So I finished the game a couple weeks ago (all quests and hunts), and yeah, having let it sit for a while I don't think I can ultimately call it a good game. It's not like I (usually) actively suffered while playing, and the production quality is really high, but I think it ends up boiling down to two major points:

1. There is not enough actual game
2. The story completely went to crap

If I'm really being honest, this is way more of a slightly-interactive movie than a game. The combat is so basic that yeah, you can do flashy move A instead of flashy move B but in the end there are no choices or strategies to make; every battle plays exactly the same. I tried in earnest to experiment with different Eikons but it has zero impact. Every battle is just mash every cooldown to either wipe the crowd or build toward staggering the enemy, then dodge and do some chip damage until you can repeat it. No party composition, no elemental weaknesses, no decisions about ranged vs. melee combat. No gear decisions that impact combat. Yes, the core combat can be fun, but when it's so basic/stale, it gets boring. I kept waiting for creative or challenging optional bosses but there were literally only two (Atlas and Svarog), and those are only because I was 10-15 levels below them when they unlocked. I don't know what the point is of holding back S-rank hunts that, by the time they unlock, are trivial fights. Not that there were many of them in the first place.

Exploration was so basic and unrewarding. Usually involving combing big samey blobs of map in case there is a random chest there. Which probably contains my 29,3442,807th Bloody Hide and Sharp Fang. Every single interesting landmark is just locked behind some random sidequest so finding it early does nothing. And speaking of quests, man, this game is a perfect example of why it's about quality over quantity. Not in number of quests, but in amount of dialogue. It frankly astonishes me how they can write never-ending conversations between characters about just about nothing to justify me going out and spending 5 seconds killing a random monster. After a certain point I literally just started mashing through quest dialog because it was useless. Obviously I'd give it a chance first, but it usually only takes about 10 second to discern whether it's meaningful character/world building (the blacksmith blues quests etc) or just some filler bullshit. And I don't mind some basic fetch quests here and there; what offends me is having a 20-minute discussion, sometimes sending me around the map to from NPC to NPC for more, each time.

The spectacle of the assault sequences is definitely the best part of the game, and hot take, maybe that should have been the ENTIRE game, lol. But as mentioned by someone else here already, those peak halfway through the story. What remains is just an empty slog of bad writing. REALLY bad writing. If they really wanted to play the Game of Thrones grimdark angle, they at least could have spared me the countless hackneyed clichés and absurdly vacuous speeches repeated ad nauseam for hours and hours. I am used to JRPGs being corny and honestly, I'm fine with it. Hooray the power of friendship, let's stop the big meanie, etc. But the dissonance between the "message" and the overall tone/setting is just too much.

It also doesn't help that the way the story pans out in the final act is actually, not even really jokingly, a bad ripoff of Xenoblade Chronicles 3? I had my issues with that game too, but by golly, if I wanted a pasty-ass self-proclaimed deity to lecture me about Logos, free will, and the power of Origin, that's the game I'd go play. I didn't even care enough by the conclusion to hate the ending, I was just glad it was over. I don't get what they were going for. It feels like such a confused overall experience that ended up failing at both storytelling and general fun. I personally don't see how anyone could rate this highly.

Good music though.

So I finished the game a couple weeks ago (all quests and hunts), and yeah, having let it sit for a while I don't think I can ultimately call it a good game. It's not like I (usually) actively suffered while playing, and the production quality is really high, but I think it ends up boiling down to two major points:

1. There is not enough actual game
2. The story completely went to crap

If I'm really being honest, this is way more of a slightly-interactive movie than a game. The combat is so basic that yeah, you can do flashy move A instead of flashy move B but in the end there are no choices or strategies to make; every battle plays exactly the same. I tried in earnest to experiment with different Eikons but it has zero impact. Every battle is just mash every cooldown to either wipe the crowd or build toward staggering the enemy, then dodge and do some chip damage until you can repeat it. No party composition, no elemental weaknesses, no decisions about ranged vs. melee combat. No gear decisions that impact combat. Yes, the core combat can be fun, but when it's so basic/stale, it gets boring. I kept waiting for creative or challenging optional bosses but there were literally only two (Atlas and Svarog), and those are only because I was 10-15 levels below them when they unlocked. I don't know what the point is of holding back S-rank hunts that, by the time they unlock, are trivial fights. Not that there were many of them in the first place.

Exploration was so basic and unrewarding. Usually involving combing big samey blobs of map in case there is a random chest there. Which probably contains my 29,3442,807th Bloody Hide and Sharp Fang. Every single interesting landmark is just locked behind some random sidequest so finding it early does nothing. And speaking of quests, man, this game is a perfect example of why it's about quality over quantity. Not in number of quests, but in amount of dialogue. It frankly astonishes me how they can write never-ending conversations between characters about just about nothing to justify me going out and spending 5 seconds killing a random monster. After a certain point I literally just started mashing through quest dialog because it was useless. Obviously I'd give it a chance first, but it usually only takes about 10 second to discern whether it's meaningful character/world building (the blacksmith blues quests etc) or just some filler bullshit. And I don't mind some basic fetch quests here and there; what offends me is having a 20-minute discussion, sometimes sending me around the map to from NPC to NPC for more, each time.

The spectacle of the assault sequences is definitely the best part of the game, and hot take, maybe that should have been the ENTIRE game, lol. But as mentioned by someone else here already, those peak halfway through the story. What remains is just an empty slog of bad writing. REALLY bad writing. If they really wanted to play the Game of Thrones grimdark angle, they at least could have spared me the countless hackneyed clichés and absurdly vacuous speeches repeated ad nauseam for hours and hours. I am used to JRPGs being corny and honestly, I'm fine with it. Hooray the power of friendship, let's stop the big meanie, etc. But the dissonance between the "message" and the overall tone/setting is just too much.

It also doesn't help that the way the story pans out in the final act is actually, not even really jokingly, a bad ripoff of Xenoblade Chronicles 3? I had my issues with that game too, but by golly, if I wanted a pasty-ass self-proclaimed deity to lecture me about Logos, free will, and the power of Origin, that's the game I'd go play. I didn't even care enough by the conclusion to hate the ending, I was just glad it was over. I don't get what they were going for. It feels like such a confused overall experience that ended up failing at both storytelling and general fun. I personally don't see how anyone could rate this highly.

Good music though.

I’m less far into the game (just got Titan) but I’d say my issue is I’m having fun, but I have to reaaaally focus on the cinematic sequences and boss battles and try my best not to attempt to dissect or even digest too much lore or story because it’s just very unsatisfying on almost every level. It really is complexity through obscurity, and honestly all my good faith was lost with how they handled the second time skip.

It really is obvious how hard this game is trying to be GoT huh? From the factions to the naming conventions and overall language used (in English anyway) to the aesthetic and hell even the map screen. And goddamn not EVERYTHING EVER has to be that gritty and grimdark.

I do like some of the characters, especially Jill, but not really Clive. He’s kinda boring? Personality-wise and even in how he speaks. Which isn’t that uncommon in a main character perhaps, but when it’s also mostly brooding, I feel it more. I guess also because he’s the only character you actually get to play as, which is part of what makes the combat feel so lifeless. Sure you can modify your kit, but you don’t have a party to build around or even the ability to customize or command allies in even a basic way (except Torgal who, ironically, would be MUCH better served making the brain-dead choices on his own instead of me having to mash the D-pad and accidentally chug all my potions).

I do enjoy the combat but I want something to force me to make choices, even within whatever my current loadout is. I keep hoping some actually unique and challenging Hunts will show up if nothing else. Limit Break also feels super unsatisfying… I barely feel stronger when using it and it’s just a glorified potion as far as I’m concerned since it charges quickly and 90% of the time I just pop it to heal.

That actually looks pretty damn awesome. If only it were in the base game. It looks way more interesting than the plot we got originally lol. Oh well, I still won’t be playing it because it’s a release model that just doesn’t work for me, but I’m impressed.

@KaizokuJinbei said in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom:

Man the music in that trailer was fantastic

Yeah just like the music in the original BotW trailer... which wasn't in the game.

Unless they suddenly reveal their elaborate full dungeons, deep narrative, compelling characters and strong soundtrack (lol), I will be skipping LoZ: Nuts and Bolts, now featuring battery management.

I don't really think the story got better but Alear got some partial redemption eventually as an actual character and not only a one-dimensional player avatar.

For me most of the early-game characters were pretty uninteresting, though apparently some of them have some good support conversations, but by around the halfway point I thought most of the new additions were pretty cool/interesting/funny/etc. Though with a heavy bias toward Solm. Overall Three Houses might have had a stronger overall cast but I wasn't disappointed on that front personally.

@Nobodyman said in Fire Emblem Engage:

My OCD demands that I complete every mini-game on the Somniel every time I finish a mission so I can get much shit as I can. And, yeah, that gets kinda tiresome.

The push-up mini-game is fucking awful and impossible for me to get a perfect score on.

lol the push-up minigame is indeed awful. I just wish they were a little more varied/interesting and that the harder difficulties didn't unlock at a glacial pace. Or that they put even a little effort in. Like somehow they made fishing simultaneously easier, more boring, and more pointless than 3H.

Honestly overall I've seen people praise the Somniel for being a lot more optional than activities in Garreg Mach, which may be true, but that was also one of the best parts of 3H. You felt in control of progression. I feel like there is a LOT more RNG in the Somniel, and sure you can ignore some things, but I mean not really, if you want to properly upgrade your gear and skills and such. It also feels rather poorly balanced in that they expect you to grind skirmishes for resources in order to interact with a lot of the systems; particularly upgrades and donation levels. Which isn't even viable on higher difficulties.

@Satsuki said in Fire Emblem Engage:

Again, I just can't get excited about an FE game that is basically a fancier version of their app game.

Well, thanks for reiterating an uninformed opinion that adds nothing to the discussion.

Well that's definitely hella questionable. I didn't know that. Honestly I find Anna kind of annoying in this game, doesn't help that her English voice is whiny as hell, and she also never pulled her weight in battle so.

Still haven't finished the game though, so I'm reserving my overall thoughts. So far I'd say the story is really boring and generic.

@access-timeco said in Fire Emblem Engage:

Also, call me a prude, but it doesn’t sit well with the that IS is finally comfortable to cross the line between their usual (and already condemnable) “it’s ok to be romantically involved with this child because she is actually a very old person who just looks like a child” approach to “it’s ok to be romantically involved with this child”.

I don't think that's a thing? From what I've read, all of the child characters (and a few of the adults) have completely platonic endings if you S-support them.

We live in the open world fad era where apparently every franchise is going to ask the question "can we make this open world?" The answer is almost always no, and this looks no different. Hey guys let's take a game about speed, tight platforming, and timed challenges.. but OPEN WORLD! Typically that's just going to mean more time wasted exploring empty areas which makes everything feel less slick. And then they feel compelled to actually put stuff to find in some of that open space, which results in bloat (useless upgrades, collectibles, minigames, whatever).

I'm just now wrapping up Bayonetta 3 and it suffers from the exact same problem. It's not even really open-world but sure seems like it wanted to be. The levels are unnecessarily sprawling and a mess in terms of collectibles. There is some good platforming, but it's so bogged down by slowly exploring bland maps and not even being able to tell whether a certain object (building, ridge, cliff) is actually explorable or if it's blocked by invisible barriers or death.

Anyway if this game will help them figure out what actually makes a modern Sonic game fun, then awesome. I'll put my money down when they get it right, if ever lol.