Why are so many things locked until you finish the game?

[Mr Fantastic]

This is super ridiculous, all the 5 star weapons and armor are locked until completing the game and getting all characters.

Even more ridiculous is that the majority of items are in the faraway forest cave. I went through the whole cave once and didn't get enough materials to do a single weapon or armor.

The game is much inferior experience than the first game. Anyhow, the plot twists at the end were quite nice. If only the gameplay and soundtrack was as good as the story. Capcom should hire the musicians from square. Square games all suck since after FF9 anyway so they don't need their musicians anymore.

[Ursus horribilis]

As the score was provided by the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, I think you might suffer finding better musicians! Totally agree re: staging of items, research etc. There should be a new game +
option.

[Lightning2112]

Obviously the best weapons and gear are going to be found in the post-game. This is pretty much common design for every RPG ever. You don't find the Excalibur II in FF IX at the beginning of the game, do you?

Granted I'll give you this game not being as good as it's predecessor, but it's by means as bad you're making it out to be. I'm not sure if you're serious anyway given that the story is the weakest part of this game, the OST and Gameplay are both fantastic.

Joe Hisaishi did the score for both games, and both of the scores are fantastic. And as for Square, I think games like FF X, FF XII, and others are going to have to disagree with you but to each their own I guess.

[Erty853]

Rush through the Faraway Dreamers Maze to Level 20. Use your Tactics Tweaker and put it on items (bottom left hand corner) Clear each level. Once I started doing this, getting those items was easy.

Also, unless using Swift Solutions for Citizens, use the tokens for Polestar Prisms. Only there and Faraway Dreamers Maze.

[Mr Fantastic]

As to musicians get the guys from FF7 , 8 and 9. Maybe it's just the lackluster repetitive tracks, it makes the game boring.

I think the game is good not bad, just that the way they dealt with end-game makes no sense. Iike to do everything I can in a game and then go in for the final boss and finish the story. They could just readjust the difficulty of the boss.

What kind of example is the excalibur 2? XD That's a gigantic secret weapon. In every final fantasy you can get each character's ultimate weapon before the end of the game, most protagonists get them as part of the story...

I had a good run with the game. Things I didn't like besides boring soundtrack and end game unlocks, the extra content with a few extra bosses that are simply other monsters with different colors and a few small changes, don't make it worth it continuing playing. being able to do city lv4 only post game is beyond ridiculous...

I would give this game 8/10 and look forward to play a third installment where I hope they go closer to the first game instead of going towards Dragon Quest. I like both games because they each have their unique aspects, if they become the same there is no point in playing both :(

[Irish]

you do realize this is the game's composer right

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Hisaishi

[Louis]

Originally posted by \TG/Thorstein:

Rush through the Faraway Dreamers Maze to Level 20. Use your Tactics Tweaker and put it on items (bottom left hand corner) Clear each level. Once I started doing this, getting those items was easy.

Also, unless using Swift Solutions for Citizens, use the tokens for Polestar Prisms. Only there and Faraway Dreamers Maze.

The prism enemies are very interesting. I cannot kill them fast enough at 2X+ floor. Fortunately, Polestar Prisms can get from Swift Solutions.
My only one Polestar Prism was given by a higgledy.

[Simatron3000]

Originally posted by Lightning2112:

Obviously the best weapons and gear are going to be found in the post-game. This is pretty much common design for every RPG ever. You don't find the Excalibur II in FF IX at the beginning of the game, do you?

That would be fine if there was still content to do after you get said weapons. Taking FF7 as an example, you can get the ultimate weapons whilst there is still tons to do. Not the case here.