I'm a bit ashamed of myself for being one of the few people on this forum really pushing for info and talking about letting this game get a release, that despite picking it up once I got my PS4, I never bothered to play it outside of the Japanese demo back when it was a PSP exclusive. So, wanting a little FF goodness, I finally started playing this game recently. It's been interesting so far, I'm currently in the middle of Chapter 3.

Pros:
  • I'm really digging the historical narrative so far, in fact the world building in this game in general has been really interesting.
  • As I do remember from the demo, I do like the variety the full cast has in playstyles, which really helps with monotony since the gameplay is rather limited. I'm digging the fact the party has multiple special moves or support abilities that both expand their normal repertoire of moves or allow them some good variation for their playstyles.
  • Going with the above, I appreciate how enemy challenges really come down to the team you're using. I got flattened easily by the Flying Mech boss Bashtor was piloting in Chapter 2 with my initial team of Queen, Jack, and Sice, but coming in with King with his dual guns and timing the crit bonus Killsight attacks made that fight way more manageable and rewarding.
  • So far, I'm digging most of the cast except for two people. I appreciate the contrasting personalities of Class Zero.
  • The darker storyline is pretty good so far, this game is not really holding back on the horrors of war.
  • The crystal stealing the memories of the dead from the living is an intriguing idea which allows the game to keep some of its levity and not wallowing too much in "war is hell" which I feel is a nice balance.
  • Enemy variety has been better than I expected. While I'm already seeing some re-skins, considering this is a handheld action-rpg originally, the enemy variety has been better than some I've played.
  • I love the Class Moogles. They are a hoot to talk to.
  • I certainly give the game credit for being more challenging than usual for these types of games. Missions have a tendency to throw enemies at you you shouldn't be fighting yet, the overworld especially has some areas with beef gates waiting to trounce you if you stray too far from your objective. Mission objectives are also brutal and I appreciate that speed isn't the end all be all ranking element.
  • Oh hey, an explorable world map, what a quaint concept.
  • Exploring the school has been less tedious than I thought it would be, course it probably help I can finally understand everybody.b The time mechanic between missions reminds me a lot of Persona's calendar system.
  • I liked the FFVI shout out in Cid's room, he has to Magitek Armors that are prefect recreations of the ones from FFVI as statues.
  • I like the weight l'Cie have in this game. I really feel like Tabata's team captured how fantastic and frightening these beings should be.
  • Though I have yet to properly meet them, I like the idea of Concordia's faction being monster tamers.



Cons:
  • While the historical aspect lends the game an interesting narrative, it leaves much to be desired with the human to human interactions. I sort of feel like the game is trying too hard to use a mature narrative element, but also throw in the usual high school anime tropes and its a bit jarring in places.
  • I am not a fan of Rem or Machina, in addition to being the two blandest characters among the cast, they also feel the most conventional. I can already see these two usurping the more interesting Class Zero in the story department, and I'm already dreading it.
  • I wish there were more ways to get money in this game. I'm annoyed I haven't had much chance to really outfit the party with new gear outside of what I find in missions because while things are not terrible expensive, having to outfit fifteen characters at once still adds up quickly, especially when the game already foreshadows that you should not be playing favorites and should spend time with everyone.
  • One QoL element the HD Remaster should have implemented was the ability to switch out your party leader from the normal menu and not from save points. This would make the school events that require certain party members way less tedious than they are.
  • If I'm going to be frank, the UI for the menu system is pretty awful all around. I get they were trying to go for a tactical "mission" minded format to add weight to how you outfit your team, but its honestly more grating than anything and just makes things more tedious than they should be. I may have forgiven this when it was a PSP game since its obvious it was really tapping that system to the fullest, but being on better hardware should have made them clean this up better, especially with so many characters to keep track of.
  • I'm also annoyed that Phoenix Downs seem to only apply to characters in your active party. Its bad enough they are rare, but to also have them be conditional in their usage just seems a little counter-intuitive.
  • While I appreciate the fact the game is more challenging than other FFs, I also feel that much like XIII itself, its difficult for the wrong reasons, due to a lot of limitations placed on the player.