Does it get better?

[Larry]

I have this on the Switch and figured I'd give it a shot given I've hear people sing it's praise for it's story, combat and characters.

What can I say other than at around 10 hours in I'm completely bored of the game. The story is incredibly slow, the characters are okay but Pelop or whatever her name is is incredibly annoying and two dimensional, the little prince guy is annoying and the combat sucks. It's like all I need to do is activate 2x speed, rush through dungeons and let everyone auto attack enemies without a care in the world until I come across an end zone area boss who requires a bit of luck(For your level apparently) or playing in real time so you can spam those health potions.

I've heard the game starts off slow but becomes much better after the starting area but at this point, ten hours in, am I still in the "slow" and uninteresting part of the game? Right now I've travelled to the floating city, had Pelop/Penelope be rescued by the prince and I've spread the "good word" that Basch is alive and was never killed. I'm incredibly bored with it at this point and have no interest in the combat or levelling system.

Does it get better? Am I over the hump yet? Should I keep going or am I just not going to enjoy it at all if I'm not beginning to enjoy it now?

[Hinnyuu]

The story is somewhat mature, in the sense that it's a lot about politics and so on which many people find tedious and boring; it also eschews many (though not all) fantasy story tropes, so characters don't miraculously turn their life around either and it's been interpreted as a lack of development. I call it realism, but it's not for everyone.

As for the combat, it picks up speed once you get more freedom to leave the beaten path (just a little while from where you're at). Once you can explore higher-level zones that the story wouldn't send you to, things become a LOT more interesting. The game is designed around being nonlinear, and so if you purely stick to the story it's not a challenge for many people. If you do venture out into dangerous zones, it's a very different game particularly if you're not full of meta-knowledge.

Final Fantasy games are never designed to be very challenging, though. This is no Dark Souls. There's a cap on how hard things get, and given the wealth of options available in this game those who know what they're doing can smash the difficulty to pieces.

On PC at least there's modding to address that, and some of the difficulty mods have proven quite satisfactory. For everyone else there's discovering things on your own rather than looking them up, which in this game is plenty of challenge already given how obscure some of the secrets are. And even if experts can kick their butts easily, the superbosses should prove a decent challenge for naive players.

[Larry]

Yeah, I've uninstalled it. Googled a few similar questions about it getting good and they all seem to be the same. People who like it like it for the gambit system, admit there's not much character development or story but if you're not into the combat you won't like it.

I guess I just don't like it and I won't waste more time on it.

Thanks!

[Vixus]

It definitely gets better right after the part you're currently in. It's an adventure, and adventures usually have ups and downs. Once you discover the main story that pops up about 15 hours into the game, you understand the gravity of the characters' plight. Give it another shot, atleast play another 10 hours.

[MaGicBush]

I bought this on the switch as well, and personally I like it. It picks up after you get your whole party and beat the temple to get your second jobs. The mobs start getting a little harder, but not a lot. The harder fights will always be the boss fights and hunts. But if you don't like the combat or leveling you may as well stop. Imho those are what I like about this game. The gambits are a strategy layer that adds to combat, and I like how the leveling system works with the boards. To each his own.

[Vixus]

Originally posted by MaGicBush:

I bought this on the switch as well, and personally I like it. It picks up after you get your whole party and beat the temple to get your second jobs. The mobs start getting a little harder, but not a lot. The harder fights will always be the boss fights and hunts. But if you don't like the combat or leveling you may as well stop. Imho those are what I like about this game. The gambits are a strategy layer that adds to combat, and I like how the leveling system works with the boards. To each his own.

+This

[Metadragon]

lmao the bait is hilarious. You people honestly think OP is being serious when he cant even name characters whose names are literally on the screen for 95% of the game? The guy is trolling or he is illiterate.

Hey OP. No one cares if you like this game. Stop asking us what you should do. If you don't like it then move on. It literally doesn't matter one iota Mr. level 0 anon troll.

[Larry]

Originally posted by Metadragon:

lmao the bait is hilarious. You people honestly think OP is being serious when he cant even name characters whose names are literally on the screen for 95% of the game? The guy is trolling or he is illiterate.

Hey OP. No one cares if you like this game. Stop asking us what you should do. If you don't like it then move on. It literally doesn't matter one iota Mr. level 0 anon troll.

Why did you necro this thread?

[nilla888]

Well, I had the same experience playing the original...except i did finish it ; all the while wondering when it would get better/interesting character/storywise. (wich never happened)

I forced myself to finish it, wich was a first as far as ff games go.

[Xengre]

Story? This game doesn't have a story tbh. Calling it a story would be a grand farce. You can sum up the story in about 20 seconds of quick speaking. It also doesn't have a main character, and the character you might think is the main character is even less relevant than some of the other characters in your party. It also doesn't have the typical romance expected in a JRPG much less in a FF title.

Due to the gambit system you don't really make much in the way of choice once you have an optimal setup. Ironically, outside the Yiazmat super boss fight auto-attacks are KING in this game so your very complaint still pertains. Even in the Yiazmat fight due to the length of the fight unless you plan to not afk it so you don't full heal the boss adding another several hours due to reflect when trying your magic spam aoe reflect build you will use auto attacks instead.

Even funnier is usually the best setup has 1 character, two once you got some levels/gear under your belt to sustain the mp cost and heal effectively enough with a single supporting character, attacking. The basic setup is you abuse berserk + haste. Berserk massively boosts your dmg (2x I think? I forget precisely) while also doubling your attack speed so roughly a 4x DPS boost. Suddenly 1 char does more dps than 3. Early on in particularly hard areas you want to have two support healer + revivers (occasional protect/shell cast) due to your excessively low level if taking on hunts/areas way higher than your level. Eventually you will have 2 chars attacking with this setup. Throw in haste when you get it and now your 4x doubles again to about 8x per char (2 chars ~16x typical DPS... obvious why auto-attacking is OP in the game). Factor in eventually getting double attack so you have a potential of attacking 2x as much then but at a varying activation rate depending on double attack odds % of setup and luck you could be around 20~32x the DPS. Bonkers. Even worse is most of the viable magic isn't until basically the end of the game, almost literally before the final dungeon (whoever thought that was a good idea needs to be kicked off a cliff heh).

Oh, but it gets worse. To make it even more monotonous the only way to acquire certain items reasonably is save spamming and opening chests rinse and repeat until you get the right item you want. In addition the best way to farm is by getting HUGE combo chains on the exact same mob, aiming for several hundred so you will kill the same mob hundreds of time with auto attacks for a long period of time. Yeah, not that engaging.

Summons were also depressingly worthless compared to an optimal auto attack build. Oh, and lets not even get started on Yiazmat the big super boss that can take anywhere from 3 hours to 48 hours of afk fighting to beat depending on how well setup you are for a reward that is literally totally worthless at that point (hint: a slightly stronger sword after you killed the only enemy it might have maybe been slightly useful on).

Nah, honestly, it doesn't get better. If you like it from the start you may enjoy it through. If you don't then it will almost certainly not grow on you. I enjoyed exploring the world for the most part which is what kept me going (like finding a summon in the cave waaaay early into the game from random exploring I wasn't really intended to be at). I was very saddened by the fact the game only has two real cities (4 IIRC, been a while, if you count the two others that are barely utilized).

For what this game tries to be something like Legend of Dragoon does it a hundred times better I'd argue (tho the combat system in it isn't amazing, it is more engaging and everything else handily beats this).

EDIT: Just double checked and berserk is +50% attack and +50% ATB, not 100% so the math changes a bit but same idea.