I am desperate to discuss this game, it’s possibly one of my top 3 Final Fantasy games.
The combat feels pretty great, I don’t mind it being a Devil May Cry action system. It’s really satisfying to chain together evades and teleports and blow up the screen with particle effects. The game really opens up as you get more abilities but it does take a while to get into the full scope of combat.
The sense of spectacle is amazing, I am a huge fan of kaiju movies, so I am all on board for 50 foot monster battles.
And the story and characters are so good! It’s so refreshing to get a story where the protagonists want to make the world a better place by throwing down oppressive authority and are actually allowed to do so. Clive has a strong sense of honor and a very endearing dorky streak wrapped up behind all his emotional trauma and he’s a great sympathetic protagonist. Cid is possibly one of the best Cids of all time (where did they find the absolute mutant that voices him?). Jill is a perfect complement to Clive, they are possibly the only two people who can fully understand each other.
Additional marks for letting everyone say “Fuck.”
Please mark spoilers!
i thought it was gonna be in my top 5 but I decided that a lot of the parts that try to smooth out the intent of what the game is meant to say about heavy topics like slavery, freedom, genocide, the harmful side of religion, etc really hold the game back a lot
it has pacing issues when it comes to side quest availability
and it’s not really an rpg which is kinda frustrating given it’s a mainline FF game
it’s a good game, but it’s not a great game for me. too much moralistic talk that doubles back and presents a “both sides” argument too much despite concretely setting up how in the wrong one of the sides is.
worth playing, lots of really good characters, the combat is extremely fun and the monster fights are also very fun.