So it took me 26 hours to beat the game. That's with pretty minimal but still SOME exploration, hunts and side-quests done (I got the "finish 10 side quests" trophy and still did quite a few after that, but not enough for 20). I didn't want another Witcher 3 situation where I do 100 hours of sidequests in between short spurts of main story advancement that makes me lose track of what the fuck is happening, so I decided to rush through the story first and then would explore the world more fully after seeing the story through.
Overall I've enjoyed most of my time with the game a lot, but that was more to do with how enjoyable I found traversing the world, some of the banter between the friends and a lot of the combat scenarios (though not all), less with story. The story I felt had potential up until Altissia, then it's fast forward time that left me pretty cold. The final chapter was epic but most everything except some stuff between the bros lacked impact due to how rushed it and almost everything building up to it were. The game has a lot of striking moments (destruction of Tenebrae, death of Luna, seeing the World of Ruin etc.) that lack impact because they just kind of happen and then that's that.
The story just feels so bare-bones except for the relationship & happenings between the bros (even that often feels a bit rushed, but at least there's a bit more substance in that aspect). I think it starts off ok and while there are flaws many have mentioned (like cutscenes ending abruptly, stuff that feels like we SHOULD HAVE seen but are just missing leaving things a bit confusing etc.), it still maintains some modicum of decent pacing & cohesiveness up until Altissia and I enjoyed a lot of the character interactions (except Bros <-> Ardyn, those were just weird most of the time).
Then you're just suddenly thrust into the Leviathan batturu. I mean, the game kinda builds up to getting to Altissia for the whole duration before that, but it would still have been better to have some more built-up & time IN Altissia before being thrust into the Leviathan battle. Then shit happens and you're thrown into a train that fast forwards through everything (except that damn Ch. 13 that goes on for-fucking-ever). Ch. 13 is actually somewhat decent from a story concept POV (learning of all the horrors that was being done in Niflheim), but that too kind of comes out of nowhere or not necessarily out of nowhere, but is introduced too suddenly and could have been better presented in the game.
Then there's the fact that so many characters are just missing who seemed like they could be important characters with at least some screentime in the game prior to release and during the years of hype. Surprisingly a character I thought would be a pretty throwaway one (the Dragoon lady, sorry, these characters are in the game so little that my brain just fails to remember their names) has more screentime/character development than Luna, her brother, the old evil scientist dude and a lot of others who were made up to be important.
This feels less like Tabata taking the intended Versus Saga and at least somewhat carefully editing that into something that can be told in a single game and more like they just cut cut cut cut cut cut cut stuff until it seemed like it's about the length of something they could do. Like, I feel there's the makings of a really good story (and it feels like it might at least partly deliver on it up until Altissia) and a lot of the characters have what seem like compelling story arcs (dragoon lady starting to doubt being involved with Niflheim, Luna's brother not actually being evil but just thinking Noctis is incompetent, evil scientist messing with daemons and ending up becoming one himself etc.), but many of those characters are barely in the game during the first part (which I could kind of understand) and then we hop on a magic train that shows us the cliff-notes of what happens and people just suddenly die or sacrifice themselves or become heroes of the people or turn into Beelzebubs (mostly off-screen) without having more than 5 minutes of screentime. I would have expected Niflheim's top brass to become more relevant once we started getting closer to Niflheim & the end-game, but those people just aren't in the game at all.
Prior to Altissia it feels like maybe 20-30% of the story is missing - so a lot but not so much it feels like you're missing most of the story - past Altissia it feels like 90% of the story is missing. Dragoon Lady's story arc is the best explored one and even that is a pretty bare-bones. Evil Scientist dude & the old Emperor are in the game for, what, 1-2 minutes? Do we even see them more than once prior to the reveal of their demises in Chapter 13? There was this abrupt cutscene maybe around Chapter 4-6 and then Niflheim is just devoid of any non-daemon life in Ch. 13 and shit has just happened without much building up to it. Are they a part of some sidequests I didn't do?
Sooo... Anyhoo, in conclusion, more or less enjoyable world, exploration & combat, occasionally surprisingly decent writing/dialogue, but rushed & unsatisfactory overall story that left me cold other than some of the the Bro Stuff, which was handled pretty decently.
I'd give this a 8/10. Despite feeling fairly negative of the overall story (neat concepts, lacking execution most of the time), the sense of place in the world is so great and thus exploring it and the combat are so enjoyable for me that a 7/10 would feel a bit too low for how much I enjoyed my time with the game.
Prompto deserved to live.
Nomura is at least credited for main character design.
) clears it up.
