Up to chapter 14 with a fair amount of side content completed. 45 hours give or take.
I've spent most of my time going back and forth between "OMG, this is awesome" to "wtf" and everywhere in between. Not unlike Chinglee's up and down saga over the lat couple of pages
. But, it wouldn't be a Final Fantasy game if I didn't have the opposite reaction to everything he did, lol.
I found the story elements of the Open World sections to be downright terrible. Now, granted, I haven't done more than 3 or 4 side quests. I've only done hunts and story quests and personal exploration, so maybe that fleshes the story out more, but the presentation of it reminded me a lot of the same problems I had with Kingsglaive. Anything not having to do with the main characters just feels out of nowhere. Like the story was written by committee and these are the points they wanted to hit, but couldn't find a way to naturally transition to them in a way that gives it any impact.
I thought the "second half" was much, much better thematically. It had momentum and pacing and it involved characters I genuinely cared about. Even made me care about Ignis who used to be my least favorite, until the story lets you realize just how much he's brought to the table. This wasn't Shakespearean, but a more than passable Final Fantasy story and I found it very satisfying.
I've not completed the final act yet, if only because there's a monster in my way and I can't beat it yet, lol. I don't know if you can cheese it, or skip it, but I decided that I would take advantage of being at the point of no return to go ahead and return and get stronger.
The gameplay itself in the Open World is great, though. I am absolutely loving all of the stuff that you can do. Really getting a much better feel for the combat as well. It's still immensely satisfying. Like with the Episode Duscae combat, I've gotten to a point where I can time the dodges smoothly in the flow of the attack and this is where the combat really *feels* great, even if it's a bit more simplistic than I had hoped.
I feel like I'm the only one on the 'net that liked Chapter 13:
I will say this, though. I will never ever follow a game this closely again. For one, I rally just can't stand how jaded and cynical some of the people following these things are. Nothing to do with the game, I just feel like at a certain point some people should just stop playing videogames if everything is going to piss them off all the time. And frankly, I feel like most of them just love to wallow in their doom and gloom and desperately try to get others to be miserable with them. I don't need any of that. I read from about a million people how "terrible" chapter 13 was supposed to be. And I was having fun with that chapter, thinking I was still on 12 and bracing myself for what I thought would be a poor stretch of gaming, only to realize I was already there and apparently didn't notice it was so terrible (because it wasn't). I swear, in fact I promise, that following any game this closely will necessarily lead to enjoying the game less. That is the only inevitable conclusion.
But mostly, it's because they didn't leave much left to actually be explored. Some things felt more hollow than I think it would have been if every moment in the game wasn't basically a checklist of scenes and places I've already seen through the various marketing materials. Especially some of the views and whatnot that would have been their own reward after a small "dungeon" or boss, only to have it be a view I've seen a thousand times without context in various trailers.
Overall, though, I am still really, really digging the game. I'm on the part I like most about any FF game and that's the time where I'm free to just get super strong. I'm already 9999ing most things when I've got some 400 atk food in my belly, but there's no such thing as strong enough!
Protip on accumulating AP: Not sure if there's an ascension node to activate first, but you get 1 AP for every enemy you kill with a warp strike. So, as I go around doing these lower level side quests that I missed, I warp-kill all the lowbie stuff for pretty much 1 AP per kill. For tougher mobs, I got the final warp strike skill that makes close range warp strikes critical hits. So, I can basically chain warp strikes on a single enemy and take it down quickly for the AP bonus. It's a surprisingly satisfying and effective way to kill, especially with the warp strike decoys all over the place and big numbers flying all over the place (with Ignis' enhancement, I can basically 9999 each hit and can get in a good 6 or 7 hits in a couple of seconds, and this is with a sword I bought off a vendor). With armiger weapons, I can get up to around 270 MP, so I can clear out most packs this way with ease.
I've spent most of my time going back and forth between "OMG, this is awesome" to "wtf" and everywhere in between. Not unlike Chinglee's up and down saga over the lat couple of pages
. But, it wouldn't be a Final Fantasy game if I didn't have the opposite reaction to everything he did, lol.I found the story elements of the Open World sections to be downright terrible. Now, granted, I haven't done more than 3 or 4 side quests. I've only done hunts and story quests and personal exploration, so maybe that fleshes the story out more, but the presentation of it reminded me a lot of the same problems I had with Kingsglaive. Anything not having to do with the main characters just feels out of nowhere. Like the story was written by committee and these are the points they wanted to hit, but couldn't find a way to naturally transition to them in a way that gives it any impact.
I thought the "second half" was much, much better thematically. It had momentum and pacing and it involved characters I genuinely cared about. Even made me care about Ignis who used to be my least favorite, until the story lets you realize just how much he's brought to the table. This wasn't Shakespearean, but a more than passable Final Fantasy story and I found it very satisfying.
I've not completed the final act yet, if only because there's a monster in my way and I can't beat it yet, lol. I don't know if you can cheese it, or skip it, but I decided that I would take advantage of being at the point of no return to go ahead and return and get stronger.
The gameplay itself in the Open World is great, though. I am absolutely loving all of the stuff that you can do. Really getting a much better feel for the combat as well. It's still immensely satisfying. Like with the Episode Duscae combat, I've gotten to a point where I can time the dodges smoothly in the flow of the attack and this is where the combat really *feels* great, even if it's a bit more simplistic than I had hoped.
I feel like I'm the only one on the 'net that liked Chapter 13:
Now, I understand that people may not like the aspect where you basically end up starting the chapter with nothing and have to procure your own equipment, but that was completely necessary both thematically and for gameplay reasons, and I thought it was done perfectly. Especially considering it's also your introduction to the ring. I feel like people were expecting it to be a short gimmick, but it ended up being a fully fleshed out dungeon. I really didn't see a problem with it at all.
The gameplay reasons is that this is an open world game and you can end up there at level 99 with all the highest grade equipment you can get, or you can show up there at level 25 with basic stuff, and this keeps that dungeon interesting no matter what. Something other FF games lacked, frankly, as the final dungeons would often feel like walking through a newbie zone by the time you're doing doing sidequests and getting beefed up.
The gameplay reasons is that this is an open world game and you can end up there at level 99 with all the highest grade equipment you can get, or you can show up there at level 25 with basic stuff, and this keeps that dungeon interesting no matter what. Something other FF games lacked, frankly, as the final dungeons would often feel like walking through a newbie zone by the time you're doing doing sidequests and getting beefed up.
I will say this, though. I will never ever follow a game this closely again. For one, I rally just can't stand how jaded and cynical some of the people following these things are. Nothing to do with the game, I just feel like at a certain point some people should just stop playing videogames if everything is going to piss them off all the time. And frankly, I feel like most of them just love to wallow in their doom and gloom and desperately try to get others to be miserable with them. I don't need any of that. I read from about a million people how "terrible" chapter 13 was supposed to be. And I was having fun with that chapter, thinking I was still on 12 and bracing myself for what I thought would be a poor stretch of gaming, only to realize I was already there and apparently didn't notice it was so terrible (because it wasn't). I swear, in fact I promise, that following any game this closely will necessarily lead to enjoying the game less. That is the only inevitable conclusion.
But mostly, it's because they didn't leave much left to actually be explored. Some things felt more hollow than I think it would have been if every moment in the game wasn't basically a checklist of scenes and places I've already seen through the various marketing materials. Especially some of the views and whatnot that would have been their own reward after a small "dungeon" or boss, only to have it be a view I've seen a thousand times without context in various trailers.
Overall, though, I am still really, really digging the game. I'm on the part I like most about any FF game and that's the time where I'm free to just get super strong. I'm already 9999ing most things when I've got some 400 atk food in my belly, but there's no such thing as strong enough!
Protip on accumulating AP: Not sure if there's an ascension node to activate first, but you get 1 AP for every enemy you kill with a warp strike. So, as I go around doing these lower level side quests that I missed, I warp-kill all the lowbie stuff for pretty much 1 AP per kill. For tougher mobs, I got the final warp strike skill that makes close range warp strikes critical hits. So, I can basically chain warp strikes on a single enemy and take it down quickly for the AP bonus. It's a surprisingly satisfying and effective way to kill, especially with the warp strike decoys all over the place and big numbers flying all over the place (with Ignis' enhancement, I can basically 9999 each hit and can get in a good 6 or 7 hits in a couple of seconds, and this is with a sword I bought off a vendor). With armiger weapons, I can get up to around 270 MP, so I can clear out most packs this way with ease.
The open world endeared me to the world and the main cast. And being in that world so long, the endgame had more of an impact than had I played straight through it.
Likes:
Storm
