Recent reviews by essen

This game is a mess, there's both good and bad. Giving it a negative because Square Enix should have been able to do better than that.

My biggest issue with the game is the setting and the story. You're in a made up world with various stuff coming from other FF games, patched up together. But that makes the story and the encounters with known characters fairly nonsensical. To add insult to injury, most of the dialogue is mostly the main three characters joking around, often with Japanese word play that rarely translates well into other languages, so there's not much to be remembered.

Game becomes better once you get the story out, though not perfect or anything. That's still a good explanation for my playtime.

BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH

YES FOR STEAM AWARDS GOTY

This is the most beautiful game I have ever played. They really outdid themselves on the design, colors, ambiance and all graphical things. Not from a technical standpoint but an artistic one. Entering the Sanctuary of Mana and seeing the Mana tree in the distance for the first time is a truly magical moment.

It's also a Mana game, so it has pros and cons. If you're a fan, it's a must have. If you're not a fan but you like action RPG games and don't worry too much about the story, it's a must have as well.

Not that the story is bad, just that it's not its strong point like other Mana games (with the exception of some Legend of Mana quest paths). The story starts by being very thought provoking, it puts the player in the uneasy situation that they must sacrifice their friends so that the world can avoid being destroyed, as has been done every four years for a very long time. The evil actions of one character end up being the key to find a third path that does not involve sacrifice and opens up a new era. It is a pretty neat plot, but it doesn't have the best execution.

The concept seems great if you're a programmer. Which I am. But perhaps that's why I managed to completely destroy my save as soon as I got the power to edit values through the genie, about halfway through. I can't reload my save anymore. Not super interested in redoing all that I did to get back there. I'll have to let this one go.

Early review because I need to do one for the Steam awards badge.

Completed the main story last night on Abyss difficulty. Both the story and the difficulty have brought joy and tears. The music in this one is fantastic, with dozens of battle themes. The new characters are exceptional. But don't play this game without playing the games before it. Oh boy.

The hardest Abyss difficulty fight in the game is in the Unlimited Blade Crafts daydream, the fight against Roselia if you choose Estelle and Joshua as partners. Took me an entire day to figure it out and get lucky enough to not be destroyed by Roselia. Disagree? Fight me.

The gameplay is fine, it's an adventure/puzzle game where you use paint to progress. If that's all it was I would give a positive review. But...

The characters and the story is atrocious. They keep talking about their feelings. They go on and on and on ad nauseum about every little thing about themselves and each other. That's all the story there is. The world is falling apart, but only because of their feels. It's awful. No story would have been much better.

While the game might look like it is fine for kids to play, it's not. The self pity and loathing won't do. On top of that, the usual woke nonsense ruins things with this NPC that tells you he's bi out of the blue, or that NPC that becomes a cross-species lesbian for no reason.

A recent update completely broke achievements and it doesn't look like a fix is coming. The update only added new languages.

Yes.

GREAT!!!

AWESOME!!