Watching this again, there is tons and tons of handpicked content out of the lesser played and experienced games, namely FF1-FF5. The direction of the game artistically is mostly reminiscent of those too if you consider its more restrained color palette and traditional medieval take on equipment and clothing design. The reason this resonant with me a bit more than 13/15 is its proximity in art and world design to FF1-FF5/12. Quite refreshing aesthetically considering the past two main single player offline entries took a break.
Battle system has a lot going on, however for the more gutsy advent into full-on action with optional item mechanics to suit different players and play styles - the developers only make their feedback process and consideration of the fan base much more meaningful I’d say. Most of the party and assistance are AI-controlled which i take no issue with as I do think we’re moving towards more complex mechanics and deep learning algorithms under the hood. I’d like to see progressive learning and/or leveling of the AI based on continued input of battle action(s), style, and response of the player. A completely separate leveling tool similar to Gambits to be specific.
Music, awe-inspiring and seems extremely varied. Much in the same way the staple bestiary/creatures, items, and overall naming convention calls back to the older games so does the references to older compositions in earlier games here. A welcome mixture of new pieces with the incorporation of phrases and motifs from older ones.
The manner in which the plot, the scenario planning is 100% taking pages out of some of the more epic story events you’d see in the past: summons executing city-sized magic attacks and razing entire towns and its folks, great mysterious structures peppered about the world which require more excavating to string together its purpose and origins. Expressions, Gestures, and Mannerisms between the characters and voice-acting seems to organically fall place, nothing too jarring I’ve heard or seen so far.
Seeing Liquid Flame and the Aurum Giant which I know mostly from FF5 is a beautiful thing among many other staples like Fafnir and Ahriman. The miniature world map is gorgeous, the ability to use what’s essentially a Library to recap ongoing events and uncover World Lore is impressive by way of functionality. It’s not just a prop building or one stop, one take where nothing is necessarily of use other than purchasing items. Integration and purpose of objects and structure in the game world is becoming more important to me.
Overall, I would say my only issue is the lighting as a choice or matter of restraining the contrast - would prefer to see stronger lighting or a post-processing filter that strengthens the contrast. Perhaps this can be done on the end-user though. Side note, the water physics from
the sailing boat at sea is breathtaking. I’m a little more surprised the hair physics doesn’t seem intimately sensitive to movement in several scenes? Such as when Clive is hugging a character or just overall movement of the model. SE is well known to give priority to fashionable hair styling.
Edit: and after hearing how it’s rocketed its way to top seller in pre-order, I now see and understand why.
And 30’s Clive is my absolute favorite. Being roughly the same age or slightly younger now, this one brings me more joy to see as they just make a decision between newer, incoming, and older players.
