Sincerely asking…why is everyone in love with this game?

[Kurt Thomas]

I’m not attempting to be a troll or farm responses with this. I’m genuinely curious. I’ve been playing the game for about 15 hours, and I’ve enjoyed it quite a bit….but I also have a few complaints that, for me at least, keeps it from this “masterpiece” everyone is saying it is.

-Traversal mechanics and platforming are not good…the Gestral Beach was just not fun because of it

-The traversal animations are wonky…sprinting, turning, jumping, climbing and clambering are not great. They have this looseness to it that makes it feel like there’s no weight to the characters and they generally just feel awkward.

-The area level designs are okay and steadily growing on me more but they feel very limited. It reminds me of FFXIII. The aesthetics are appealing but the actual exploration is wanting in my opinion.

-The graphics are….good I guess? I think part of this is because of Nvidia driver problems but everything appears especially blurry despite turning off post-processing, using DLAA and messing around with the fix from GitHub. The fidelity underneath all the blur seems like it could be pretty good, but right now it seems only decent. I have a 5090 for reference so I shouldn’t have to compromise much if at all.

-The voice audio often doesn’t sync with the lips well in cutscenes. That could be related to the fact that they’re locked at 30fps, and I know there’s a fix for that I can try.

-Why is there no retry button for fights? Do I really need to keep traveling back to the place I died over and over?

-Why can’t I save manually?

-Could we have an option for transmog on unlocked weapons? It makes sense to use my best weapon but I’d rather use a sword rather than a wooden arm or something to that effect. I’m not knocking the art design or creativity, it’s just not my jam.

Again, I’ll reiterate in saying that I’m enjoying the game, but everyone saying it’s a masterpiece and already their GOTY….why?

If part of the rationalization to be presented is that this was made by a small team, then I’d preemptively say that’s not really valid. Sure, I’m not going to fault them for having less resources, but that doesn’t mean a game deserves higher praise for it. The whole claim that it was made by 30ish people seems a little insincere as well considering there are certainly more than 30ish names in the credits.

[Kashra Fall]

Story
Music
Artistic design
Combat tightness.
Combat versatility.
Character designs/developments.
Content vs price.

That's why I love it.

[Deviant]

give me jester awards instead

[drackmire2]

There is a mod that unlocks the locked 30 FPS, which will make the cut scenes much better.

[DaylightDemon]

i agree that the platforming and the character controller in general could use some work. ive done all of the gestral beach minigames i encountered so far though and i have to definitely say theres a learning curve and some are worse than others. id say movement is servicable in the game and luckily never really the main focus. i get you though and i agree, this can dampen the experience.

as to the leveldesign: i think its great that the game resembles the classic 3D linear type of levels. im kinda sick of all this open world bs. it feels nice to have levels that are confined and mostly linear (with plenty of optional stuff if you are open for exploration)
i dont really have an issue with that.

lip sync in cutscenes feel fine to me. maybe not in all of them and theres voiced dialogue where they use the engine tool for lip flaps. all in all i dont really think its that big of a deal. the cinematic cutscenes all have good lip sync.

features like retry for fights, or transmog, fov and text size slider is all stuff they could and probably will add later. i dont think it makes or breaks the game, but i do agree that some of that stuff would be great.

why do people enjoy the game? for me its the full package: combat feels and looks so good, the story is intriguing and emotional. the game looks fantastic for such a small team. i also love the soundtrack.
and the different systems of the game expand constantly and make you always tinker with your builds. its not for everybody but for me its just the right mix of learning enemy patterns and figuring out new seemingly broken ways to use my characters.

games like this, that know what they want to be will never be for everyone. which for those ppl that do love whats there, makes them all the more special.

[Ratsplat]

Well, it's over. Can't refute any of those points. CoD is better.

[Rubyeyed]

Because you don't need much nowadays to be called a GOTY.

Overall though, combat is more engaging than the usual flipping through menus. Visuals are great and story is decent so far from what I have seen.

Comparing this game to everyone's last JRPG "masterpiece" Metaphor, Clair Obscur is way better.

[Bios Element]

The fact that you didn't mention a single presentation element such as the story, music or characters really just shows you are mechanically interested in games. Nothing wrong with that mind, I love a good crunchy game as well, but if that doesn't interest you then this wouldn't be as great to you.

[Awt]

Unironically, how old are you?

I share your experience, 20-ish hours in the game, enjoying it but see so many flaws. I actually have a few more problems than what you listed, but like you, I'm still enjoying the game.

You said it yourself, you're enjoying the game despite all the flaws, for Normies, that's enough to be GOTY. Not everyone cares that deeply about a video game. If it looks nice enough and they're having fun enough, they can subconsciously just ignore all the negatives. This is how it's always been, for every highly praised game ever.

Why care that other people think it's the best game ever? It could be their 2nd videogame they've ever played, you don't know their gaming history.

If you're talking about articles, they're obviously doing it for clicks. They have a financial incentive to jump in on the bandwagon, the same with streamers/youtubers. None of that stuff is genuine.

[benj]

I can only tell you why I'm in love with it: the combat is fun, it's a beautiful story that manages to be tragic but not oppressively dark, I love the characters/friendships, and the music/VA is top notch. I feel like the devs really understand what makes the classic JRPGs great. I would never say it's flawless, but everything I love about it weighs so much more than the missteps.

[C1REX]

In short: few problems with not important stuff don’t matter when the important stuff is a masterpiece.
At least for me personally.

[:pensive:]

Originally posted by benj:

I can only tell you why I'm in love with it: the combat is fun, it's a beautiful story that manages to be tragic but not oppressively dark, I love the characters/friendships, and the music/VA is top notch. I feel like the devs really understand what makes the classic JRPGs great. I would never say it's flawless, but everything I love about it weighs so much more than the missteps.

i agree with this, this is an old school JRPG made modern , in a good way for once

ofc it's not perfect but compared to the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ the industry released these many years, it's no surprise this game is a massive hit

it's not low quality product coming from nintendo, sony or xbox, and overpriced on top of it, that will really make anyone happy or hyped anymore.

people like the game because its good, maybe its not your cup of tea and there is nothing wrong with that, but i can't read people claiming to be vet and stuff and using that as a point to belittle the tremendous work the devs of exp33 pulled, from nowhere.

we should be glad and embrace this release because it feels more like a "next gen" rpg that anything that got released the past 3-4 years or so.

[radmuskai]

The game is being overrated because every RPG fan was thirsty for decent games. Baldur's Gate 3 was their holy grail and we got a lot of underperforming games like FFXVI, Dragon Age Veilguard, Avowed, Starfield. A lot of people are thirsty for new classics from the old timers like Square and Bethesda. The Japanese industry has been falling into mediocrity besides Nintendo and From Software still hitting it off with some gems, and Capcom is making money with their fanboys even though they have dropped the ball hard in game engine quality.

The game does a lot of stuff right, but it is no AAA game, the price says so. It is a fresh take on a classic genre that didn't let the cultural war make it lose its focus. It deserves the attention and units sold. But I don't think it is a 9+ score game. An 8 fits it better.

Some people may be in love with the combat system but I didn't like it. It is not horrible and unplayable, but I would ask for a different one if I could. I also miss the minimap, I don't like getting lost and wasting time trying to find new stuff that will be crucial to kill bosses without having to grind a lot or never miss a dodge. They also made a lot of optional areas trying to cather to the "aftergame" or "100%" crowd. I find this a bit dated, it should be done carefully, maybe some special bosses at the end, but not letting everyone finish the game without seeing everything they spent time creating. Why not make a better campaign with those resources?

This kind of open world vision belongs to Elder Scrolls-like games, or Elden Ring. But modern games are usually taken hostage by this idea that they have to deliver some of the stuff that people have been liking and in the end they are all part of the same trend instead of creating new ones. I'm more of a classic Final Fantasy crowd and they deliver a game that is half for me, half for Elden Ring fans or people that find turn-based boring but after Baldur's Gate 3 they are open to it if the game delivers something else that is amazing to them.

[Shikary]

The story is good, combat is satisfying, enemies' design is nice.
Is it perfect? no. Is it better than 90% of AAA games? yes.

[DaylightDemon]

i find it interesting that many ppl say this game is bad or "doesnt deserve GOTY" and then list nitpicks in my eyes. for me a game is always the synergy of the sum of its parts. not the individual parts in isolation.

and for me, that sum of it all really really works. so much so that the flaws dont bother me as much. is it perfect? nope. no game ever was perfect.

[SageFreke]

A 10/10 is not a game with no issues, it's a game that has strong enough merits that the problems are completely overshadowed. Nothing raised in the OP is a major issue in the face of the excellent writing, music, combat design, and art. In fact, most of the "issues" are simply compromises made due to the size and budget, which are completely understandable and easily forgivable considering how much they did with what they had, when every day we get games with none of these problems but absolutely nothing to recommend them beyond polish and inoffensiveness.