End Game is an illusion, and the core game play is recycled content.

[Projekt XIII]

I've completed all of the proud difficulty missions, and I've found that there's little point right now in continuing any further. I can only do so much recycled content before I ultimately have to come to the consensus that there's basically nothing else the game has to offer.

I was lead to believe that end-game required a massive amount of time spent farming materials in order to level up your character, but this is not only a lie, it's completely unnecessary in order to clear the content.

From my own experiences, I loved the combat. Each character's diverse play style should theoretically allow someone to have a degree of engagement with the game that's as expansive as the roster is, yet I cannot fathom subjecting myself to the recycled content loop that makes up the core of the game play experience.

I've seen this came compared to MH, but unlike MH, this game lacks the long term repeatability because fundamentally nothing changes about the bosses you fight except that they become bigger stat sticks to overcome. Once you've "solved" the fight you're going to approach it with a similar mindset from that point henceforth.

Similarly, it's been compared to FFXIV instanced content, but it doesn't come close. It lacks that vertical scaling difficulty from a mechanical standpoint to keep it interesting. As a result, even the highest tier of content difficulty feels remarkably easy to overcome.

With this, 40 hours in all I can say is I would've easily thrown away everything about the multiplayer gameplay structure and instead would have just loved to have gotten a genuinely solid JRPG experience in the Grandblue Universe instead.

[Crisp]

It's shallow. Luckily it's fixable but honestly they had so much time to fix it that I have no faith.

[ele]

Endgame can only ever be PVP. There is no such thing in a PVE game, only the game's end.

[Vis]

Originally posted by ele:

Endgame can only ever be PVP. There is no such thing in a PVE game, only the game's end.

Lmao, wth are you babbling about?

[Ryvaku]

Originally posted by Vis:

Originally posted by ele:

Endgame can only ever be PVP. There is no such thing in a PVE game, only the game's end.

Lmao, wth are you babbling about?

Just a PvP cultist.

[Ryvaku]

People that defend this game are probably very old players. It has fun gameplay for combat, but stale content. You can pretty much just AFK farm Extreme content and below thanks to assist mode. Also seeing future updates they don't seem to add a lot. Pretty sure higher difficulties will just gatekeep/filter most of the players out anyway.

[Geist]

If the combat is good and there is a good variety of enemies I don't need anything else.

[awanderingswordsman]

It is ironic that you almost reached the one fight that isn't recycled. The last 2 fights are essentially unique (the final one is a much extended version of a story mode gimmick).

Anyway, that aside, it still lacks difficulty to make the farming worth it. You can fairly comfortably beat all of proud without even any damage cap sigils offline except the 4 fights with dps checks that autofail the mission if you fail them (proto, automagod, dark dragon, and versa). However, online those fights are quite easy.

They also really ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up having the terminus weapons drop from proto rather than automagod because proto is such a boring scripted garbage fight whereas automagod is actually pretty fun but not worth farming.

30 proto kills in and if I never see an airship again, it'll be too soon.

[Projekt XIII]

I just unfortunately feel a little burned on this title. I kind of wish I researched more about it prior to buy because I would've probably passed if I could've understood how little content actually came with the game.

It's fine, and the combat is genuinely fantastic -- I just don't really have it in me to sit and engage with this content ad naseum because after you've done it a few times it becomes very stale.

Maybe i'll revist on DLC. I'm uncertain. Either way, being told "end game" is behind the story mode for end game to consist of recycled content was majorly disappointing.

[Shockz]

It is unfortunately very bare bones content. At the end game you fight the same enemies 5 different times, they just have different colors.
And there is no boss fight design, the multi-bosses are just regular bosses thrown all in one with the same mechs (who thought that is a good idea when 1 of them can basically chain aoe the whole arena, and now there are 2-3 of them)
While the combat and characters are interesting and unique in their own way, I think the ball was dropped hard on the boss fights (mostly the multi-bosses)

[SiFi]

Originally posted by ele:

Endgame can only ever be PVP. There is no such thing in a PVE game, only the game's end.

And you, friend, are why PvP centric games almost never work out for "end game." MMOs try to do it (and fail), looter shooters try it (and fail). PvP only works if the entire game is built around it, and even then, they are a metric ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ less popular than single player or Co-Op PvE games.

[Broseph884]

meh, i loved the story campaign to the point i felt i got my moneys worth from that alone, the endgame stuff is just a bonus for me, glad i got this instead of p3r

[Sygmaelle]

hard pve games dont exist

the end

[Kyutaru]

Sounds like you're just finally aging, OP. This is how the vast majority of games have been for decades, solidly repeatable with the illusion cast that you're enjoying something new and interesting. Old school Final Fantasy games mostly had you mash the Attack button and occasionally cast one of 10 skills. You beat bosses using the same rotations most of the time like it's God of War or something. Assassin's Creed is actually more fun at the START of the game when you haven't unlocked much than it is at the end when you can solo packs of mobs and ignore stealth.

Fact is, all games have a finite amount of content. Getting people to play for thousands of hours in something like MMORPGs is about tricking them with illusions into repeating the same content over and over. Even the real world has these illusions. Cash itself is an illusion. Paper has no value, it only trades for wealth because people have faith in it. When that faith crumbles, it crashes in value like Bitcoin. The USA dollar is used as staple internationally because of how stable it is because people have faith in the US economy and accept it for trades. Yet you ever had a Discover card? A lot of vendors don't accept those because of how unreliable getting paid can be. It's VISA or MasterCard only. Some won't even take American Express, but for a different reason.

Point is, gaming has always been a waste of time that convinces you you're having fun. One of the ways RPGs trick people into doing repeated content is by reskinning or recoloring the enemies. It's the same fight, same sprite sometimes even, just bigger stats for your level. Here, the devs at least do try to make the endgame more interesting with Duo and Trio boss fights, putting you up against the same bosses you've fought before only multiple of them at the same time. That does spark some novelty feeling to it.

[This PC]

Comparing this to FFXIV is a little disingeneous, everything is braindead easy, easier than this game even, except 0.1% of the content, then you need to study, organize, prepare, set up with a team, spend days wiping on the same boss.... And once you've mastered the fight, game asks you to grind it over and over to get your gear, locking you behind weekly gatekeeps so you don't put down your sub within a week. Progress is very slow and incremental, so much that they need to implement shortcuts for people to catch up. There's also no "vertical scaling", game gets easier once you hit max level.

I love FFXIV but your comparison is disingeneous, or you don't know FFXIV very well.
It was also never meant to replace MH, it's a character action game, it plays nothing like monster hunter ? This is more akin to a JRPG with online elements and some endgame, in that regards, it has been giving me more playtime than most JRPG's.

I think it's also built to accomodate additional stories and characters through DLC later down the line, I much prefer that than asking me for a subscription, or god forbid, making this a gacha game or a microtransaction riddled hellscape.

Also, not everything needs 400 hours of gameplay. I was satisfied with my purchase at the 6 hours mark. That fight in the desert had me sold ngl. :ok_hand:

[Tiasmoon]

Originally posted by Projekt XIII:

Similarly, it's been compared to FFXIV instanced content, but it doesn't come close. It lacks that vertical scaling difficulty from a mechanical standpoint to keep it interesting. As a result, even the highest tier of content difficulty feels remarkably easy to overcome.

FFXIV instanced content doesnt come close to this. Its gameplay just isnt remotely good enough to compare. So while the bosses in that game might look cool they aren't all that amazing to fight. And even in the ''look cool'' department this game has them beat by a mile.

There's a reason why FFXIV dungeons and even raids just become speedruns sooner rather then rather.