Love having all my party members twiddling their thumbs defending and healing while one guy fails his steal rolls 10 times in a row

I extra love it if the steal move deals damage so you have to also worry about the target dying from too many failed attempts

I double extra love it when it’s a boss battle when on top of everything else the story momentum just grinds to a halt while you fuck with a stupid RNG for 5 minutes

  • Water Bowl Slime@lemmygrad.ml
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    1 day ago

    I don’t understand. You’re saying 12 improved combat at the expense of its story? And that 15 did that too? But 12’s an autobattler that’s all about political intrigue and 15’s so trivial that it might as well be an autobattler (its story is a mess though, I agree).

    • BashfulBob [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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      1 day ago

      But 12’s an autobattler that’s all about political intrigue

      The gambit system was significantly more involved and allowed combat to proceed in near real time. Very stark change from 10.

      Also, 12 had political intrigue as a backdrop, but it was all on rails. This wasn’t Crusader Kings. Nothing you did influenced the outcome.

      15’s so trivial that it might as well be an autobattler

      It ended up being button mashing in practice. But you had more real time control over the character than in any prior version. Much closer to a Zelda style of combat than a traditional FF.

      (its story is a mess though, I agree).

      The shift in gameplay was so stark they basically never finished the story. By the time you’re in the third act, you can practically see the stage hands pulling ropes in the background. The dramatic, expansive open world they lay out in Act 1 collapsed into a few repetitive hallways and clumsy boss battles by the end.

      All that so you could do a half assed implementation of Kingdom Hearts.

      They even released a movie and an anime series to do world building! And it all got flushed down the drain by the end.

      • Water Bowl Slime@lemmygrad.ml
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        18 hours ago

        12 is linear with only one ending yeah, but its politics are remarkably grounded and well-integrated into its world. It’s light on the crystal, magic, divinity stuff and heavy on the geopolitical. Out of all the FF games, Ivalice is the setting that’s the most thought through imo.

        Regarding 15, it’s funny how the combat mechanics are most relevant in comrades where targeting weak points to break them actually matters. And this might just be how I played the game, but I didn’t mind the shift toward the end. I got my fill of wandering, camping and questing before I set sail so the oppressive hallways came off as a purposeful artistic choice to set the tone. Like, the road trip has ended, the boys are in enemy territory, they’re being obviously manipulated by Ardyn, and there’s nothing they can do about it. The miserable way the boys are restrained into realizing the worst ending feels thematic.

        The OVA and movie came out before the game released, didn’t they? I’ll admit, I liked them but I’m also a massive FFXV fan so that might be apologia.