Game is great but a bit overhyped.

[Griever]

I love JRPGs and played a lot of them since ff7 and ff8 on ps1. Since nearly every influencer including people like Charlie called this the best game in years, in same category as NieR, I checked it out.

I’m 16 hours in, just reached act 2 final party member. Did lots of grinding, etc.

Thoughts on the game?
I think there are stellar things like voice acting and character design, and premise of the story. Combat is also cool.

However I do think that you can feel that this is made by small indie studio and not say square Enix or CDPR or such. There are lots of things which seem to be completely ignored by mass media and influencers but noticeable downsides when I played.

On top of my head:
- lots of bugs. Getting stuck in places, etc.
- graphics are a bit weird at times but this unreal engine 5 shenanigans that also happened in Rebirth.
- character movement isn’t good. Platforming is not good at all and “just get through it” situation.
- my biggest critique: balance. By beginning of act 2 due to grinding I am not having big challenge in main story anymore. I feel like a usual JRPG would prevent me from doing that.
- story: I can’t judge this fully but I do feel a bit of a decline in production quality after end of act 1 and what happens there.

So what I can say is so far it’s a 9/10 considering it’s done by Indie studio. But overall it’s still a way less polished game than say a mainline final fantasy, a NieR, etc.

I would really like for them to patch the balance of the game though. I feel like there are so many pictos and builds but this is kind of trivialised by the easy difficulty. Like, should I be hitting 10K damage repeatedly by end of act 1? With the parry mechanic making it possible to parrry any attack, surely this trivialises strategy.

But AGAIN, considering this is made by 33 people, hats off and it’s a valiant effort. But I do feel that the entire industry and influencers are glazing a little too hsrd on this like Homer’s odyssey was just released in stores or something.

Thoughts?
PS: obv these are early thoughts. Middle of act 2. 16 hours only.

[Romax069]

Playing in expert mode ?

[jep1000]

I think the hype is just right.

[Griever]

Originally posted by Romax069:

Playing in expert mode ?

Nope lol. I thought to avoid this since it seems to be more about timing parries/dodges than enemies being harder. But maybe I should try it?

[Weltall8000]

It is pretty over exaggerated how good it is, but, still very good. Especially for an indie. It did have more than 33 people working on it though.

I am glad a game like this was made. We need more like it. I say 8-9 out of 10.

[Bad Decisions-chan]

If I were to compare this game solely by the progression, I would say it comes closest to FF X - the storyline is quite linear and the game really opens up towards the end with some of very hard enemies / bosses that are optional and comes with a really high ceiling of ability customization that I personally love to see in video games. Of course there's a lot of stuff online an guides, but "breaking" the game with crazy builds by figuring your own picto sets and synergies is extremely fun and you can play around between contrasts of being literally unkillable to 1-shotting anything. Yes, neither is fun, but the fun part is getting there and aside of all main points, this is what I enjoyed the most during my gameplay

And yes, traversal is a bit weird with chars getting stuck on weird places, it does kill a bit of the immersion.

On the graphics note, I highly recommend turning OFF chromatic aberration [this effect should be illegal to use in games, I never met a person that noted it looks good in any title] and generally turning down post-processing effects for overall better clarity / fidelity

[Griever]

Originally posted by Weltall8000:

It is pretty over exaggerated how good it is, but, still very good. Especially for an indie. It did have more than 33 people working on it though.

I am glad a game like this was made. We need more like it. I say 8-9 out of 10.

Yep. My take is that for such a small team it is a 8-9 out of 10. But what I’m saying is that I came into this thinking it would be outperforming major JRPGs made by AAA companies and I think that was too high a bar for me to set. Like we can’t objectively say that this is superior to a mainline FF game, a persona, etc.

It does things way better though like
- finally mature characters who act normal And not like those JRPG trope characters.
- battle system is awesome
- Not so much padding that you find in the usual JRPG.

But comparing it to something recent like Metaphor, I do still very much respect metaphor and the polish metaphor has in its combat system and everything

[Weltall8000]

Originally posted by Griever:

Originally posted by Weltall8000:

It is pretty over exaggerated how good it is, but, still very good. Especially for an indie. It did have more than 33 people working on it though.

I am glad a game like this was made. We need more like it. I say 8-9 out of 10.

Yep. My take is that for such a small team it is a 8-9 out of 10. But what I’m saying is that I came into this thinking it would be outperforming major JRPGs made by AAA companies and I think that was too high a bar for me to set. Like we can’t objectively say that this is superior to a mainline FF game, a persona, etc.

It does things way better though like
- finally mature characters who act normal And not like those JRPG trope characters.
- battle system is awesome
- Not so much padding that you find in the usual JRPG.

But comparing it to something recent like Metaphor, I do still very much respect metaphor and the polish metaphor has in its combat system and everything

In terms of production values, probably not. But, I would say I liked this better than several mainline Final Fantasy games.

I didn't expect it to seriously compete with triple A games, but, well, here we are. Production values are surprisingly good for an indie, the writing was excellent, music was fire, combat was neat (albeit, really abusable), all around pretty solid package.

Where it faltered IMO was in the level design and some of the moment to moment pacing. Sometimes it was on point, sometimes it felt like the game dragged on while playing.

Otherwise, it surpassed my expectations.

For reference, something like Sea of Stars, which I really liked, was pretty much what I expected.

I still need to play Metaphor. But, chilling out after having finished this game and playing something light in Sonic Origins or something, then probably going to hunker down and play Xenoblade Chronicles X Remastered, Xenoblade Chronicles 3 and Oblivion Remastered.

[KombatKaine]

its hyped for multiple reasons, and all are justifiable.

-major studio devs that did not agree with their publisher's methods, so left to create the game they wanted, sans money-hungry publisher. HYPE

-combines 2 genres that generally dont go together, and does it very well (despite what some cry babies think). HYPE

-the voice acting and writing are leaps and bounds above that of most AAA games (despite how people might feel about the story post-Act 1, its still written well). HYPE

-graphically impressive given the small number of developers working on the game. HYPE

-sound track is one of the best out there, indie or mainstream. HYPE

-box price. 25-50% cheaper than any AAA game, and has 0 forms of cash grabby microtransactions. HYPE HYPE HYPE HYPE

the game has earned every ounce of hype it's received. just because a game is hyped up, doesnt mean everyone is going to love it, or it will live up to the hype for everyone. Elden Ring, or any souls-like game is always hyped. and i presume rightfully so. I do not enjoy those game, they are not for me. but i dont call them over-hyped.

the culture of people calling games over hyped, or bad, or nit picking anything and everything about any game that comes out is just bad. it serves nothing. you either enjoy the game, or you dont. theres 0 reason to get on the forums and tell people that you dont.

[Meewec]

Originally posted by Griever:

- my biggest critique: balance. By beginning of act 2 due to grinding I am not having big challenge in main story anymore. I feel like a usual JRPG would prevent me from doing that.

you claim to have played many jrpgs and yet you believe this? i have yet to find an rpg that manages to stop you from getting too powerful by grinding. well, except final fantasty tactics but that's a different kind of rpg. that game if you level too much before a certain point then it becomes impossible to beat because of enemy scaling. ff8 tried with enemy scaling but honestly they didn't scale hard enough with your level vs what you could unlock if you knew what you were doing.

[Weltall8000]

Originally posted by Meewec:

Originally posted by Griever:

- my biggest critique: balance. By beginning of act 2 due to grinding I am not having big challenge in main story anymore. I feel like a usual JRPG would prevent me from doing that.

you claim to have played many jrpgs and yet you believe this? i have yet to find an rpg that manages to stop you from getting too powerful by grinding. well, except final fantasty tactics but that's a different kind of rpg. that game if you level too much before a certain point then it becomes impossible to beat because of enemy scaling. ff8 tried with enemy scaling but honestly they didn't scale hard enough with your level vs what you could unlock if you knew what you were doing.

What? lol no. FF Tactics is far, far too easy to accidentally destroy the balance of the game by being too powerful. The game can be completely trivialized by the time it is possible to get random encounters. I have done it literally dozens, if not hundreds, of times.

[Constant_K]

I said a week or so from release that this was the most overhyped game since BOTW on these forums, maybe the most overhyped game of all time.

I think everyone can see the issues with BOTW now especially post TotK but at the time there was no talking to them and the metacritic scores were insane.

Doesn't mean BOTW is a bad game though.

This game is overhyped.

[Unrealtairo]

IDK what you're talking about OP.

There was NO hype for the game, 95% of the people playing this game discovered it "after" release.

Hype doesn't exist after something has happened already.

Game is indeed a masterpiece

[Constant_K]

Originally posted by Unrealtairo:

IDK what you're talking about OP.

There was NO hype for the game, 95% of the people playing this game discovered it "after" release.

Hype doesn't exist after something has happened already.

Game is indeed a masterpiece

Eh the metacritic scores for this game are ridiculous, it's at 92 or something last time I checked. Reviews happened on release day, the game sold a half a million in the first 4 days or something.

Hype isn't just something that happens before release day you know that right?

[Genosse Kommissar]

Originally posted by Griever:

Yep. My take is that for such a small team it is a 8-9 out of 10. But what I’m saying is that I came into this thinking it would be outperforming major JRPGs made by AAA companies and I think that was too high a bar for me to set. Like we can’t objectively say that this is superior to a mainline FF game, a persona, etc.

It does things way better though like
- finally mature characters who act normal And not like those JRPG trope characters.
- battle system is awesome
- Not so much padding that you find in the usual JRPG.

But comparing it to something recent like Metaphor, I do still very much respect metaphor and the polish metaphor has in its combat system and everything

The thing is, taste is subjective. I have not played any of the games you mentioned in your post and I am not going to.

But I do like Clair Obscur and so far it is my personal GOTY, regardless if it actually wins or not.

[Genosse Kommissar]

Originally posted by Constant_K:

Eh the metacritic scores for this game are ridiculous, it's at 92 or something last time I checked. Reviews happened on release day, the game sold a half a million in the first 4 days or something.

Hype isn't just something that happens before release day you know that right?

I dont play turn based combat games and I was not hyped by the first trailer. In other words, it was not on my radar, like at all.
I bought the game after watching and liking the cutscenes on youtube.