Not sure how BG feels about this game since I banished myself from this thread until I personally finished the game, but god damn! Just finished all the DLC, movie, anime, and had to say my piece. I absolutely love this final fantasy and right now it's my favorite barring any nostalgia goggles.
- Battle-System: The combat seems stupid simple at first but the more you get the hang of it the more deep and fun as fuck it gets. At the moment I'm at level 81 and just starting to feel like I have a legit grasp on the combat. How to set up links, manipulate the mobs with techs, and placement position. It's so ridiculously satisfying when pulled off. My only gripe is that magic seems like an afterthought. Friendly fire magic might sound cool on paper, but it's dumb in game making it pointless to cast anything unless you one-shot the mob or severely weaken it. Also, the game makes healing almost exclusively to items. Not a fan of that shit. Either way, still learning and I'm about to take on the Menace dungeons.
- Exploration: Holy shit! I literally spent the first 20-30 hours or so on the first few chapters cuz I just couldn't help myself just checking shit out. It was awesome and the banter between the chocobros was always entertaining and endearing. I dare anyone to complain about the open-world environment in this game, up until chapter 10(sp?) where you can tell things were wrapping up, versus the glorified tunnel simulators we got in FFX and FFXIII.
- Story: What I heard often without any specific details before playing the game was that this was the weakest part of the game. And I agree. It's absolutely tragic. The chocobros are awesome characters. The lore of this game is ridiculously deep and it's simply not done justice through it's story-telling. Half the time I felt I wouldn't know what the fuck was going on had I not invested in watching the movie and anime beforehand.
I went in thinking Noctis was gonna be an edge lord emo fag, but it was the exact opposite. Dude probably had more in common with Vaan/Tidus than he did with Cloud/Squall. Ardyn is by far, my favorite FF villain of all time. He's Kefka +1 with extraordinary swag. It's unfortunate I had to double-take on his background because unlike cliche' villian number 32, he had a legit reason for doing what he did.
- Conclusion: I love the lore, I love the world, I love the combat, I love the characters. I COMPLETELY FORGOT ABOUT THE MUSIC. Simply godliek. I could listen to the Cleigne battle theme all day. So it breaks my heart when I think about what exactly was cut, what was the original story, what could've been. A fleshed out well presented story could've knocked this FF out of the universe for everyone.