KainHighwind09

@brian_: So wait, they dropped the PvE mode, re-announced it, and now they're charging for it? Or were they always going to charge for it?

I didn't know about them intentionally not including people of color in the game. And his answer about it not reflecting medieval Europe is not out of ignorance at all, based on all the other nonsense excuses he makes. It's clear by the reasons he gives that Yoshi P was afraid to piss off the "go woke, go broke" bigots. Too bad. I was looking forward to this game, now I might skip it. Or at least wait until it goes on sale many months later at half the price.

Which is cool. There is SF6, Diablo IV, and many other games where this isn't an issue.

I am both highly skeptical and very unenthused. As someone who has played a lot of action games like Nioh while also playing a ton of turn-based RPGs, this feels like they've managed to capture only the worst aspects of each genre.

On the action side, the combat looks an awful lot like "mash square and occasionally use an ability," which is not particularly engaging. It also seems like rather than conceptualizing difficultly as giving players a lot of abilities to learn and master, they went the "enemies are spongy as fuck and take a thousand hits to kill" route instead, which is a type of design I find particularly obnoxious and tedious.

Based on the presentation, they also seemingly have this idea stuck in their head that the average Final Fantasy fan has literally never played an action game and would literally be completely incapable of playing the game if they weren't given so much assistance that the game basically plays itself. While I can appreciate wanting to make a game accessible to "non-action" people, I personally find their attitude more than a little patronizing. If their level of faith in their own player-base to learn and appreciate something new is so low then why even make an action game in the first place? On the flip side, if you're making an action game, then make an actual action game, even if that means it's a little tough and you lose some of the dedicated RPG audience. As it is, they seem to want to have their cake and eat it, too, which rarely works out well.

On the story side, I really don't like the series' continued march towards moving farther and farther away from party-based combat. The best games in the series have always been ensembles. This makes it seem like party members will barely be more than glorified assists. If you're gonna do that, fine, it can work. But then you better have a really compelling main character, and nothing I have seen from the previews has convinced me of that. The guy is yet another FF protagonist in black leather and lots of straps with characterization that seems limited to "angry man is angry."

Like I said, very unengaged with what they've shown. I'd love to be surprised, but Square's recent track record has left me with absolutely zero faith.