Post by Bob on Jan 29, 2018 20:51:31 GMT -8
It sucked. Possibly the worst FF yet. I can go on and on about it. Invisible walls everywhere (you can jump on THIS rock, but none of THESE rocks), bad button mapping (jump and action are the sme button, so you will jump instead of talking or picking up items...a lot), all sorts of rookie mistakes that you wouldn't expect from the company that has given us more than 15 FF titles and Kingdom Hearts and so forth... I'll IGNORE (somehow) the tiny details that are awful and focus on the big ones.
1. Combat: They actually got it right after FF12 and FF13 for making decent combat, but they forgot to make it INTERESTING. Warp-Blade is a neat feature (teleport to targeted enemy and smack 'em) and an attack that actually attacks when you push it. Cool. Good job. But the magic system is ALMOST non-existent in this game. You have to craft it, which takes time and in-game resources (need to harvest fire/ice/lightning and pair it with another item). It is pretty powerful, but it hurts your teammates (which I kind of like--a giant fireball kinda SHOULD hit them) and has such limited quantities that I just ignore it. They made a free, downloadable item that guards your allies from magical friendly fire, but I don't want to equip that! It's fun watching them burrrrrn! And your allies have techniques they can learn, but the AP system in this game is TERRIBLE (more on that later) and you can only equip one technique at a time anyway. You can change techs mid-fight, which is nice, but who wants to keep jumping in and out of the big menu? So combat is 1. Hit enemy with sword, 2. Use one of 3 techniques, 3. Armiger (kind of a Noctis Omni-Slash that charges up),4. Magic (and screw magic). So basically it's "hit enemy with sword." And you know what game is better at that? Kingdom Hearts. So if you're like "hey, the combat system looks good like Kingdom Hearts!" just do yourself a favor and play Kingdom Hearts.
2. AP System: The AP system is a non-system. Like, 10 ability trees that use the same AP gained and unlock different things for all of your characters. Oh, and you gain AP incredibly slowly. Eventually you can AP-farm (I found a guide that is pretty good) and get like 800+ per hour, but a lot of abilities require 99, 333, and a few 999 AP, so if you're farming, then it'll still take you forever. Again, DLC was added to help out, but not enough. I cranked my AP early game into the "Exploration" tree, which is all about earning more AP. Earn AP for long car rides, taking snapshots, long chocobo rides, fishing, cooking meals, etc. And that turned out to be a waste because the 32 AP I needed to spend to gain AP from fishing has YET to pay off (because fishing is boring). "You caught a fish! Get 1 AP." Me: "...ONE!?"
3. LONG CAR RIDES: Did you see in there how I had earning AP by "Long Car Rides" and "Long Chocobo Rides?" No joke, that's what it says in the Ascension (AP trees) menu. You get an AP every once in a while for driving a really long time. You drive in cars. A lot. And the driving is boring as crap. You push the gas button. That's about it. It automatically keeps you on the road and pushing left and right are for two reasons: to pass other cars and to take a side road. Otherwise, it'll drive for you. So you just have your buddy Ignis drive you everywhere. And these car rides take a LONG time. Eventually you get fast-travel (for 10 gil...I mean seriously, why make us pay piddly in-game money for fast-travel?) to go to locations you've already been to, but you spend a LOT of time just watching the back of their heads in a car. Gladio even reads a book sometimes on these trips. And you can't skip them unless you've been there before. And sometimes quests are really picky and won't allow quick travel, but you can go into a parking spot list and quick travel to basically that location, but since the quest is 3 steps to the left of that, it won't give you the option... I never knew a game could make a driving portion so un-fun.
4. Story: Here's what kills me. The story has some moments that are really good. And the premise is pretty decent, but how the game responds to things is just stupid. Here's the basic plot without big spoilers. Noctis sets out with his friends/bodyguards: Gladiolus, Ignis, and Prompto to have a bro-cation. They meet Cindy, the stripper/mechanic (not important, but seriously, google Cindy Aurum). They start doing quests for people when they learn their kingdom, Insomnia, has fallen and that Noctis, his future wife, and his father, are all dead. Noctis, for obvious reasons, is skeptical about the broadcast since he's...y'know...not dead. So you bust in on a thing to check out Insomnia from a distance and see that it has indeed fallen, although reports are a bit...off.
So what do you do next? QUESTS! Piles and piles of pointless quests! Take pictures of things! Go fishing! Do hunts! Track down this guy's truck shipment! Make sure lights in rest stops still work! All the things you would expect the FRIGGIN KING (because Noctis's dad *spoiler alert* totally did die--this isn't far into the game) to be doing in a time of crisis! How many in-game hours does all this BS take? I DON'T KNOW BECAUSE I'M STILL DOING IT ALL!
See, the game is in 3 parts (in my head)
1. Lucis
2. Altissa
3. [Spoilers]
When you get into locations 2 and 3, you gain the ability to call your dog friend and go back to the "past." So even when you are at [Spoilers] in the game, you can go back to Lucis to do all the quests you haven't done. That includes the after-dungeons I'm snoozing my way through (they're REALLY boring). So here's my big gripe with the plot. Look at those 3 figures again, but this time with some extra info (based on my person 100 hours)
1. Lucis: 90 hours, 15% of plot
2. Altissa: 3 hours, 30% of plot
3. [Spoilers]: 7 hours, 55% of plot
Those are estimates, but look at the breakdown here. 90% of your time in the game is spent in Lucis, but NOTHING HAPPENS IN LUCIS! The game gets really interesting at Altissa and [Spoilers]. Like, really good! See, here's more plot (mostly spoiler-free): in this world, monsters come out in darkness. So the city of Insomnia had a giant crystal that made light and kept monsters at bay (and, based on the name, kept all the residents awake). During the early parts of the game, Ignis will not drive at night and will urge Noctis to not drive. For good reason: monsters. Level 30 Iron Giants pop out and, if you are low on level, destroy your shit. So avoid. And you can't drive your car if enemies are nearby, so if they're near your car, then you're walking. And fearing more enemies. It's actually pretty cool. A big city in the game has a powerful generator that makes light that keeps monsters away, but otherwise, people are a tad fearful at night. I didn't understand this game mechanic until [Spoilers], so it was a cool "Ohhhhh" moment to the game. So in Altissa, stuff happens. Empire attacks, people die, teammates get horribly injured (like, okay, SPOILERS for real, but it's pretty friggin tragic--one of your teammates gets jacked up and is crippled for the rest of the game), shit hits the fan. And then you go on this train ride that is pretty creepy and stuff happens and...stuff. Spoilers. Anyway, it was at this point in the game that I was TOTALLY into the plot. It was one HELL of a rising action, so I was like, "Sweet, the game is picking up!" And then I got to this point and the game said "Warning: this is the last part of the game." And I was like "NO IT ISN'T! THIS IS HALFWAY BECAUSE IT JUST. GOT. INTERESTING!" So it gets interesting and then just...friggin...ends. UGH! And the ending is abrupt, too! It includes (spoilers) a 10-year jump into the future! And after that, it's just like "Okay, 10-year jump over, let's go kill bad guy." No build up, no exploring the world 10-years later, just a final dungeon and done. SUCH a let down. So it was bad, plot-less questing for HOURS, an interesting maybe 8 hours, and an abrupt end. There is SO MUCH they could have done, but no.
4. Combat Redux: More on how the combat sucks, the game is SUPER easy. It works like this: you enter "Danger" mode when your health hits 0, but you aren't dead (likewise with teammates). Your teammates can save each other (they kind of suck at it, but they can do it) or you can use potions and such to revive (even if you are dead--and you can use them on yourself). But you slowly lose MAX health when you're down and when hit lose MAX health. When your MAX health hits zero, you are dead (the kind that needs a phoenix down). And phoenix downs are kind of expensive, at least early game. But know what aren't? Elixirs. And Elixirs restore health, including a 50% boost to your Max HP. So when your max hp ends up being pretty slim, use those guys. So if you have lots of those and a few phoenix downs, you can't die. There are even insta-kill enemies, but pshh, phoenix downs (or safety bits).
Oh, and on top of that? SUMMONS! Summons pop up occasionally (see: a lot) and will destroy the crap out of everything. The screen glows and you get a message: "Hold L2 to summon." If you do, somebody like GIANT Ramuh will grab Noctis (his hand is bigger than Noctis's whole body) and pull him to safety and blast the area with more damage that you can imagine. Most hunts will die from this and if you just stay alive long enough (easy to do because Noctis dodges everything), one will come and do most of the work for you. I tended to not summon after they destroyed my first hunt that was a high enough level to constitute the "TOUGH BOSS" choir music.
Oh, and Noctis dodges/phases through attacks while you hold down the button. As long as you have MP, you're almost entirely invulnerable. So just dodge. Counterattack. Attack and get hit while attacking and instantly regret it and hold down the block button again. And counterattack. And be bored.
Oh, and Vanish+X-Zone. So you know how FF6 had the Vanish+Doom and Vanish+X-Zone to insta-kill even tough bosses? It was kind of a cheat, but this game has a ring that Noctis gains that does...basically that. It takes full MP and a few seconds to charge, but eventually insta-kills all enemies on the screen. And this kills a LOT. I used it a couple times by accident on tough hunts. There's a Level 90+ Demon Wall and I used this to kill all these little skeletons nearby. Oh, and the Level 90+ Demon Wall also died. Whoops. And a Level 99 quest fighting this demon gal. I just used it to see if it'd work (spoilers: it did). And the giant OMG Adamantoise Hunt, I found that my ring in damage mode was doing decent damage, so I used that instead of my sword. Turns out, even the ring in attack mode has a very small chance to insta-kill. So...yeah. Adamantoise died from it. That's a hunt that is supposed to take hours, but instead took about 10 minutes. Others online report farming it and killing it in 1 minute.
So the game is, no joke, insanely easy. It has hard enemies, but makes so many ways to avoid facing them that it's comical.
5. PLATFORMING!?!?!? Okay, so this isn't a huge thing, but there's a secret after-dungeon in the game with no enemies, just platforming. I like platforming and puzzles, so I had to try. Here are the problems. 1. This game is not a platforming game. You need to do precision jumping, but Noctis likes to take several steps when you tap the stick, so he often lands and then walks off the platform. It is incredibly frustrating. 2. YOU CAN'T LEAVE! If you're near the entrance, then sure, leave, but most dungeons have a "Return to Entrance" option in the menu. In here, that is disabled. So at one point, you get buried in this dungeon and can't go back. Must press on. I probably spent a good 8+ hours on this dungeon alone. So imagine being 4 hours in and saying "Y'know, this isn't my thing, I don't really need the Black Hood. I'm outta here" and not being able to leave. If you get into it and can't beat it, then you just lost the game. I guess you COULD revert to a past save (they're good at auto-making past saves), but seriously? It is honestly on-par with some of the hardest platforming games out there and does a decent job of deaths taking you back to a checkpoint, but not having any load time. So it gets my kudos for being interesting, but Noctis is just not a platformer with his 4-step requirement to come to a stop (I wanted to eat his face when he walked off this platform I just could NOT get to--finally did and he just walks off). So much rage from that dungeon. Loved the idea, but Noctis is no Mario and not being able to stop and return to the regular game is a BAD design flaw.
6. Questing: I already touched on it, but just to emphasize how much it sucks. 90 hours worth of fetching missions and hunts. Here's a kicker: there are a few option (non-after-dungeon) difficult dungeons in the game. They're long, difficult, and kinda boring. And when you reach the end, you fight a boss. Yay. Normal. But then, know what they do? Make a HUNT that is to kill that SAME monster in the SAME place. So you have to go back in AGAIN and fight it AGAIN. The monsters in the dungeon are still dead, items might have respawned (not GOOD items, but potions and crap), but you need to navigate the maze AGAIN to fight the boss, which is still the SAME LEVEL. So it makes you do a dungeon AGAIN. WHYYYY!? SO POINTLESS! And in the case of Costelmark Castle, which has a section that is UNGODLY BORING AND LONG THAT YOU HAVE TO DO PART OF AGAIN TO COMPLETE THE HUNT, it is just rage worthy. I vowed to not do it. Swore off completing all hunts. But then, like happens a lot, they made another quest in Costelmark, so I had to go back in anyway... Rarara.
7. Prompto: He is SO ANNOYING. He's one of your companions and he's annoying. The character development in this game is decent (what with only 4 characters that are with you basically all game), but they re-use random dialogue WAY too much ("Duck Soup!" -FFX-2). Prompto is an okay character (I guess), but the random dialogue makes him pretty unbearable. After a big fight (like every single floor of an after-dungeon), Prompto: "WOOHOOHOO! We're alive! Let's celebrate by eating something dead!" He said this so much that my 4-year-old son can recite it and he doesn't watch me play (Rated T for Teen, not 4 for 4-year-old).
8. Villain: The big bad is obvious and his motivations are very hidden. No idea why he is after what he is after, no development on his plot really at all. And his character kinda sucks. Toward the end, I realized they were trying to make him into a reboot Kefka, but he is pretty much on the opposite side of the "best villain" spectrum from Kefka. He's just...kinda there. And wants the world to suck because...umm...Kefka did it? I'm going with that. It makes the game better if you think of him as a serial killer copycat, only the serial killer in question is from a different game 20 years prior. "Why are you doing this, [Spoilers-but-not-really]?" "Because my hero, KEFKA, would do this! And as he would say, 'Wuah ha ha ha ha ha ha!'"
I have 100 hours of gameplay currently (I think I've done almost all optional content at this point, save the DLC stuff) and I can probably rage about this game's f-ups for about the same amount of time. They forgot to put FUN into this game. There are a few good parts. Last few hours of the game are pretty damn good. In fact, I might replay this game someday and do a plot-quest-only version that might be pretty enjoyable...maybe. And there are a few random parts that are just pure badass, like this hunt against a behemoth that you have to do at night. It is on par with some horror games with the suspense in it. It was a fun hunt and made me hope for more like it (there uhh...weren't any others, aside from the end game portion on the docks with solo-Noctis--that was also awesome). It has moments of pure awesome, but also ETERNITIES of dull.
1. Combat: They actually got it right after FF12 and FF13 for making decent combat, but they forgot to make it INTERESTING. Warp-Blade is a neat feature (teleport to targeted enemy and smack 'em) and an attack that actually attacks when you push it. Cool. Good job. But the magic system is ALMOST non-existent in this game. You have to craft it, which takes time and in-game resources (need to harvest fire/ice/lightning and pair it with another item). It is pretty powerful, but it hurts your teammates (which I kind of like--a giant fireball kinda SHOULD hit them) and has such limited quantities that I just ignore it. They made a free, downloadable item that guards your allies from magical friendly fire, but I don't want to equip that! It's fun watching them burrrrrn! And your allies have techniques they can learn, but the AP system in this game is TERRIBLE (more on that later) and you can only equip one technique at a time anyway. You can change techs mid-fight, which is nice, but who wants to keep jumping in and out of the big menu? So combat is 1. Hit enemy with sword, 2. Use one of 3 techniques, 3. Armiger (kind of a Noctis Omni-Slash that charges up),
2. AP System: The AP system is a non-system. Like, 10 ability trees that use the same AP gained and unlock different things for all of your characters. Oh, and you gain AP incredibly slowly. Eventually you can AP-farm (I found a guide that is pretty good) and get like 800+ per hour, but a lot of abilities require 99, 333, and a few 999 AP, so if you're farming, then it'll still take you forever. Again, DLC was added to help out, but not enough. I cranked my AP early game into the "Exploration" tree, which is all about earning more AP. Earn AP for long car rides, taking snapshots, long chocobo rides, fishing, cooking meals, etc. And that turned out to be a waste because the 32 AP I needed to spend to gain AP from fishing has YET to pay off (because fishing is boring). "You caught a fish! Get 1 AP." Me: "...ONE!?"
3. LONG CAR RIDES: Did you see in there how I had earning AP by "Long Car Rides" and "Long Chocobo Rides?" No joke, that's what it says in the Ascension (AP trees) menu. You get an AP every once in a while for driving a really long time. You drive in cars. A lot. And the driving is boring as crap. You push the gas button. That's about it. It automatically keeps you on the road and pushing left and right are for two reasons: to pass other cars and to take a side road. Otherwise, it'll drive for you. So you just have your buddy Ignis drive you everywhere. And these car rides take a LONG time. Eventually you get fast-travel (for 10 gil...I mean seriously, why make us pay piddly in-game money for fast-travel?) to go to locations you've already been to, but you spend a LOT of time just watching the back of their heads in a car. Gladio even reads a book sometimes on these trips. And you can't skip them unless you've been there before. And sometimes quests are really picky and won't allow quick travel, but you can go into a parking spot list and quick travel to basically that location, but since the quest is 3 steps to the left of that, it won't give you the option... I never knew a game could make a driving portion so un-fun.
4. Story: Here's what kills me. The story has some moments that are really good. And the premise is pretty decent, but how the game responds to things is just stupid. Here's the basic plot without big spoilers. Noctis sets out with his friends/bodyguards: Gladiolus, Ignis, and Prompto to have a bro-cation. They meet Cindy, the stripper/mechanic (not important, but seriously, google Cindy Aurum). They start doing quests for people when they learn their kingdom, Insomnia, has fallen and that Noctis, his future wife, and his father, are all dead. Noctis, for obvious reasons, is skeptical about the broadcast since he's...y'know...not dead. So you bust in on a thing to check out Insomnia from a distance and see that it has indeed fallen, although reports are a bit...off.
So what do you do next? QUESTS! Piles and piles of pointless quests! Take pictures of things! Go fishing! Do hunts! Track down this guy's truck shipment! Make sure lights in rest stops still work! All the things you would expect the FRIGGIN KING (because Noctis's dad *spoiler alert* totally did die--this isn't far into the game) to be doing in a time of crisis! How many in-game hours does all this BS take? I DON'T KNOW BECAUSE I'M STILL DOING IT ALL!
See, the game is in 3 parts (in my head)
1. Lucis
2. Altissa
3. [Spoilers]
When you get into locations 2 and 3, you gain the ability to call your dog friend and go back to the "past." So even when you are at [Spoilers] in the game, you can go back to Lucis to do all the quests you haven't done. That includes the after-dungeons I'm snoozing my way through (they're REALLY boring). So here's my big gripe with the plot. Look at those 3 figures again, but this time with some extra info (based on my person 100 hours)
1. Lucis: 90 hours, 15% of plot
2. Altissa: 3 hours, 30% of plot
3. [Spoilers]: 7 hours, 55% of plot
Those are estimates, but look at the breakdown here. 90% of your time in the game is spent in Lucis, but NOTHING HAPPENS IN LUCIS! The game gets really interesting at Altissa and [Spoilers]. Like, really good! See, here's more plot (mostly spoiler-free): in this world, monsters come out in darkness. So the city of Insomnia had a giant crystal that made light and kept monsters at bay (and, based on the name, kept all the residents awake). During the early parts of the game, Ignis will not drive at night and will urge Noctis to not drive. For good reason: monsters. Level 30 Iron Giants pop out and, if you are low on level, destroy your shit. So avoid. And you can't drive your car if enemies are nearby, so if they're near your car, then you're walking. And fearing more enemies. It's actually pretty cool. A big city in the game has a powerful generator that makes light that keeps monsters away, but otherwise, people are a tad fearful at night. I didn't understand this game mechanic until [Spoilers], so it was a cool "Ohhhhh" moment to the game. So in Altissa, stuff happens. Empire attacks, people die, teammates get horribly injured (like, okay, SPOILERS for real, but it's pretty friggin tragic--one of your teammates gets jacked up and is crippled for the rest of the game), shit hits the fan. And then you go on this train ride that is pretty creepy and stuff happens and...stuff. Spoilers. Anyway, it was at this point in the game that I was TOTALLY into the plot. It was one HELL of a rising action, so I was like, "Sweet, the game is picking up!" And then I got to this point and the game said "Warning: this is the last part of the game." And I was like "NO IT ISN'T! THIS IS HALFWAY BECAUSE IT JUST. GOT. INTERESTING!" So it gets interesting and then just...friggin...ends. UGH! And the ending is abrupt, too! It includes (spoilers) a 10-year jump into the future! And after that, it's just like "Okay, 10-year jump over, let's go kill bad guy." No build up, no exploring the world 10-years later, just a final dungeon and done. SUCH a let down. So it was bad, plot-less questing for HOURS, an interesting maybe 8 hours, and an abrupt end. There is SO MUCH they could have done, but no.
4. Combat Redux: More on how the combat sucks, the game is SUPER easy. It works like this: you enter "Danger" mode when your health hits 0, but you aren't dead (likewise with teammates). Your teammates can save each other (they kind of suck at it, but they can do it) or you can use potions and such to revive (even if you are dead--and you can use them on yourself). But you slowly lose MAX health when you're down and when hit lose MAX health. When your MAX health hits zero, you are dead (the kind that needs a phoenix down). And phoenix downs are kind of expensive, at least early game. But know what aren't? Elixirs. And Elixirs restore health, including a 50% boost to your Max HP. So when your max hp ends up being pretty slim, use those guys. So if you have lots of those and a few phoenix downs, you can't die. There are even insta-kill enemies, but pshh, phoenix downs (or safety bits).
Oh, and on top of that? SUMMONS! Summons pop up occasionally (see: a lot) and will destroy the crap out of everything. The screen glows and you get a message: "Hold L2 to summon." If you do, somebody like GIANT Ramuh will grab Noctis (his hand is bigger than Noctis's whole body) and pull him to safety and blast the area with more damage that you can imagine. Most hunts will die from this and if you just stay alive long enough (easy to do because Noctis dodges everything), one will come and do most of the work for you. I tended to not summon after they destroyed my first hunt that was a high enough level to constitute the "TOUGH BOSS" choir music.
Oh, and Noctis dodges/phases through attacks while you hold down the button. As long as you have MP, you're almost entirely invulnerable. So just dodge. Counterattack. Attack and get hit while attacking and instantly regret it and hold down the block button again. And counterattack. And be bored.
Oh, and Vanish+X-Zone. So you know how FF6 had the Vanish+Doom and Vanish+X-Zone to insta-kill even tough bosses? It was kind of a cheat, but this game has a ring that Noctis gains that does...basically that. It takes full MP and a few seconds to charge, but eventually insta-kills all enemies on the screen. And this kills a LOT. I used it a couple times by accident on tough hunts. There's a Level 90+ Demon Wall and I used this to kill all these little skeletons nearby. Oh, and the Level 90+ Demon Wall also died. Whoops. And a Level 99 quest fighting this demon gal. I just used it to see if it'd work (spoilers: it did). And the giant OMG Adamantoise Hunt, I found that my ring in damage mode was doing decent damage, so I used that instead of my sword. Turns out, even the ring in attack mode has a very small chance to insta-kill. So...yeah. Adamantoise died from it. That's a hunt that is supposed to take hours, but instead took about 10 minutes. Others online report farming it and killing it in 1 minute.
So the game is, no joke, insanely easy. It has hard enemies, but makes so many ways to avoid facing them that it's comical.
5. PLATFORMING!?!?!? Okay, so this isn't a huge thing, but there's a secret after-dungeon in the game with no enemies, just platforming. I like platforming and puzzles, so I had to try. Here are the problems. 1. This game is not a platforming game. You need to do precision jumping, but Noctis likes to take several steps when you tap the stick, so he often lands and then walks off the platform. It is incredibly frustrating. 2. YOU CAN'T LEAVE! If you're near the entrance, then sure, leave, but most dungeons have a "Return to Entrance" option in the menu. In here, that is disabled. So at one point, you get buried in this dungeon and can't go back. Must press on. I probably spent a good 8+ hours on this dungeon alone. So imagine being 4 hours in and saying "Y'know, this isn't my thing, I don't really need the Black Hood. I'm outta here" and not being able to leave. If you get into it and can't beat it, then you just lost the game. I guess you COULD revert to a past save (they're good at auto-making past saves), but seriously? It is honestly on-par with some of the hardest platforming games out there and does a decent job of deaths taking you back to a checkpoint, but not having any load time. So it gets my kudos for being interesting, but Noctis is just not a platformer with his 4-step requirement to come to a stop (I wanted to eat his face when he walked off this platform I just could NOT get to--finally did and he just walks off). So much rage from that dungeon. Loved the idea, but Noctis is no Mario and not being able to stop and return to the regular game is a BAD design flaw.
6. Questing: I already touched on it, but just to emphasize how much it sucks. 90 hours worth of fetching missions and hunts. Here's a kicker: there are a few option (non-after-dungeon) difficult dungeons in the game. They're long, difficult, and kinda boring. And when you reach the end, you fight a boss. Yay. Normal. But then, know what they do? Make a HUNT that is to kill that SAME monster in the SAME place. So you have to go back in AGAIN and fight it AGAIN. The monsters in the dungeon are still dead, items might have respawned (not GOOD items, but potions and crap), but you need to navigate the maze AGAIN to fight the boss, which is still the SAME LEVEL. So it makes you do a dungeon AGAIN. WHYYYY!? SO POINTLESS! And in the case of Costelmark Castle, which has a section that is UNGODLY BORING AND LONG THAT YOU HAVE TO DO PART OF AGAIN TO COMPLETE THE HUNT, it is just rage worthy. I vowed to not do it. Swore off completing all hunts. But then, like happens a lot, they made another quest in Costelmark, so I had to go back in anyway... Rarara.
7. Prompto: He is SO ANNOYING. He's one of your companions and he's annoying. The character development in this game is decent (what with only 4 characters that are with you basically all game), but they re-use random dialogue WAY too much ("Duck Soup!" -FFX-2). Prompto is an okay character (I guess), but the random dialogue makes him pretty unbearable. After a big fight (like every single floor of an after-dungeon), Prompto: "WOOHOOHOO! We're alive! Let's celebrate by eating something dead!" He said this so much that my 4-year-old son can recite it and he doesn't watch me play (Rated T for Teen, not 4 for 4-year-old).
8. Villain: The big bad is obvious and his motivations are very hidden. No idea why he is after what he is after, no development on his plot really at all. And his character kinda sucks. Toward the end, I realized they were trying to make him into a reboot Kefka, but he is pretty much on the opposite side of the "best villain" spectrum from Kefka. He's just...kinda there. And wants the world to suck because...umm...Kefka did it? I'm going with that. It makes the game better if you think of him as a serial killer copycat, only the serial killer in question is from a different game 20 years prior. "Why are you doing this, [Spoilers-but-not-really]?" "Because my hero, KEFKA, would do this! And as he would say, 'Wuah ha ha ha ha ha ha!'"
I have 100 hours of gameplay currently (I think I've done almost all optional content at this point, save the DLC stuff) and I can probably rage about this game's f-ups for about the same amount of time. They forgot to put FUN into this game. There are a few good parts. Last few hours of the game are pretty damn good. In fact, I might replay this game someday and do a plot-quest-only version that might be pretty enjoyable...maybe. And there are a few random parts that are just pure badass, like this hunt against a behemoth that you have to do at night. It is on par with some horror games with the suspense in it. It was a fun hunt and made me hope for more like it (there uhh...weren't any others, aside from the end game portion on the docks with solo-Noctis--that was also awesome). It has moments of pure awesome, but also ETERNITIES of dull.
