I played a few hours of Comrades for the first time tonight and wanted to get other players thoughts on it. Here's a couple rambling thoughts I had:

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I didn't do a lot of research on it beforehand so I went into it not knowing what to expect. I was glad to see that despite being a multiplayer expansion, you don't actually need to play with other people. You can have AI party members, which helps me with my sometimes slow internet connection. I was glad to see there's a story as well, its placement in the context of the main game made total sense as far as the timeline.

We get a chance to spend more time with characters like Monica and Holly, who are only supporting characters in the main game but have a little more screen time here. The appearances of Libertus, Cor, and Aranea help make battles exciting when they're around.

I like going through Lestallum and being able to unlock new places in the town. The "city builder" aspect to it made it feel like a mini-game within the game. I also liked being able to craft better weapons with monster materials, where as in the main game I would have just sold them.

They got rid of the world map in exchange for a point and click "go to this hunt" location, which I didn't mind. Overall, I really enjoy this expansion and am glad I got the season pass. With one glaring exception, and it's huge:

The load times are abysmally horrendous.

From reddit, an example of doing one hunting mission if you're at a high enough level to end battles quickly:

Your times may vary somewhat based on your level, weapon loadout, and whether you're on a PS4 Pro or not.

-Loading Screen #1: 1:27
-Campsite screen (where you pick a food item and confirm you're ready): 33 seconds
-Loading screen #2: 10 seconds
-The ACTUAL Battle: 1:13
-End of battle (Where you stand around, like in an MMO waiting for a dungeon to end): 23 seconds
-Pointless Loading Screen #3: 25 seconds
-Campsite: 42 seconds
-Last Loading Screen: 1:08


Total Time: 6 minutes, 1 second. Total Time actually playing the game: 1 minute, 13 seconds.
Even if you're at a low enough level where hunts take anywhere from 5 to 10 minutes, you're still dealing with 4 minutes of loading screens in between camping and going back to town.