Final Fantasy XV. I had low expectations, but I'm loving it so far. It's certainly not the most diverse crew of characters, which is a dang shame, although I must say the differences in the guys' personalities makes for some very endearing character moments, and provides some good banter on the road.
Traveling by car is surprisingly enjoyable; yestersay, I was getting a bit tired, and decided that instead of staying up all night playing, I should instead plot out my route for today, taking me through both side quest locations and some unexplored territory, with some great vistas in-between, before ending up where I need to be for the next main story quest.
I haven't played now in nearly 24 hours, but I find myself thinking about it more than I do most games, which I cherish.
Combat is a lot of fun. It feels less varied than in previous games, in terms of your arsenal of spells and attacks, but there are definitely some other tactical aspects that help keep things interesting, such as targeting specific body parts and deciding if you should use your dodging skills to keep stong enemies occupied, or use your long distance warp attacks to pick off weaker support enemies. All in all, I feel that the combat is neither better nor worse than the standard ATB or turn-based combat; just very different, and in a refreshing way.
Certainly, the degree of direct control you have over the main character is a breath of fresh air after Final Fantasy XIII (even though I actually quite enjoyed it).
Also, I suspect I'll unlock some cool stuff later on; I'm quite early in the story, and I know there are some classic combat features coming up later.
The weakest link so far is the story. It's not bad, per se; just not very exciting, and certainly not nearly as crazy as I like Final Fantasies to be.
Pet peeve: I play with Japanese voices and English text, but I've noticed that the English subs aren't actually translations of the Japanese dialogue, but rather transcripts from the English version, which is subtly different in some places, and very different for some of the banter, which is quite confusing for me as a beginner in Japanese.
Traveling by car is surprisingly enjoyable; yestersay, I was getting a bit tired, and decided that instead of staying up all night playing, I should instead plot out my route for today, taking me through both side quest locations and some unexplored territory, with some great vistas in-between, before ending up where I need to be for the next main story quest.
I haven't played now in nearly 24 hours, but I find myself thinking about it more than I do most games, which I cherish.
Combat is a lot of fun. It feels less varied than in previous games, in terms of your arsenal of spells and attacks, but there are definitely some other tactical aspects that help keep things interesting, such as targeting specific body parts and deciding if you should use your dodging skills to keep stong enemies occupied, or use your long distance warp attacks to pick off weaker support enemies. All in all, I feel that the combat is neither better nor worse than the standard ATB or turn-based combat; just very different, and in a refreshing way.
Certainly, the degree of direct control you have over the main character is a breath of fresh air after Final Fantasy XIII (even though I actually quite enjoyed it).
Also, I suspect I'll unlock some cool stuff later on; I'm quite early in the story, and I know there are some classic combat features coming up later.
The weakest link so far is the story. It's not bad, per se; just not very exciting, and certainly not nearly as crazy as I like Final Fantasies to be.
Pet peeve: I play with Japanese voices and English text, but I've noticed that the English subs aren't actually translations of the Japanese dialogue, but rather transcripts from the English version, which is subtly different in some places, and very different for some of the banter, which is quite confusing for me as a beginner in Japanese.
