we're still getting new mechanics being introduced late into the game (reminds me of FFXIII in that regard), but they're all battle stuff so far. This game is making me really appreciate the minigame additions FFXV gave us, because there's literally none so far in FFXVI and I'm a little worried it might stay that way. The sidequests add a little lore which is nice, but even they are simply "hit stuff, go back".
I'm not often critical of FF games but I definitely feel like there's a lot more this game could be offering. With FFXIII, there were very few minigames but still more than we have here, and the characters were diverse enough and even capable of having fun sometimes.
The platforming isn't all that amazing, lots of places we look like we could get to but can't (the jump feature is almost never useful, very rarely does running into a small ledge not make you automatically climb it, and very often do you see small ledges that you can't jump over despite your character's jump height clearly being capable of it based on what you see on screen).
The scenery in this game is lovely, though, despite that. The areas you visit are beautifully crafted and the foliage is abundant where it needs to be, in what I feel are realistic ways.
The music is beautiful, too. The highlight of the boss battles for me.
Super minor pet peeve (pun intended) is that Torga sometimes barks as we're running around and I have no idea why, and I always stop to see if there was something that triggered it. Am I being oblivious to something? I dunno. I feel like a dog shouldn't bark in a game without reason.
So, tl;dr, my review to this point:
Characters: 5/10 - They're good, on their own, but they are all very similar and lack diversity. We've only really have 3 players in our party that actually talk thus far, and while they can have charm, they're all broody in the end. I need a bit more eccentricity.
Battles: 5/10 - Too easy. The AOE attacks should hit harder so we have to be more aware of things, and perhaps after a certain point the auto-dodge and auto-combo items are too gamebreaking.
Plot: 7/10 - Will have to see where it goes, but so far, so good.
Lore: 9/10 - Love it. I love going to Tomes to catch up on it, too.
Scenery: 9/10 - Beautiful.
Music: 9/10 - Beautiful and epic at the right times.
Minigames: 0/10 - Non-existent.
