I think that sometimes it can be a matter of opinion, but sometimes it can also be objectively true. Games aren't like films or books or records where it's a matter of taste, in many cases they can be explainably and provably bad by any metric.
I don’t agree with you, anything is “opinion” when someone gives their viewpoint, whether that is for video games, books, movie or any sort of media. There is no proven (objectively true) unless everyone just agrees, and we know that will never happen.
But let's go with your ‘objectively true’ argument. Let’s say a game like E.T. on the NES. I don’t know (that’s the key) of a person who thinks it’s a good game. However, with Rainbow Moon, I can’t say this is the case. It rates at 70 on Metacritic and there are more of favorable than unfavorable reviews. So I can’t really agree this can be considered an ‘objectively true’ shit, or even bad, game.
My question to you I guess is this: why isn't the grind-free mode just "easy." Why do I have to pay for it? Can you justify that decision?
I'm not saying the game is impossible without grinding, but it wasn't fun enough (for me, with the AI issues) to warrant it. It's especially galling how the grind makes itself known, as well. You're doing fine for 25 or so hours and then all of a sudden you fight a boss who, from absolutely nowhere, can OHKO you simply by virtue of how overpowered he is. He was literally so strong that I thought it was a story battle I was supposed to lose! It wasn't gradual, it was just a brick wall, the balance is off all over the place in this game.
I think if I'd been forced to grind gradually to the point where each boss was slightly tougher than the last based on what level I was at, I wouldn't have such a sour opinion of it, but here I hit this boss and I was basically told that if I want to progress, I'm going to have to spend five to ten hours at least fighting before I can do it, for what feels like no good reason that far into the game.
This is where it’s difficult to answer your question as I played on Hard difficulty.
Yes, I suppose you are right that they could have put in another difficulty, like Easy, (they already had Normal and Hard), instead of putting micro-transactions in. But my guess is it’s because they didn’t have that planned/designed from the beginning, just Normal and Hard, so it would have been a lot more work designing what Easy would entail. So it was easier to put in the micro-transactions instead of going back to the game and taking another ‘x’ amount of months to put in an Easy difficulty.
But that’s also why they have said they have more options in Rainbow Skies for difficulty level. So they have listened to what people have said/had issues with and are making changes. Myself, I was just fine with Hard difficulty, so I wanted to clarify that level will still be available.
There were a couple of times I did run into story bosses where they were just too strong. But again, that is nothing new I’ve experienced with other RPGs, and I mean highly-rated RPGs, as well. It’s just the nature of the beast of the genre, IMO. Should there maybe be better game balancing? Sure, I suppose so, but I don’t view it as a deal-breaker by any means. What I usually did in Rainbow Moon, the few times I ran into it, is I just ran some extra quests I had not completed or activated yet. So there was really no ‘grinding’ needed.
Well what I mean is that either they have confidence in their game or they don't. If they believe in their grind, then that should be how it plays (no microtransactions to skip it!) and if they don't believe in their grind, then that's not how the game should be balanced.
That’s easier said than done. I can’t think of a game where
everyone feels a game is balanced ‘perfectly’. It’s probably one of the hardest things to do for a developer when making a game. It’s easy for us, the players/consumers, to ask “Well, why couldn’t they just design the game where there is NO grinding/extra fighting needed with your party?” So many people have different playstyles that can affect how they raise their characters. For developers to perfectly anticipate all of those can be quite impossible.
That said, there are games that have had some damn fine jobs in regards to balance. But to say it’s a ‘bad’ game because it’s not balanced perfectly for you is not fair at all. However, I think this can go back again to the more options on difficulties for Rainbow Skies where they are trying to do as good job as they can to balance it more for less grinding (for those who don’t want it).
But yeah, I understand that it was their first game and there were teething issues, I always hoped that when the game was re-released on PS4 or whatever it would be totally rebalanced without microtransactions in mind because there is a nice shell of a game there, it's just bogged down in issues to the point where it's really hard to have fun with it. I haven't been keeping tabs on Rainbow Skies but I'm aware of its existence and will certainly be looking out for reviews when it hits, because the potential was there. Certainly won't be blind-buying though!
If you want, you can take a look at their blog for Rainbow Skies, it is:
http://www.rainbow-skies.com/
They have info on the game on their different blog posts. And I know some of it will answer your questions or concerns you’ve expressed so far.
But yes, I think we’ve gone well past being on-topic, even with the recent LRG release of Rainbow Moon. We’ll just have to agree to disagree on the game, but I do hope you give Rainbow Skies a chance.
