Just finished the game...
I had this picture in the catalog from when Noctis firsts wakes up after the time skip and hes sitting and looking at the ground and he looks like Sad Keanu. I wish I wouldve used that picture as it perfectly wouldve summed up the game
Everyone gripes about chapter 13, which I do feel like it deserves it, but chapter 9 was far worse to me. The leviathan fight was the biggest pile of jank I've seen in a long time. 13 was a slog that limits combat, but I already fucking hated the combat so just limiting the combat didnt really make it any worse, just more of a slog. The ring was OP anyway, could march right through every enemy with just holy, and as long as you only use holy you never run out of MP either, and 1 shot iron giants with the one spell just by running away first.
Of course when holy breaks dudes weapons you get stupid shit like this:
https://youtu.be/Lt3cLnpftIo
And then you cant kill them until you have full MP. At least for me anyway. I couldnt use death on them since Id run out of MP before the spell actually killed them, I had to use the full MP spell/
Since I'm in the spoiler thread though:
I couldnt give fuckall about Noctis, Gladio, and Ignis throughout this game.Noct starts out as a brat, moves to having no personality, then becomes an insufferable brooding twat after chapter 9.
Gladio is just there most of the time, and others hes just a prick. Before fighting Titan Noct goes "I'm tired of all this walking" which made really no sense at the time but w/e and then Gladio just freaks the fuck out. "I'm tired of all your whining!". I have no idea what the fuck brought that on. Noct hasnt been whining, he hasnt been doing fucking anything. Gladio does this again in the later chapters too.
Ignis then basically nothing. Hes there, gets blinded by who fucking knows what cause, and then acts as some sort of anchor to a dispute in the final chapters that makes no sense to be happening.
The chapters post 9 show a game truly rushed to its conclusion. Chapter 9's meetings in Altissia showed some decent promise to a political game storyline, but this chapter just says fuck it and ends the entire political game and just has Ardyn start immediately taking everything over.
Ardyn mightve actually been a good villain if it wasnt so rushed. If the game wouldve let the Empire continue to be the villain for a while longer, really play up the emperor and and their conquest before Ardyn actually swooped in. Let Noctis group feel some victory against Niflheim before Ardyn ruins it. Let the Niflheim characters actually do something. That early scene showing the empire had 5 people in it. The emperor, Ravus, Aranea, the balding guy with the beard whose name I dont even know, and one more I forgot. What the hell even happened to the last two. Where was their chance to even be villains. I dont remember them in a single scene after that. Meanwhile Ravus becomes a pile of nothing and a shitty boss fight, the emperor becomes a random demon boss, and Aranea is...well on to other side characters.
This game is as bad as FFXIII with side characters. They are so close to irrelevant its ridiculous. Aranea had some decent quips and potential, but shes barely in the game. Iris feels completely inconsequential (though her little walk around quest was decent world and character building), Cid is just there for a quick reminiscence and Cor was....why was Cor even there? He just tells you to find some swords and apologizes for Regus's death and thats it. And of course Luna, fridge girl.
With the Luna topic again, why the hell does this game want to try and make you care about shit after the fact. First with Insomnia and King Regis's death, then with Jarod's death (LOL), and next with Luna. Theres like 3 or 4 scenes in the last 4 chapters of Luna flashbacks. Here with her wedding dress talking about marrying Noct and being happy with the arrangement, Her with Ravus talking about getting the ring to Noctis, and at least one more I already forgot. Why is this shown after she died? The character was so damn worthless that if you at least gave her this screen time earlier you couldve maybe given people some reason to care about her before shes just offed. Then this whole random flashback happens at the very end of the game. After the first credits the game flashes back to the final camp ground and has Noct getting all emotional. I figured this was going to be him letting the guys know that he had to throw his life away to kill Ardyn, but he just says some sappy shit that kindve alludes to it. Idk, it was dumb, but it shouldve actually been shown during the final camping to actually add something going into the final battle.
The game feels so desperate to give you "feels" without ever actually earning it. Especially with how much is off screen. The guys showing up in the afterlife was random as fuck when the last time we saw them they were just preparing to fight off some demons. They held off an absurd horde in chapter 13 so that shouldnt have been any trouble, but nope they actually died.
Then the post credits scene. What the fuck was up with that. Was it the afterlife? If it is why does the afterlife look exactly like Eos post World of Ruin and has the sun coming up due to Noctis's action. Did noctis save a mirror after life at the same time? Was it some weird time shenanigans based on his actions and thats why hes young again? Seriously, what the fuck was the point
At least him and Luna got to look at that sweet picture of Aranea.
I'm just done...
that was a terrible game, it joins Final Fantasy II as the only mainline games in the series
I just straight consider bad games.
_/¯ goes to show how shallow folks can be with character design. What people don't realize is how moppy cloud really is.. remake should highlight this.
