Release: 2023
Developer/Publisher: Square Enix
Gameplay Stats: 78 hours, game and both DLCs completed, 62/69 achievements
A good game but a mid Final Fantasy game. Devil May Fantasy? I had a lot of fun playing this and if it weren't a mainline Final Fantasy game I think I would have had more fun. Some thoughts:
-The tone of the game is so serious. Most of the series that I have played include some goofiness and moments of levity. I think the only time I laughed in this game was talking to the moogle. Lots of the games are in bleak settings, but the levity makes a huge difference. Also, no minigames in this game which is weird.
-I thought they missed opportunities to use elemental weaknesses. That is a big part of the mainline games and wasn't used at all here. Every type of spell does the same damage. Even fire spells damage the lizard that lives in magma!
-There was a scoring system that could have been used in regular combat. It highlights the moves you make in different colors, but it doesn't matter. My understanding was that the combat director for this game worked on Devil May Cry so it feels great! But it's weird that it takes notice of your moves the whole game but it doesn't have an impact outside of the time trials that are unlocked at the end.
-I wish the party members had more time to shine. In many of the other games you follow one character but get to delve pretty deeply into many of the other characters back stories. There were some really meaty backstories in this game! But they serve only to be exposition. None of the characters seem to carry trauma from all the shit they've seen. They are just words.
-The music goes so hard! They didn't need to do all the chanting, but it was really cool. Made the kaiju battles feel even more epic, for lack of a better word.
-I wish you could have used the kaiju/Eikon powers more. I played this game over a long while and I literally had to look up controls for the big fights at one point because it had been so long and I'd forgotten them. Maybe some kind of scoring mode while you fight as Ifrit? Similar to the trials you can face as Clive.
Overall, this was a really good game. I was a little disappointed because Final Fantasy has such a huge legacy to live up to and I am a fan of that legacy. Weirdly I think I would recommend this game as an entry into the series, but I'd want to give a lot of caveats if someone was already a fan of these games.
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