Alright I'll be "that guy". I've never really played any JRPGs other than Persona 4 (and I plan on playing 5). I've never played any Final Fantasy games except the very first one and I was too young to know what the hell I was even doing.
I don't know what it is but something about this game interested me. Maybe it's because it looks great or the combat seems fun but somethin is grabbing me. How would you describe this game? What separates it apart from more Westen RPGs like a Skyrim or Dragon Age? How is the combat? It looks more action based but is there still some of the character management like in Persona?
Compared to WRPGs, the focus of JRPGs in general is more on a grand narrative whereas I would say WRPGs generally focus either more on the player character's (gameplay) growth or scenarios. Obviously something like Witcher is focused on the main story, but it's viewed through a series of smaller-scale events usually. In JRPGs, you're always looking ahead to the bigger picture--you just gotta get this thing, gotta do this, gotta get to this town, etc. (this is occasionally a detriment, but sometimes a plus). You're more likely to be dealing with quest logs in WRPGs, since JRPG sidequests are usually weird threads or activities, but I've heard FFXV does more in the way of real side quests? For FFXV in particular, you're not worrying about character builds so much as you're worrying about unlocking all the abilities and traits you can get.
Combat is best described as tactical-action, I think. You only have one attack button that takes you through a combo route that you influence with directions of the analog stick and timed presses, a dodge button featuring a perfect dodge mechanic, weapon-swapping (mid combo), and MP management. You also have the ability to warp around the battlefield, which you have to balance between positioning and using to do damage before taking refuge in safe spots to recharge your MP and dive back in. Your party is completely AI controlled aside from the main character, but as you fight you fill a meter that you can spend to give teammates ability commands.
There's not so much character management as Persona since you aren't worrying about stats or weakness profiles, but there is still an emphasis on loudouts and abilities. You generally want to be keeping weapons that are useful for the scenario (not bringing tiny daggers to fight a giant plate mail-wearing demon for example), and there is a magic crafting system where you take one of three base spells and add effects to it. There's a separate magic tree called Ring Magic that I don't know much about yet because I'm still early in the game, but that features unique spells.
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