I was full on rage mode. I hated just about every moment of it.
First of all, they completely buffered the final chapter with a freaking puzzle all the way through.
The crystal part was alright, was hoping for some iconic music when we were approaching it. I stood outside the room listening to the music hoping it would change into something like Final Fantasy or The Crystal music, but it was just sparkly music that went up and down.
The time skip was a great idea, 10 year skip, but you never got to see anyone but your friends and the kid really. Why not show Cid and Cidney? Too freaking lazy to design them 10 years older? made me so mad.
I liked meeting Bahamut and that he became a summon for you during Ifrit, but I was about to defeat Ifrit's harder mode when Shiva's LB came up. I debated on using it or not, but decided to. Kinda liked seeing the cutscene but didn't like that she finished off the fight for me, felt a bit lame after.
I liked seeing level 80+ enemies outside in the town, found a Psychomancer outside near the start which was cool, but because of the invincibility frames you get during LBs I didn't really take that much damage during the fight unfortunately.
The final boss fight was underwhelming to me. Starting off on the ground it was nice exchanging hits, but once you got up in the air it felt like you were full on rails the rest of the way, and could of easily held circle the entire time to beat the boss. That might of been overleveling but idk how bosses work when they say ???, they might scale with you idk.
I absolutely hated the FINAL MOMENT FIGHT, and it being just a single QTE. Like wtf. Let me have that moment like in FFVII where we are facing each other. It should of been an ingame fight, where you could move. It could've been a single, amazing hit, but it should've been in your control. I felt like I had no control and it was all left up to the QTE to accomplish that job. Felt horrible and I complained heavily about it to D.
I enjoyed the story of the ending after the QTE fight at least. I liked that because we never saw luna's dead body, the rule of "If you don't see a dead body, don't assume they are dead" applied to this game as well. That or they both are dead but no fun in that.
I don't know what comes after yet, I have to sleep for work tomorrow, so I'll get to experience it later.
So far I would rate the game as such:
The world is beautiful, and the first area is at least open world, and while the other areas of the game make up that world feel, sort of, you never really get to explore very well. Flying car probably fixes that feeling a little bit, but you're most likely still bound by roads. The first area of the game at least is at least a nice change from XIII, but again, you can still see stuff you can't actually walk on and it's all an illusion. Fakery. ALSO WTF CAN'T YOU JUMP OVER FENCES OR ANYTHING YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO JUMP OVER? OR ON? WHY EVEN GIVE US A JUMP D;
World: 6/10 IMO
Music was wonderful, I enjoyed every moment of it. I had no complaints, and they didn't try to ruin classic pieces with heavy metal or screaming singing.
Music: 9/10 (could of had some more iconic music pieces in the story, like around the crystal)
The combat to me is either you love it or hate it, and I'm among the hate it category. I get that they really wanted to change it up and be unique, but with that they left out stuff I felt should of been in the game. However, they do have a fast combat system, even if it has major issues with it, like the lock on system.
Combat: 6/10 for me
They made some use of FF enemies while adding their own flavor to it. It's not a negative really, and hunts made it work a lot better. However, they ruined Adamantoise fight for me by making the camera clip into it constantly and the fact that he just flops his arms and head up and down and that's the entire fight.
Monsters: 7/10, could be a lot better
The game provided hours and hours of content, so there was plenty of side stuff to do apart from the main story. It was all pretty samey, but they did okay with it enough, I stayed with it after all without forcing myself. Nothing huge stood out though that made it special, it felt like side content. No rewarding feeling.
Side Content: 7/10
Armor system was crap, thats all.
Armor: 1/10
Weapons were a bit underwhelming to me. There are like... 5 of each weapon before post game. That is kinda dumb to me. I expected a lot more variety, rewards along the way, etc. They didn't reward the player very much with interesting weapons and they kept it very minimalistic.
Weapons: 2/10
However, they did have a lot of accessories and brought back favorites like Ribbon. I've never been a great user of accessories but I do appreciate seeing stuff like that. However, because I'm not a great user of accessories I can't really say what's wrong with the system or what's great about it.
Accessories: 8/10
Magic and items had a come back... kinda. They left a lot of spells out to keep around the fire/ice/lightning theme. I liked the idea of mixing spells and items to create unique things, but in the end, what you could create was all the same thing really, with a twist here or there. Nothing amazing or interesting. However, they did try to change the system up this time so I will give them credit for trying.
Magic and Items: 4/10
The story is a very weak link in this game. It has some strong points, but it feels completely rushed. They don't give the player enough in between and a lot of moments don't work together. You just have to accept it and try to keep the flow going with a lot of effort from your end, which shouldn't happen. They ruined the flow a lot, especially at the end fights where the music would just stop as if it was loading the next scene. Flow was a huge issue with this game, as if it was put together within a year's time, not 10 years. I get that the project started over along the way but still. Did not meet expectations for me, and it was very predictable which was another issue.
Story: 5/10
The final villain was a bit underwhelming to me. I was getting a FF6 vibe from him, sorta, but not really at the same time. It kinda sucks, because the entire game all you really get to see are the airships coming in to drop off the robot soldiers and that it, then you fight the drg lady who turns good, and then you fight him at the end. Very weak bad guys IMO.
Villains: 2/10
The UI and use of command was needlessly difficult. I couldn't for the life of me use R1 + L1, or R1 + L1 again before the timer ran out, or use X by items without having to preemptively hold the X button before arriving at the prompt, or else I would jump. Summoning was also annoying, and took me awhile to figure out how to do it. There was so many problems, and it pissed me off more than anything in this game, probably more than not being able to jump on cars.
UI: 3/10
Characters were okay, I have my issues with Ignis's survivability but he wasn't a bad character outside of battle for me, even if he has a super OP LB that breaks the 9999 barrier without spending 999 AP to do it. I enjoyed them enough. Nothing along the lines of loving anyone though. I was cheering for deaths at times.
Characters: 7/10
Final Opinion: 5.2/10, an average experience that could be better if they would of put more love into it.
I would like to say that as a video game, it's fine. I just expect more from a main titled Final Fantasy game. If this was just Final Fantasy Versus XIII I probably would have a different opinion on SOME things, but not very many. The problems that exist still exist regardless of its final name. The score probably would remain the same, I just would feel differently about it and not as disappointed if that makes sense.
