Finished up the 2nd dungeon and what I'm assuming is the first half of the game (map is a little under 50% now). Still a very boring game outside the boss of each dungeon which are solid boss fights and the highlights for sure.
I'm pretty much just speedrunning it at this point, rolling across the maps, skipping most of the dialogue since the story/writing/characters all seem completely uninteresting, and not bothering with the quests really. The game just seems so dull for an arpg I want to get it over as fast as I can or at least get to the tougher parts. The first two dungeon designs were quite boring and the overworld is incredibly boring and way too big. Traversing around, dungeon design, combat, characters, music, graphics, and story just feel so much worse than Ys Seven so far.
It just seems like one of those Japanese games that's been so dumbed down in a musou way that it's just dull to play. Feels like a waste of time playing it tbh. Waiting for that 2nd half where the difficult picks up and hopefully you get to pick your party members.
In a way the game reminds me of FFXIII, where it felt like it was handholding and boring and it wasn't until like 20 hours in when it really became a game. Hopefully this does not take 20 hours, but at 7 hours-ish that's already criminally long for being non-game-y.
I kind of feel like I'm done trusting any rpg that comes out of Japan at this point if it's not made by Atlus internal or From Soft Souls team. All the other rpg companies don't seem like they know how to make good games anymore. It's like they're just not putting in much effort. It's all filler and padding and no challenge which makes for boring boring games
Or maybe I'm just over Japanese rpgs at this point. I got bored of Xillia and shelved it, got bored of FFXIII-2 and shelved it, got bored of Crimson Shroud and shelved it, if Celceta wasn't so short I'd probably shelve it at this point. Devil Survivor 2 was probably the last good rpg I've played from the east. Kingdom Hearts 3D was ok too, just not great; but at least it wasn't boring.