Surprised more people don't play this

[Valhalla]

I am not even a big FF fan, but I gave this a shot because Steam said it was similar to Monster Hunter and Dark Souls. And sure enough, I do get a very MH vibe from it.

And it is surprisingly gory for a FF game. And it runs great, feels great, combat is great.

I feel like this game kinda got released under the radar, because most people don't even know what it is.

Glad I picked it up this Steam sale though. It is better than I was expecting.

[Ashley]

Same here.

It's certainly repetitive, but who cares when you're having fun, right?
Even the story, which is a little stupid at times, ended up hitting a few notes.
You can tell they had to cut a bunch of corners though, and I wouldn't exactly say that it runs all that well. For a game that taxes my Steam Deck about as much as God of War, it certainly doesn't look the part (which is quite scathing for a game that exclusively takes place in corridors, rather than an open world).

Still worth it on sale, depending on what you're looking for.

[Valhalla]

Originally posted by Ashley:

Same here.

It's certainly repetitive, but who cares when you're having fun, right?
Even the story, which is a little stupid at times, ended up hitting a few notes.
You can tell they had to cut a bunch of corners though, and I wouldn't exactly say that it runs all that well. For a game that taxes my Steam Deck about as much as God of War, it certainly doesn't look the part (which is quite scathing for a game that exclusively takes place in corridors, rather than an open world).

Still worth it on sale, depending on what you're looking for.

Games like Monster Hunter and Dark Souls can be quite repetitive as well. But that is what usually gets people hooked on those games. The constant chase of getting better and better items to take on harder and harder enemies. It is that grinding loop that some people love, and some people hate.

[Overeagerdragon]

I dunno about other Final fantasy fans but as for me (as a fan) I'm really put off by the lack of proper story as well as the combat being finnicky at times (read that as enemy AI deciding it wants to cheese you to death with cheap hits like spamming AoE's whilst you're stuck in a corner)... I get why people like the faster and more souls-like combat but that's EXACTLY why it doesn't make it feel like a final fantasy for me....

To me, it feels more like an attempt to make a Devil May Cry with souls-like elements...

[⭕TheSodaman]

Originally posted by Overeagerdragon:

I dunno about other Final fantasy fans but as for me (as a fan) I'm really put off by the lack of proper story as well as the combat being finnicky at times (read that as enemy AI deciding it wants to cheese you to death with cheap hits like spamming AoE's whilst you're stuck in a corner)... I get why people like the faster and more souls-like combat but that's EXACTLY why it doesn't make it feel like a final fantasy for me....

To me, it feels more like an attempt to make a Devil May Cry with souls-like elements...

I can't say I've seen the AoE spam. And as your comfort with executing the core mechanics increase, there should be nothing in the game that feels cheap. Quick, yes, but not cheap.

Would also say, this game is so far from a Souls-like or a Souls game that I am deeply appreciative of that fact. Was also not fond of Elden Ring combat or Dark Souls 1 for that matter, enough that I couldn't get into it at launch and a couple months before Elden Ring's launch.

For the story, is that even after completing the game and the DLC? I recall being story famished through most of the game and then by the time where I just wanted to fight, loot, and build - the game was dumping story on me that I was too angry to care about.

[Overeagerdragon]

Originally posted by ⭕TheSodaman:

Originally posted by Overeagerdragon:

I dunno about other Final fantasy fans but as for me (as a fan) I'm really put off by the lack of proper story as well as the combat being finnicky at times (read that as enemy AI deciding it wants to cheese you to death with cheap hits like spamming AoE's whilst you're stuck in a corner)... I get why people like the faster and more souls-like combat but that's EXACTLY why it doesn't make it feel like a final fantasy for me....

To me, it feels more like an attempt to make a Devil May Cry with souls-like elements...

I can't say I've seen the AoE spam. And as your comfort with executing the core mechanics increase, there should be nothing in the game that feels cheap. Quick, yes, but not cheap.

Would also say, this game is so far from a Souls-like or a Souls game that I am deeply appreciative of that fact. Was also not fond of Elden Ring combat or Dark Souls 1 for that matter, enough that I couldn't get into it at launch and a couple months before Elden Ring's launch.

For the story, is that even after completing the game and the DLC? I recall being story famished through most of the game and then by the time where I just wanted to fight, loot, and build - the game was dumping story on me that I was too angry to care about.

The finnicky isn't all the times, that is kinda what irks me... but a couple of examples... on the ice shrine you have to fight a pack of lobo's with an ogre mixed in... the lobo's decided to dive my MC with nonstop corckscrews whilst the ogre just spammed his grab and I do mean they did NOTHING else.... later on there's a mad ogre with 2 elementals down a corridor.... the elementals just took turns spamming Aeroga's whilst the ogre whirlwinded and nothing else.... Sure it's easily solved by having a BLM and spamming right back but encounter that some 3 or 4 times in quick tandem... The dragon at the end had an instance where it just spammed his breath attack over and over and over and over again.... Couple that with Ai who's sometimes just braindead and instances like that really suck the fun out of the game

And with soulslike I more meant that you feel like you're made of paper regardless of your class... a small mistake can easily make it so you having potions doesn't matter if you don't get the chance to use any of them

As for story....I haven't gotten to the DLC yet... but that better be good because I'm at the brink of tuning out permanently and as a fan of FF-storytelling and having played a LOT of RPG's (not just FF) so far this one is the worst I've seen yet...

Don't get me wrong though; I like the game a lot when it works... but I'm not feeling like I'm playing a FF at all

[Kyutaru]

Originally posted by Overeagerdragon:

As for story....I haven't gotten to the DLC yet... but that better be good because I'm at the brink of tuning out permanently and as a fan of FF-storytelling and having played a LOT of RPG's (not just FF) so far this one is the worst I've seen yet...

Don't get me wrong though; I like the game a lot when it works... but I'm not feeling like I'm playing a FF at all

So if you don't like the swift death spammy combat now, you're reeeally not going to like the DLC. Luckily, unless you feel like grinding a lot, you'll most likely get through the DLC using Extra mode which has substantial advantages including the option for flat out God mode using an ability literally called Invincible. The game is worth it for the story and the DLC can be surmounted in immortality mode just to see it. Your gear probably won't be up to snuff to handle the content right out of the gate without the cheats and each DLC represents a new forced higher difficulty mode, to the point that by endgame you'll feel like it's not Dark Souls but Sekiro (you didn't parry? you died.)

This actually does feel like a Final Fantasy to me because it fits the trend that they've had since Kingdom Hearts. FF13, FF15, FF16, FF7R, they're all going this action combat route. Except in this game, EVERY battle is Ultimate Dark Angel Sephiroth. Even that little goblin over there can one shot bonk you in the endgame DLC. It seems the way people tackle things is by farming the DLC loot for hyper combo builds which either requires some cheese or a lot of repetitive grinding (since other players had a YEAR to do this off Steam). If you just want to see the story, you have nothing to worry about, but the combat does get quite a bit fiercer without the immortality armor. It's kill them before they kill you.

Souls games are slow. Your character actions are slow so you have to plan every attack or dodge because you will be punished for making the wrong move. This game is not slow. You will be punished for not executing a hyper combo then split second cancelling into a soul shield counter. Your best defense is a titanic offense and the early game really doesn't showcase this well but the DLC will.

I'd attribute this game's feel more to something like Borderlands than actual Souls games because the bullets will be flying and if you take even one of them you're going down. Best thing you can do is pack some ludicrous guns and eliminate everything before it can act. This is kind of the Japanese meta when it comes to action games, denying your enemy the ability to do anything (the Devil May Cry analogy is spot on).

But for me, Final Fantasy has never been about the combat but the story. I mean old FF games have so many ways to cheese that it's not even a challenge. People have soloed games with White Mages, beaten them at lvl 1, killed bosses with a single phoenix down, etc. The combat is always janky and the best balanced of them was probably FFX or the MMO FFXIV. The game also seems to be intentionally designed around either being a badass like Jack or partying with friends because late game your companions are utter trash. That said, like I mentioned, story is everything and this game has one of the most epic ones in the franchise. ESPECIALLY if you played FF1&2.

[[Dk] Raziel]

Devs refusing to address stuttering and leaving it at users hands to fix through Special K was a big reason why this game was dead on arrival.

[ganbaregoemon77]

I was really looking forward to playing this on the Steam Deck, but sadly it runs like crap. If they fix it I will pick it up.

[Kyutaru]

Originally posted by Dk Raziel:

Devs refusing to address stuttering and leaving it at users hands to fix through Special K was a big reason why this game was dead on arrival.

That seems to only happen on the higher settings then because I'm running the game on a 2060 RTX with the graphics on low (still looks great) and have no stuttering at all. There may be a particular setting in particular that is causing this or it's just taxing hardware enough to stutter like Elden Ring was doing at launch (didn't kill the game btw).

[[Dk] Raziel]

Originally posted by Kyutaru:

Originally posted by Dk Raziel:

Devs refusing to address stuttering and leaving it at users hands to fix through Special K was a big reason why this game was dead on arrival.

That seems to only happen on the higher settings then because I'm running the game on a 2060 RTX with the graphics on low (still looks great) and have no stuttering at all. There may be a particular setting in particular that is causing this or it's just taxing hardware enough to stutter like Elden Ring was doing at launch (didn't kill the game btw).

Nah it's arright. The issue with Elden Ring was shader compilation. So every graphic that you saw for the first time would load in real time, causing a stutter, but next times you saw that same graphic (say a particule of fire) it will not stutter anymore.
So the longer you play Elden Ring, the less stutters you would have.

With strangers of paradise is a different thing, if memory serves well it's an issue with Intel CPU from Gen 12 onwards. In other words, the ones with these stupid E-Cores and P-Cores.
Disabling the E-cores through BIOS would fix this, but I wouldn't recommend it, so you are left with Things like Project Lasso, or Special K (For which I wrote a guide on how to configure)
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2992053221

These stutters will not go away the more to play in contrast to Elden Ring, and are simply permanent. Other KOEI games suffer from this very same issue, Wild Hearts, Wo Long, and so on.

[Valhalla]

Odd. I am playing on a 3080 and have not even had frame drops, let alone stuttering or any other major issues, thus far. Maybe I need to get further into the game to start seeing that issue.

[[Dk] Raziel]

Originally posted by Valhalla:

Odd. I am playing on a 3080 and have not even had frame drops, let alone stuttering or any other major issues, thus far. Maybe I need to get further into the game to start seeing that issue.

As I already explained, stuttering is caused by the CPU, not the GPU.

[Lu2]

i was never fan of big grind or lootfest but in this game and nioh i dont care . combat itself is so good and fun once you get hang of it

hell its me or enviroment in this game is even more low budget then nioh haha . looks like ps 2 game sometimes (nioh 1 does same) . layouts of rooms are cheap too but etleast its not codevein and dont frustate you with hamster maze bs

[Lu2]

Originally posted by Dk Raziel:

These stutters will not go away the more to play in contrast to Elden Ring, and are simply permanent. Other KOEI games suffer from this very same issue, Wild Hearts, Wo Long, and so on.

I rember it in nioh 1 aswell . i was like why it runs so bad when it looks like a ps2 game

[Iron Maiden]

More people do not play this, because it is the worse ever FF game ever made. It is overly grindy, no proper story, music is garbage and everything just seem underdeveloped. Square should just go back to turn based combat because this approach is terrible.