Desert Wolf
06-12-2008, 02:19 AM
So I have finally gotten around to finishing the game. With exams and stuff I sort of stopped playing just before I went to board the Bahamut. I decided to give it another go tonight and managed to get through the last few fights without dying which is good because there is no save point anywhere. If I did die on the last battle I could see the game gathering dust for another few months before I thought about going through the last section of the game again. So anyways I said I'd give my thoughts on the game.
At first I had mixed feelings about the combat but looking back on it I think its probably the best system yet. Makes going through areas and dungeons much more bearable. It seems to take fucking hours to level up though when you get anyway strong. Now I finished the game with everyone around level 46 or 47 because it was taking far too long to level up. As nice as the combat system is it doesnt really take away the boredom of power leveling.
Its probably due to my lack of leveling that made this game so damn hard for me. At one stage I found myself having to run through an area because the normal monsters were becoming a problem. Its not like I neglected my leveling up I just didnt wander around the same patch until things were dropping away in one hit. It seems to me like a game that makes you have to actually level yourself which breaks up the story given how much of it you seem to have to do. Running through an area killing just the guys who get in your way seemed good enough for me until I was forced to do more.
Now for the licence board. Its a good idea in theory but not one im very fond of. Maybe if the whole ability section was seperate from the armour section. So you didnt have to spend points on one or the other but rather gained ability points for magic,techniques,etc and then some other points for unlocking weapons,armour,etc at the end of a battle. I found myself getting myself abilities and techniques that to be honest are completly useless. I tried to get a balance between making new weapons available and getting new magic and stuff but this just meant I had to do even more leveling!
Another big problem I had is money. Fair enough its more realistic that monsters dont carry wallets full of change around but the loot sells for half nothing most of the time. It just leads to more pointless grind. It seems everything you need can be got from going out and just killing stuff.
I really did like the characters though. Balthier is probably my favourite character from any final fantasy. I also thought it was cool that we controled Vaan even though he was sort of secondry to the others like Basch and Balthier. You're always in control of the strongest and coolest of the lot so its kind of cool to be doing things differently here.
I found the story to be vague mostly. You could blame it on me not playing the game for a couple of months but even when I was playing it I didnt make much sense of it either. Vaynes motivation to rule the world seemed to come from his ambition to be a complete bastard and nothing more. Well there was something to do what that ghost thing he talked to but to me the plot never seemed to be going anywhere. Its like I was always waiting for the story to really get into it. Perhaps someone can enlighten me to the actual plot.
Did the word "Starwars" pop into anyones mind at all? The start with the airships fighting reminded me of it a hell of a lot and when it got to the end I was half expecting to be firing shit into a hole on the top of Bahamut instead of fighting a last boss. This isnt really relevant to anything its just an impression I got.
To conclude I did like the game a bit. It was a new idea and the characters could be pretty funny at time. At the same time I did lose interest in the game. Sure I took a break away from the game for a while but there was nothing calling me back to it. It was like I was putting off playing it again. Theres a lot for me still to do, I havent hunted down half the monsters and there are a lot of doors to be opened but to be very honest I dont think I could be bothered doing any of it. I only really finished the game just to say I had actually finished it. Im sure some people enjoyed it a lot and thats fair enough but for me its far from the best game in the series.
At first I had mixed feelings about the combat but looking back on it I think its probably the best system yet. Makes going through areas and dungeons much more bearable. It seems to take fucking hours to level up though when you get anyway strong. Now I finished the game with everyone around level 46 or 47 because it was taking far too long to level up. As nice as the combat system is it doesnt really take away the boredom of power leveling.
Its probably due to my lack of leveling that made this game so damn hard for me. At one stage I found myself having to run through an area because the normal monsters were becoming a problem. Its not like I neglected my leveling up I just didnt wander around the same patch until things were dropping away in one hit. It seems to me like a game that makes you have to actually level yourself which breaks up the story given how much of it you seem to have to do. Running through an area killing just the guys who get in your way seemed good enough for me until I was forced to do more.
Now for the licence board. Its a good idea in theory but not one im very fond of. Maybe if the whole ability section was seperate from the armour section. So you didnt have to spend points on one or the other but rather gained ability points for magic,techniques,etc and then some other points for unlocking weapons,armour,etc at the end of a battle. I found myself getting myself abilities and techniques that to be honest are completly useless. I tried to get a balance between making new weapons available and getting new magic and stuff but this just meant I had to do even more leveling!
Another big problem I had is money. Fair enough its more realistic that monsters dont carry wallets full of change around but the loot sells for half nothing most of the time. It just leads to more pointless grind. It seems everything you need can be got from going out and just killing stuff.
I really did like the characters though. Balthier is probably my favourite character from any final fantasy. I also thought it was cool that we controled Vaan even though he was sort of secondry to the others like Basch and Balthier. You're always in control of the strongest and coolest of the lot so its kind of cool to be doing things differently here.
I found the story to be vague mostly. You could blame it on me not playing the game for a couple of months but even when I was playing it I didnt make much sense of it either. Vaynes motivation to rule the world seemed to come from his ambition to be a complete bastard and nothing more. Well there was something to do what that ghost thing he talked to but to me the plot never seemed to be going anywhere. Its like I was always waiting for the story to really get into it. Perhaps someone can enlighten me to the actual plot.
Did the word "Starwars" pop into anyones mind at all? The start with the airships fighting reminded me of it a hell of a lot and when it got to the end I was half expecting to be firing shit into a hole on the top of Bahamut instead of fighting a last boss. This isnt really relevant to anything its just an impression I got.
To conclude I did like the game a bit. It was a new idea and the characters could be pretty funny at time. At the same time I did lose interest in the game. Sure I took a break away from the game for a while but there was nothing calling me back to it. It was like I was putting off playing it again. Theres a lot for me still to do, I havent hunted down half the monsters and there are a lot of doors to be opened but to be very honest I dont think I could be bothered doing any of it. I only really finished the game just to say I had actually finished it. Im sure some people enjoyed it a lot and thats fair enough but for me its far from the best game in the series.