I really did not want to waste my time / health writing about something as stupid as the shit in this guys so called "review" but being sick has put me in a bad mood and am going to set shit straight. Also if those are wondering why is the following below so harsh its because I have little to no tolerance for stupid bullshit.
Story
The story in FW was hyped by developers to be amazing. Frankly though, it is attrocious. It starts in the middle of nowhere, and ends in the middle of nowhere. Kind of like picking up a novel, starting about 1/4 of the way in, and ending about 3/4 of the way through and then reading the epilogue. The first half an hour or so of the "game," is it literally lecturing you on background story. The ending also is incredibly rushed, and doesn't really conclude anything. There may be some update to continue the story here in the future, but for now most people are left wondering WTF happened. Not to mention half of the "story" are filler fetch quests.
Love how writer complains about starting in the "middle of nowhere" yet then complains about the "first half hour or so" of the game is about lecturing the player on the background of the story itself.
Though the point about the running back and forth parts of the game are a bit stupid and does effect the story flow which basically is bad design when it comes to story telling in a title like this. Its different when its an actual JRPG for example where you are actually traversing from one area to another or doing something else which distracts you from the fact that its "filler" to keep the player busy. Where as this game its more of an irritation that was unecessary and gets in the way of the story progression itself. Thankfully the devs added in a quick travel system that helps alleviate the potential stress of having to go through all the different zones manually and waiting for the loading in between. Though it does need to be unlocked (bought) in story progression before you can make use of it.
Random sneaking missions that are really badly designed. First of all, FW was supposed to be an action RPG'ish game. Not MGS. Secondly, you can literally just run through all the sneaking missions without "sneaking" by anything, so not only are they out of place, they're badly designed sneaking missions.
No shit you can run right through the sneaking missions. You can do the same in metal gear games or any stealth game for that matter as long as the AI isnt facing you / out of the AIs "circle". It just depends on how far said dev pushes the AI to react to the player and in this game obviously its not very.
Once again this is another issue with poor design as it effects the story flow and totally unnecessary. Same goes for the sections where the so called security has been increased so you need to fight through those areas. As you go in there alone some can be a bit of a chore due to the enemy placement, but thankfully you can just make a bee line to the end point and not have to kill anything. As you are rated on time taken to get to the exit and nothing else. Still game could have done better without those sections.
Absolutely no sense of the (amazing) setting. Its supposed to be a dystopian world where different panopticon-cities are fighting and stealing from each other due to a severe lack of resources left. Instead we have (practically) infinite ammunition, infinite ally/enemy respawns. You really just don't feel any sense of a lack of resources at all in the game. SS, and especially Delta did this aspect far better. All the characters don't act or behave like they're incarcerated what so ever either further diluting the setting.
More herp derp here considering that hes forgetting the fact that we are using parts taken from the abductors to produce all of the materials we need. Granted it never really goes into depth story wise on why we can use all of these factories, still it shows where the resources come from with actual game play.
With how much this guy whines about shit Im sure he would be crying even more if the allies ate into the actual respawn rates or if a special item was needed. The SP portion of the game was obviously balanced around this fact and design wise can imagine they though it would add to the sense of a grand scale with how the combat played out.
Love how he tries to compare it to Soul Sacrifice when that game is totally different in design and with how damage works among other things. Sure you have limited amount of spells but the game was designed so that generally the player can make do with what they have either coming in or from points where they can resupply on the map. In short DONT COMPARE DICKS unless you actually know what you are talking about.
His last line is another stupid comment, considering these people have been living like this for quite some time now with the setting of the game so of course to them everything is going to be taken as part of their daily lives and act accordingly so.
The game was supposed to be about working off a 1 million year prison sentence. However, by the time most people see the Staff credits, they've still got about 900,000 years leftover.
And the issue with that is? Talking about complaining just to complain. There is after story content too in terms of missions and whatnots that also work towards grinding away that sentence. Apparently there has already been gamers who have gotten theirs to 0. Its called having an actual GOAL. Which is something other games dont exactly do besides getting better gear or clearing the story.
Its been said that the game will likely get updates to finish/polish the story, etc. However, with no developer source to quote, this is kinda unlikely. And even if it is true, it means that they have released only a half-finished game.
Someone has not played many titles in the genre obviously. Soul Sacrifice was in a pretty abysmal state content wise when the JP version first came out. It was thanks to all the free content updates that made it a lot better and less bugs too, then Delta greatly improved various things. Would be one recent example.
Weapons/Gearing
FW is supposed to be a hackslash/action RPG game but it is much easier to just craft gear. The gear you get from Abductors(bosses) are generally trash. Its much easier to "farm" trash mobs for gear. But even then, after you kill them you need to wait for the mob to despawn (about a minute or so) for you to pick up the weapons they drop.
Where the hell does he get the idea that its a hackslash / action RPG from? This comment alone shows that you folks should not even be taking the time to read this garbage.
The next problem is that he says gear from abductors is generally trash but farming trash mobs for gear is better, this isnt correct considering the stats are still random plus they dont always drop weapons. Just as abductors dont always drop weapons. Its all luck based. If you really want stuff with good starting quality then just use your factories. The largest factor that makes this comment beyond stupid is the fact that the stats on the drops are all RANDOM. Personally you are just better off going after abductors than trying to constantly kill humanoid type of enemies and hope weapons drop. Though there are certain stages where weapon drops are more frequent from humanoid enemies than others. For skill collecting its not actually a bad idea to keep running those types of maps. But for specific weapons as a base you are better off using a factory. The downside is time put into doing those missions with mainly human enemies you hardly get any resources back or time shaved off of your sentence. So there is that part of the sacrifice to go only after weapons from a mission.
Crafting/modding gear is limited by in game resources and real time timer. However, at best, you can only control up to 50% of the modifications on your gear. The other 50% if completely random. This makes creating good weapons all about save scumming or savestate upload/download marathons.
While it is a bit random, its not that hard to get decent stats on your silver or gold rating weapons if you just have the various other skills ready. Or prep a pre-modded weapon. More whining just to whine make shit look like more of a problem than it is. What a drama queen.
To fully upgrade your gear you need to get items that only spawn in randomly occurring events, or some items cannot even be crafted/upgraded in the current state of the game due to nothing available dropping materials required.
Wat? Most hunting games dont allow you to fully upgrade things till past a certain point due to obvious game balance. When you reach that wall it obviously means the weapon is strong enough for said section of the game. He must mean the "Tenbatsu" type of missions as those have special enemies within them and its no different than for example the special missions that have appeared in the monster hunter series which is your general chance to get a certain part needed to upgrade your weapons.
One of the main timesinks of the game is supposed to be the weapon crafting/modding. However, the system in the game is simply too RNG based. Other action games may also have RNG, but not to the level that is in FW. You can spend a whole day trying to perfect a weapon and have absolutely nothing to show for it because of one bad roll.
As stated total drama queen. Ive created a lot of weapons that are highly servicable with little to no effort. Its more a matter of just getting the type of skills you want to try and stick on your weapon. Even without those exact skills/ you can make do perfectly fine as long as you have said weapon upgraded to whatever you can currently max it out to.
Some of the plants aren't unlocked even after fully completing the game and getting 0 years on your sentence. Just another point toward the game being incomplete. They may be added in a further update, or as paid DLC.
bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch etc. seriously you do not need that many plants and most of the time by the time you are done with a mission whatever you were making is complete. Id hate to see this guy try and play an RTS if he cant figure out how to make the most use of the 7 slots available for factories. If you kept running all the factories full steam I highly doubt you would even have any resources left to do anything with.
Actions/Controls
This may be because of the Vita hardware but it feels like there aren't enough buttons. You can't do things like Run while controlling your camera and shooting at the same time because of button positioning etc.
Available control schemes are very limited and while some allow you to do some simple things easier (aim and shoot at the same time,) they lose a lot of practicality in other settings.
This is more of a personal pref thing and it will vary from person to person so not going to rail the guy for this. But from my own standpoint had ZERO issues with the default controls. Adapt and overcome.
There are only very few different Abductors (bosses,) in the game. 5. 7 if you want to be generous.
This is true, its more variations of the standard "skeleton" looking one. There are the 2 leg type and the 4 legged type, which from there the upper body is whats different and the parts attached to the arms / torso. One of the torso types has spinning blades that shoot out from the back, but asides from that nothing else Ive seen attaches to that particular hardpoint. The actual different type of bosses would include the spider, tiger, dragon.
While graphically not as impressive, each of the abductors does have its own sort of attack pattern depending on how they are loaded out. BUT once you remove all of those extra weapons, they go in to the same type of attack pattern for the leg type of said abductor.
There are only 7 different stages/arenas to fight in.
Nothing new to see here, since its not like many other games in the genre with their first title have a lot of areas. But what he forgets to mention is the weather settings do give the same stages its own unique feel to it.
Default dodging does nothing. It doesn't send you far enough away to dodge an actual attack, and there are no evade frames. Dodging only becomes viable with a dodge-booster, but the cost efficiency of normal defense boosters are far better.
Basically yes dodging is useless for the most part and you dont want to waste a boost slot with the dodge distance upgraded. You are far better off trying to latch onto something or sprint your ass away than rolling. One of the few sane things this writer says. Defense is far more important in this game due to our low HP pool that we work with.
The game desperately needs basic jumping, although it would be very difficult to fit into the current control scheme. It is kind of annoying to have to use your thorn to cross over even very small obstacles.
There is also a good point here. While you can vault over things like barricades other smaller objects that have actual collision properities can stop the player from advancing forcing the use of the thorn. Not much can be done here as obviously the game uses up all the buttons, which means you will just have to keep this in mind while you navigate the map. The devs obviously chose to put priority on the ibara system than also allowing for more vaulting over objects and such.
General Balance. General balance in the game is pretty whack. You can get randomly 1-chained by infinite respawning convicts(trash mobs).
Next time try not standing in the middle of the enemies alone eh? There is more of an issue with ranged enemies being way too accurate, than getting constantly hit by melee ones. Its more the abductors that will constantly hit you after you get up. Due to the timing of their attacks + timing of the player getting up animation / lack of any sort of invulnerability frames.
Missions
Because of the lack of different abductors, the game tries to vary itself by spawning multiple abductors together. This makes the difficulty curve spike up at higher levels. It also makes it (almost) impossible to solo higher-level missions, but far too easy with NPC allies.
Well no shit you shouldnt be soloing things if the game was obviously designed for play with NPCs or other players. The damage output design with this game was not made for you + accessory vs (insertbadguys) in the later stages. Its called difference in design, dont always expect one game to be like another. Sides most of the time only high level players are the ones who go and solo multiple enemies at once. The God Eater series is similar in the fact you will get roflstomped in later missions where its multiple boss enemies at once esp with how their attack patterns work. No different in this game, besides the design was made with the AI players in mind.
Wouldnt say it makes it far too easy, considering some fights can take up a huge amount of time. It makes the mission clearable more like it. Since some will have you fighting over a period of time 6 abductors. And thats just a number thought up quickly off the top of my head from one mission I remember.
Basically ANY game in the genre is meant to be difficult with multiple enemies at once due to the obvious fact that its just the sheer amount of enemy HP vs player HP so it becomes an endurance match.
There are slightly varied mission objectives, such as escorting an allied abductor, but you only do this one time. Zone-control missions are only very few and far between.
Yep the different mission types keep things fresh over the KILL THIS KILL THAT btw did I mention KILL THAT OVER THERE TOO? Thank god the zone control missions are far and few. Since those are the largest headache, just due to how AI management works. Also some of the level design gives the enemy an advantage over the player. So a lot of the time you wind up clearing them just barely.
The game has severe FPS drops when enemy reinforcements arrive really messing with the pacing of the game.
I generally hate FPS whores and this guys comment is no different. But this game it is highly noticable and its not really an FPS drop as you literally dont move for a second or so. Which shows that the game is loading in data. Its not that it turns into a slideshow. Not sure if they would be able to fix this, but my guess is that with their schedule this was the best they could do for the time being. It doesnt really effect "pacing" as if the game is loading in another enemy / enemies then it means everything else is dead and there is no threat to you if it pauses for a second.
Enemy-convicts (trash mobs) have perfect aim and extremely high firepower and can kill you randomly while you're fighting an Abductor. Think of fighting infinite respawning aimbots in an FPS.
While not perfect aim, their accuracy is quite high, esp with the precision weapons. Situational awareness is the key here. As the other enemies joining in the fight is part of the game design, you will just have to suck it up and deal with it. As long as you stay with the rest of your party it never gets too bad unless you do something stuid and take on a tenbatsu mission (1 time limited mission) before you should. Having your AI partners leveled up by purchasing the level increase unlocks is also important to the overall survival rate of them, yourself and damage output by said AI partners.
Allied NPCs are extremely stupid. They don't dodge. They don't evade. Just stand and tank damage in a game where you're supposed to try to stay away from big hits from abductors.
For someone that tried to praise Soul Sacrifice I laugh at how he thinks these AI are stupid. Sure they might not dodge, but at the same time they still perform a lot of other actions. Its not perfect or close to the best which we have seen which was the first God Eater game, but by far not totally stupid like with what we got stuck with in Soul Sacrifice. The AI can actually take down an abductor on their own if you have enough of them together on a target. Ive had that happen multiple times, which goes to show that they were attacking and healing each other enough to survive a full combat roll against an abductor without my intervention. This was on the higher rank missions too.
The post-story missions become available randomly, not through requirements etc. This means some players play for 50+ hours and not be able to progress the game.
Once again bitching just to bitch.
Etc.
You can't change your control scheme until you finish the tutorial. Minor gripe.
That is a general bad design choice as there are some people who want to have comfortable controls from the get go. If possible they do need to address this in a patch.
Loadscreens are quite long. Most being about 30s.
Compared to other games in the genre its standard fare. Not exactly a mark against it, besides how the game is designed for the story bits that has you loading into various areas of the Panopticon. But in pure sense of just loading time, its standard fare once again.
Generally un-intuitive out-of-mission UI. You kinda have to deal with 3 different menus to get everything done. (Start button for "main menu," talking with your accessory, and then there's the bulletin board as well.)
Wat? If you have trouble understanding this its time to give up gaming. Not that hard. Trust me you wouldnt want a massive menu if they went and tried to fit everything in a single entity.
Breakdown is this
1. Start button menu, can be accessed anywhere.
- Volunteer List
- Equipment
- Obtained Items
- Factory (equipment production)
- Fellow Prisoner list *your / others player card(s)
- Others Accessory *able to check other accessories of people you have met.
2. Accessory menu, can only be accessed while in your cell.
- Permission to leave cell (go to city area)
- Co-op mode
- Accessory modification (AI commands / voice)
- Requirements for next rank
- Tutorials
- Past cutscenes
- Accquire special rewards (items given when special requirements are completed on a mission, such as not dying, defeating all abductors etc.)
- Save Data
3. Video Monitor menu, can only be accessed while in cell.
- Purchase Rights (its whats used to purchase all things necessary for game advancement, upgrading your AI characters level, equipment production level, ibara level etc. basically one of the most important menus in the game)
- Give items to your Panopticon (allows you to get rid of unwanted items and exchange them for years off of your sentence along with gaining in game currency. If connected online the points awarded will go towards the overall value of the Panopticon you have joined.)
- Special Volunteer Mission (these pop up at random and are the high risk type of missions but the reward of 10,000 years of off ones sentence and type of parts you can bring back makes it worth it if you can complete the mission. BUT its a one shot deal you fail the mission and thats it. Unable to re-do said mission until another one pops up.)
- Panopticon ranking (Where you can check the ranking of your Panopticon and the others in your region)
- Cell Street Journal (its like general information in regards to the game, events, content etc that is updated every now and then from the devs)
- Change Outfit (for the player and accessory, accessory modification is unlocked later in the game)
- Change Physical Appearance (for the player and accessory, accessory modification is unlocked later in the game)
tl;dr FW has great core gameplay. Everything else is severely lacking. It feels like they released an unfinished game.
Talk about stupid, if he thinks this unfinished Id hate to see what he thinks a finished game is. The usual comment made by the "modern" entitled gamer.
EDIT: To put things in perspective here are the links to the JP Amazon ratings for Freedom Wars and how they compare with similar games on the PSVita.
Soul Sacrifice Delta - 4.5
Toukiden - 4.3
God Eater 2 - 3.8
Freedom Wars - 2.6
Not exactly the best comparisons considering the game is well done and for the most part perfectly fine, but its more people who dont want to adjust are review bombing it. Considering how amazons review system is broken as shit too Id say this is not a good way of showing the products quality.