Spoiler Free General Discussion

[Loony BoB]

No spoilers. Only impressions. That kinda thing.

[Marshall Banana]

So far, I think the game goes a little too far in cushioning the boss fights (e.g. checkpoints). It forces you to make up your own rules if you want a challenge.

[Loony BoB]

The Tomes system is great, I really appreciate how they laid it out and allowed us to see previous iterations of data. Spent a lot of time going through this.

[Depression Moon]

I'm still not sure about this game. I feel like I have to post because I've been with Final Fantasy for so long.

[DK]

Overall I've been loving it. The soundtrack is fantastic (the boss battle theme is currently the soundtrack to my daily life because it never leaves my head), the game looks really great, and I've been enjoying the general flow of the game. I wasn't sold on the combat at first but the more abilities that open up that let you start really weaving skills together and flow around the battlefield fluidly, the better it gets. I'm also endlessly amused at how little the devs seem to care about blatantly ripping off Thrones at every possible turn.

My biggest gripe so far is that battles just seem to go about 30-40% longer than what feels like a natural stopping point. Almost every major battle in the game so far seems to be the same process of learning the enemy moveset, chipping away at the health bar doing what feels like no damage until you stagger it and then do a chunk and rinse and repeat. A lot of the battles for me seem to end up with like the enemy with about 15-30% health left after the second stagger and the same pattern just repeats again and it takes away any kind of buildup and crescendo you'd like to get out of a big battle. It's a bit better in the set piece cinematic fights where you get the additional sequences but by and large boss battles/mid bosses just overstay their welcome for me.

I dunno if it just needs either more variation in the stages of battle, smaller HP pools/increased damage output or a combination of both but I feel like the experience could be tighter in that regard for sure.

[Jinx]

Yeah, I switched to story-mode last night, and it seems like the major change to the battle there is that the enemy health pools are much, much smaller. So things go faster, and honestly I'm really enjoying that aspect. (I don't need it, I just wanted to see if I liked it better, and the answer is yes). So yeah, I completely agree with you that the enemies are way too spongey.

Man, I'm really not trying to be a naysayer, but the soundtrack has me whelmed. I'm a huge Soken simp, but like most of the songs are completely forgettable to me! The song that plays in the field south of Northrend is quite fun, and I do agree the boss battle theme is great (it's interesting). But I guess part of my eh about is, is that I've heard him do far more creative and interesting stuff. And they keep reusing the same tracks for most zones, instead of many/most of the zones having a unique sound to them.

they really do be rippin off GoT tho lmao

[Loony BoB]

A big gripe of mine is that the chocobo theme is only heard for 2 seconds, and that's it. Now, I turn off the mount theme in FFXIV, but in single player games I like to hear it, because it's not like I'm mounting up every second like I do in FFXIV. And at least in FFXIV we can toggle it in.

[Jinx]

I hate the chocobo theme, so I much prefer it's off ahaha. But I suppose it could have had a toggle, sure.

[Loony BoB]

How can you hate the chocobo theme!?

Also, regarding battling, I tried battling with the auto-combo and auto-dodge accessories removed and I felt it was just as easy but also that it didn't feel like it was as visually dramatic for some reason, probably missing a key thing somewhere, idk. Given that it felt less spectacular while pressing the extra buttons didn't make the fight feel more challenging, I decided to throw them back on. I'll stay on action mode, though, personally I don't feel like the fights (aside from the one I just did) feel too long.

Regarding the comment of "they last just beyond the second stagger": It's perhaps largely down to your ability choices, gear and level more than anything else. I'd say it's pretty 50/50 whether I kill a boss during the second stagger or just before/after it.

[DK]

How can you hate the chocobo theme!?

Also, regarding battling, I tried battling with the auto-combo and auto-dodge accessories removed and I felt it was just as easy but also that it didn't feel like it was as visually dramatic for some reason, probably missing a key thing somewhere, idk.

I will keep banging on about this, but the berskerer ring accessory. When you do a dodge with it, it sends you into a nice little cinematic "ready set" postion and then launches you into a limit-break infused fire combo that's about 12 hits long. Chaining them together is sick!

RE: Boss sponginess, I will admit that one of my issues is not being liberal enough with abilities, I hate not having them ready to use when an enemy is staggered so I don't go off with them as much as I probably should. My gear is always as strong as I can get at that point and level is probably about par for the course. But even then I'd still argue that the pacing of the battles isn't great. They don't vary enough to justify the length it takes. I know they're vastly different games but compare it to FFXIV, that game has some long ass battles but they do a great job of including multiple stages with varied patterns and putting just enough of a sense of urgency in that you're never quite sure if the run will come off until it does. A lot of the FFXVI fights in my experience have been more like "ok seen all this before, this run is definitely going to work, please just end now thank you"

I still love the soundtrack, even just the generic field themes are pleasant to listen to! And I while also concur with being unamused with the Chocobo theme playing, I have to know...

Now, I turn off the mount theme in FFXIV

...what sort of deviant does this I refuse to ride any mount without a theme.

shout out to all the players who farmed 50 Thordan's Reigns with me until I got my dream mount mm mmm inject that Heroes Never Die into my veins

[Loony BoB]

...what sort of deviant does this I refuse to ride any mount without a theme.

The main reason for me is that if I wasn't fighting, I was on my chocobo 100% of the time. So I never got to hear the themes for the areas I was in. Or I was gathering, in which case I was jumping onto chocobo, getting to the next node, then jumping off to gather, on repeat. Which, either way, meant that I was constantly flicking between music and it was just annoying for me, like someone switching the radio station every ten seconds.

shout out to all the players who farmed 50 Thordan's Reigns with me until I got my dream mount mm mmm inject that Heroes Never Die into my veins

I had to do an absurd amount of that fight for the TT card. I think I reached at least 70 fights without getting it, if not more. Hard to recall. I was genuinely believing that I was going to reach the 99 fights to get the item! I taught so many people that fight while farming it, too, which made it more enjoyable at least.

[fat_moogle]

I'm enjoying the game so far! Back to work today after a week off, and I managed to get 61% story completion between Thursday and Sunday.

I'm a bit "eh" with mobs out in the field - enemy variety isn't great in this aspect. A lot of scorpions, crabs and bees. Fights are much more fun when you've got an enemy to stagger! Since getting the Chocobo I just bypass the enemies in areas we revisit due to them being a lower level and not really having much incentive to fight them. Exp earned through quests and hunts instead. Talking of hunts - why no hunting log? Seems weird having to remember where they are just from the board (take screenshots of the board instead).

Eikon fights are EPIC and the music goes hard!

Story has been great so far, but they advertised the game like it was going to be a "roller coaster" - the pacing is a bit off to be called that. Not so keen on the fetch quests during the main story portions.

[Del Murder]

Some things that I hope become a staple in RPGs: active time lore, completely free and on demand ability respect, and Torgal.