Free Roam Should've Unlocked Earlier (Ending Spoilers)

[Ken10]

Title. Maybe it's just me but my only complaint about this game is how late the "free roam" unlocked, specifically the flight ability, after you complete the monolith and Renoir's status is unknown and the story sets it up like you need to rush back and defeat him it opens up the world and wants you to take your time. I feel like the Monolith already felt like it was gonna be the end of the game so it wouldn't have been a huge deal to unlock free roam right before instead of after sandwiched in between the story going crazy at the end? It kinda put me in a weird position because I was so invested in the story and it felt so urgent that I didn't wanna go off and explore.

Especially after choosing Verso's ending the free roam after you complete the game just seems so weird lol.

[Kugelfang]

I understand what you're trying to say. But making free roam possible earlier would upset the game balance even more.

I first did everything I could do and only than did the last mission. That made everything far too easy. To be honest, I think it would have been better if they had only given us the opportunity to free roam after the end of the story.

But if the game had free level scaling, your option would also be okay.

[Ken10]

Originally posted by Kugelfang:

I understand what you're trying to say. But making free roam possible earlier would upset the game balance even more.

I first did everything I could do and only than did the last mission. That made everything far too easy. To be honest, I think it would have been better if they had only given us the opportunity to free roam after the end of the story.

But if the game had free level scaling, your option would also be okay.

I considered that too, I play on normal and don't fully optimize like some people though so I suppose I'm mostly looking at it from a story point of view, I get very swept up in it and the idea of stopping to grind/explore in between the Monolith and returning to Lumiere the final time to confront Renoir just kinda put me in a tough spot lol. i had to save the bulk of exploring for when i do NG+ cause I felt an urgency to go fight Renoir ASAP with how it was set up.

[Kugelfang]

Originally posted by Ken10:

I considered that too, I play on normal and don't fully optimize like some people though so I suppose I'm mostly looking at it from a story point of view, I get very swept up in it and the idea of stopping to grind/explore in between the Monolith and returning to Lumiere the final time to confront Renoir just kinda put me in a tough spot lol. i had to save the bulk of exploring for when i do NG+ cause I felt an urgency to go fight Renoir ASAP with how it was set up.

A middle way would have been ideal anyway.

I don't know if you did any of the optional content, but there were also a few important parts of the story. Among other things, it was explained why Scale is afraid of water or what happened to the fake Alica.

These are some things that people simply miss out on if they only do the main quest. On the other hand, as I said, the optional content makes Act 3 Lumiere far too easy.

[Ken10]

Originally posted by Kugelfang:

Originally posted by Ken10:

I considered that too, I play on normal and don't fully optimize like some people though so I suppose I'm mostly looking at it from a story point of view, I get very swept up in it and the idea of stopping to grind/explore in between the Monolith and returning to Lumiere the final time to confront Renoir just kinda put me in a tough spot lol. i had to save the bulk of exploring for when i do NG+ cause I felt an urgency to go fight Renoir ASAP with how it was set up.

A middle way would have been ideal anyway.

I don't know if you did any of the optional content, but there were also a few important parts of the story. Among other things, it was explained why Scale is afraid of water or what happened to the fake Alica.

These are some things that people simply miss out on if they only do the main quest. On the other hand, as I said, the optional content makes Act 3 Lumiere far too easy.

Yeah I missed those things, I only focused on the main story and recognize that's on me, but I've seen other people have the same complaint now so I wish there was some sort of middle ground cause I really did love the game and wanted to play it more but it felt like it was rushing me to wrap it up towards the end instead of letting me explore without pressure which is why I though right before you enter the Monolith was a better time since in the story there was no real rush to enter it since Renoir wasn't a threat in the way he was in act 3 and the expedition's only real goal was to reach it before the next gommage which was a little under a year away compared to the entire world ending whenever Renoir felt like it so let's go