its a fun game, basically a chain of mini games with some okay combat and progression and a pretty good story, as well as a great sandbox feel at least while you are going through the story and expanding said box. there's a couple or few things which really, really limit the overall experience but i do enjoy the whimsical nature of it all.
the kid is a ♥♥♥♥♥♥ annoyance and god awful choice to be the tutorial guide or whatever. it's like some gohan in dbz-type of insert and really isn't necessary. the entire story would flow just as well without him and his literal annoyance. bare minimum, he shouldn't be an interactable presence on the screen like it's elder scrolls or something. all he does it create a bumper when your character has to turn around. just a literally pointless character, presence, and being with no upside at all. what's this game rated anyway like why do we care about a kid if we're releasing a mature game? lol it's just stupid.
*SPOILERS* like his dad just hates you, then once he joins up he is basically like "ok you're his dad now" and ♥♥♥♥♥ off into the nothingness of being a crew member. he talks FOR the main character and does so many other things and the whole time all you can think is like "hey kid why aren't you in the captain's quarters staying safe?" it's pretty absurd.
and the game does what basically every modern jrpg does, take two or three minute side stories and turn them into 30-45 minute drags. it's the worst aspect of something like FF16, and it seems like these games just cannot get away from it. i genuinely just do not care lol let me get back to fighting and the main story. this side story trope is so overplayed and has been since like FF14 or even before that. these developers don't seem to realize that stories can be told concisely and with some interpretation. they want to force feed you ten cutscenes and seven dialogue sequences that mean absolutely nothing at the end of the day. i'm guessing it is because they can't get away with forcing a level grind playtime extension when they all go to arpg combat. so instead they bloat their game with literal nonsense.
the MC is great, love him.
combat is okay if not good. certainly fun. i want to be good at it but it's got major flaws, such as lack of lock-on targeting. this game really just needs a way to swing the camera around properly and it doesn't have it. so you end up just looking like a tard a lot.
boat combat is good if not great, relative to the market. for all the other things this game offers, the fact it has even competent ship combat is fine by me. i enjoy the time sailing.
i haven't reached a point where i can completely sandbox but i do feel free to progress whenever i want, grind cash whenever i want, and explore everywhere i've already been for as long as i want. in this way it's a remarkable game.
the sheer amount of content is probably the best aspect of the game. the excitement for what unlocks next is probably second - aka progression. the main character is third imo.
the kid is probably the worst aspect to me. the side story bloat is second (be more like chrono cross. get them over and done with), and combat camera is third.
so yeah it's fun, maybe even great. but there are some prominent mechanics that do really cause the game to suffer overall.
6/10 so far. buy on major sale like i did ($15). don't buy at full price.
