And like the title says, I have finished the main story. Just the main story. There still is the "final" "hidden" "post-game" boss, but I think I have played enough of the game to be able to give my thoughts on it.
I usually give a "proof" screenshot of me having complete the game, but this game doesn't seem to give you a special mark for completing all 8 stories.
First, let me just say I loved it. This is an RPG. Good old, enjoyable RPG.
Wow, Square Enix is still able to make a "RPG" that doesn't only focus on disturbingly handsome, realistic-looking anime men. (And yes, I know Square Enix isn't the only one that worked on this game)
The big focus is on "Role-Playing". You have so much freedom in this game.
- You have access to high-level dungeons, in which you can still run through and get the treasure chests from at the beginning of the game.
- You can make every character any sub-class you want.
- The sub-quests are not just "I want this material. I'm going to even mark on the map how to get the material." In fact, there is practically no hint on how to solve the quests. They explain the situation, and you have to figure out what they want. Sometimes, you have to bring people around with Ophilia or Primrose. Sometimes, you have to fight people. Sometimes, you need to collect information. Some quests even have multiple solutions and outcomes.
Also, I really liked how the Rogue abilities, especially Stealing/Buying worked out. The thing is, this "Rogue" more applies to the player than the character. Because you are going to ask yourself, am I seriously going to restart the game over and over again for that 3% item? And then you start cursing at the game for your own decision to try and steal the item instead of buying it.
You have a problem with having to restart the game over and over again? Then just buy it. Don't want to buy it? Then shut up and keep trying.
I also liked how the world is explained through all of the CPU characters. There are so many profiles, for every character, and there are short stories just within those texts. Especially interesting are the 8 people who traveled together in the past, and they are now old people... except they are the strongest CPUs available in the game. Except it isn't weird they are so strong, if you realize they are those 8 travelers.
As for the battle system, I guess you can say it is a proper evolution to the Bravely Default series?
I think this system is an improvement from Bravely Default, though I found that unless you use the Scholar class/sub-class, the normal enemy encounters can be a pain, even if you utilize the Break system. Heck, normal encounters can still be a pain even if you attack their weaknesses, one-by-one. This is probably because the only class with efficient attack-all-enemy attacks is the Scholar.
But as for the bosses, they are all quite unique and never were boring. Man, when my items were all stolen or a character gets blown away, and you need to completely change your strategy due to it... And of course, matching the character, you get stuff like string puppet enemies or unique effects.
As for the story
I think it was cool to see 8 different stories. Each story had a completely different feel to it, from Tressa flirting with that stupid boy to Primrose, whose life sucks so much before the story and still more so during the story. (Seriously, you betrayed her too?!)
And yet, everything all merges together, just like pieces of a puzzle, in the end. In one story, you see a name. In another story, you learn about that person. In one story, you hear about a gate. In one story, the bad guy is trying to open a gate. And so on.
Of course, as a result, some of the stories might not be as dramatic as others. For instance, Tressa's last boss is just some random lady who stole her item. But that's just how it is. Tressa's story isn't about fighting an evil organization or evil monster. It's just about her dreams of becoming a top merchant.
Oh, and I was totally rooting for Therion to stick around in Cordelia's house. Shame he decided to part ways with her.
And when you read Heathcote's profile, you see that he is overprotective of her around men. Hahaha.
I think there are a lot of good coupling options in this game. It's actually been a while since I've felt like participating in a shipping war. Like way while. The last time I really got into one was True Tears, and you know just how long back that anime was.
And finally, the music is just impressive
Of course, this has to be mentioned, but the transitioning from event to battle is bloody brilliant. I mean, wow. Of course, all of the music in general is great. And the themes for each character are great.
But this incredibly smooth transitioning of different BGMs is probably the most prominent part of this game.
Well, also the interesting use of 2D + 3D, which is interesting to navigate around.
However, I do have one fair problem and one small problem with the game.
One is the incredible difficulty of seeing Party Chats. Different chats only appear in certain situations or locations at certain times when certain characters are on your team.
...Yeah, you are not going to be able to collect all Chats without looking at a guide. Or you'll have to change through every character combination after every event, which is not realistic.
The thing is that these are all good characters, so you want to see more interactions between them. But it is so hard at times.
The other problem is that unless you constantly have Therion around, you are going to miss out on those purple treasure chests that are just littered across the map. And if you don't have him on your team, you have to come back eventually with him on your team to open those chests.
Fortunately, there usually is nothing of great importance in those chests, so they more or less play as a small treat but nothing to force you to use Therion.
(And there is no counter, so you don't have to worry about "100%"-ing the game and thus can ignore the treasure chests for no loss for most of the main game)
...So I think that is about it?
I think I've said everything I wanted.
Anyways, an excellent game all around. Very good job from everyone that worked on the game.
Oh, and one more thing, but
The characters are great, but they are on the ground... as they say? In other words, the characters aren't made characters by giving them eccentric traits or weird speech patterns or absurd, psychopathic-if-they-were-in-the-real-world personalities.
They are more or less normal, understandable people. And that's a good thing. I'd follow up this statement by making fun of companies like Intelligent Systems, but I'll just leave it here for today.
No comments:
Post a Comment