I’m only part way through (a bit past bahamut) so I’m not fully qualified to comment on the game as a whole, and I’m avoiding reviews until I’m finished (also haven’t played 14 or 15). So far I’m really enjoying it because it just has that Final Fantasy charm that squeenix are so good at. I love the world, the story is good (if leaning a bit too heavily on game of thrones for my liking), and the characters are likeable enough. Combat got fun once it clicked. That said…
There are a LOT of really obvious things to criticize. Over tutorialized, incredibly boring fetch quests, and progression systems that are wierdly linear and restrictive. It’s frustrating because some small tweaks could make it so much better. Let me explore and discover quests for myself instead of witholding them until the game decides to make them available and then spamming me with notifications. Disable the on-screen quest markers or at least let me turn them off (the “animal instinct” feature is neat, don’t need more than that). Let me upgrade my weapons past +2 and specialise them with elemental synergies so there isn’t just one “correct” gear set to use at any given time. Give different merchants their own unique items to sell. Jill is an interesting character but is underused, that whole descent to the first crystal with Cid, and the cutscene that followed, she was barely given a single line. The titan fights are great ideas but not always fun to play, and too reliant on quicktime events which I thought we’d all agreed kinda sucked several years ago so idk why squeenix didn’t get the memo.
But anyway yeah it’s pretty and sometimes fun and I can pet the dog so it still gets a thumbs up from me I guess 乁( •_• )ㄏ