Forspoken (PROJECT ATHIA) (PC/PS5) - January 24, 2023

[Lucavi]

To give credit to his point, xiii gets drastically better in the 2nd half. Not saying you're wrong in your opinions, but there's merits to what both of you are saying.

I can't personally see spending 70 buckazoids on a 12hr game though, fuck that. Definitely waiting for the $15 Christmas SE sale on this one.

The last boss was still trash, the fal'ce/le'ce shit was still atrocious and it went right back on rails once you stopped dicking around in Gran Pulse and got back on track to beat the game. Someone who quit after the Jhil fight (what a waste of a character) could realistically conclude all of that. They didn't need to see the credits roll to form those opinions.

I'll check this game out on a discount.

[Ayn]

No disrespect, but be careful with statements like this. I didn't need to finish FFXIII to know that the story and setting were hot fucking garbage. You don't have to finish a plate of rancid meat to know that it doesn't taste good.

This may not apply with Forspoken, but its a dangerous thing generally to pull the "WATCH THE END CREDITS OR YOUR OPINION IS INVALID!" card.

Like Prothescar, I see merits in both of your points.

I didn't necessarily take the statement as a blanket one, but more specific to this game: I could be reading too far into it, but the sense I got was that because you still get power ups/new stuff well into the last act (and possibly given the short length), it's hard to judge the game fully. That said, in reading your statement I didn't get the vibe you were necessarily accusing of that (more of a 'eh, other people won't read as closely')

On the flip side I get your FFXIII statement: When I played it I kept hearing 'just wait until Gran Pulse! The game really opens up and changes!'. . while yes it's more of an 'open feel' type thing by that act, one shouldn't have to suffer for such a huge chunk of the game to get to something that's. . not quite as different as people make it out to be.

On a semi-related note this makes me think of XC3. I'm on chapter 3 or so now and they do let certain new mechanics drip out gradually (at least at the point I'm at) rather than slamming you with it all at once.

[Melena]

Like Prothescar, I see merits in both of your points.

I didn't necessarily take the statement as a blanket one, but more specific to this game: I could be reading too far into it, but the sense I got was that because you still get power ups/new stuff well into the last act (and possibly given the short length), it's hard to judge the game fully. That said, in reading your statement I didn't get the vibe you were necessarily accusing of that (more of a 'eh, other people won't read as closely')

On the flip side I get your FFXIII statement: When I played it I kept hearing 'just wait until Gran Pulse! The game really opens up and changes!'. . while yes it's more of an 'open feel' type thing by that act, one shouldn't have to suffer for such a huge chunk of the game to get to something that's. . not quite as different as people make it out to be.

On a semi-related note this makes me think of XC3. I'm on chapter 3 or so now and they do let certain new mechanics drip out gradually (at least at the point I'm at) rather than slamming you with it all at once.

I'm trying to wrap up XC2 and that's been one of my biggest gripes. So many things I had to go back and re-watch youtube videos of cause they slam you with all these mechanics, and no way to go over it again.

[Ayn]

For what it's worth I THINK XC3 is better about that. There's a tutorial thing buried somewhere in the menu.

I had the SAME struggle though, man. It's really rewarding and fun once you figure it out again. But I took a break from it, came back and was like "How do I play this game again. What are even these mechanics."

[Tyrath]

No disrespect, but be careful with statements like this. I didn't need to finish FFXIII to know that the story and setting were hot fucking garbage. You don't have to finish a plate of rancid meat to know that it doesn't taste good.

This may not apply with Forspoken, but its a dangerous thing generally to pull the "WATCH THE END CREDITS OR YOUR OPINION IS INVALID!" card.

Idk how you got "you have to finish the game" from his comment. I guess the end boss comment, but the rest of it doesn't really say that

[Byrthnoth]

Then there are some other games like FFIX that have multiple reasonable story endings and choose to keep going until they reach a bad one.

Sounds like I don't have hardware that could play it so my opinion is irrelevant, but I wouldn't pay full price for a 12 hour game.

[Vaspinne]

Then there are some other games like FFIX that have multiple reasonable story endings and choose to keep going until they reach a bad one.

You shut your dirty ass mouth

[Drai]

You shut your dirty ass mouth

Necron came the fuck out of nowhere, FFIX was a fine game but it honestly kinda shit the bed at the end.

[Uzor]

How hard is it? Be honest. Might give this to the wifey to play but if it's like DMC hard that's a no-go. Even FF15 would be a challenge for her lol

Sent from my SM-G996U using Tapatalk

Super easy imo. The only difficuly content are the side mutants which are significantly harder than the bosses, but only because they one-shot you with pretty much all of their attacks, so you have to to dodge or die.

[Tyrath]

Necron came the fuck out of nowhere, FFIX was a fine game but it honestly kinda shit the bed at the end.

Honestly, who cares? It kind of fit the whole destroying the crystal thing and they did kind of hint at it. Everything else was perfection and JRPGs love doing insane universe killing final bosses. Didn't take away from the ending for me.

[Byrthnoth]

Necron came the fuck out of nowhere, FFIX was a fine game but it honestly kinda shit the bed at the end.

This guy gets it.

Honestly, who cares? It kind of fit the whole destroying the crystal thing and they did kind of hint at it. Everything else was perfection and JRPGs love doing insane universe killing final bosses. Didn't take away from the ending for me.

Yeah obviously the overall game was good and the final CGI still got me right in the feels, but it really felt like they saw they were going to come in ahead of schedule and decided to add Necron.

That said, I still view FFIX as probably the most impressive act of project management / industrial art that I have ever seen. They made a game that good in a little under 2 years (July 1998 to July 2000) during a merger with Enix. Honestly, mindblowing. Square was an incredible, well-oiled machine. What was it, like a 60 hour RPG with multiple amazing subplots? Comparing it to the most nearby target, Forspoken was in development for at least 3 years and came in at ~12 hours playtime with few willing to stand up for its story.

Square merging with Enix was a tragedy.

[Zealot]

Maybe for Square, all the Dragon Quest games post-merger have been excellent.

[Gokulo]

Maybe for Square, all the Dragon Quest games post-merger have been excellent.

But then you also have IPs like Star Ocean or Valkyrie Profile...

[Tyrath]

What was it, like a 60 hour RPG with multiple amazing subplots? Comparing it to the most nearby target, Forspoken was in development for at least 3 years and came in at ~12 hours playtime with few willing to stand up for its story.

The gameplay time to development time for a PS1 game vs a PS5 game isn't really a fair comparison though. Games nowadays take longer to develop because of how much technology has developed in terms of graphics, assets, etc.

[Uzor]

The gameplay time to development time for a PS1 game vs a PS5 game isn't really a fair comparison though. Games nowadays take longer to develop because of how much technology has developed in terms of graphics, assets, etc.

This. You can't even compare the two, the difference in development costs (even adjusted for inflation) between then and now is astronomical.

It's one of the things Square has struggled with, adapting to the increased costs and time of developing games.

[AoE]

My bad, been busy but yeah I'm not knocking anyone for waiting for a price drop and it still grinds my ass that we're paying $70 a game.

To answer Sal, games not hard but you can get overwhelmed quick. I haven't unlocked enough to see how broken you can get and honestly, at this rate, I can tell it's gonna take awhile to fully unlock Frey's skills.

But yeah Ayn had it right. I just meant for this specific game, you really need to play the whole game to give it a fair judgement. I think a fair place to decide whether you want to continue playing is after you get Frey's second set of skills. This is basically where you are in the demo. I would honestly call that a criticism because the beginning's pacing is kinda trash.

[Lucavi]

You shut your dirty ass mouth

The truth hurts. Necron is the posterchild for "Giant Space Flea from Nowhere!"

[NynJa]

Not gonna lie, i never played FF9, but from what I read, how is that much different from Zemus in FF4? All game Golbez was the main baddie, then 98% thru the game you find out Golbez was just a puppet much like Kain was his puppet.

[Prothescar]

It's executed better in 4 imo. In 9 it really does just feel tacked on and dumb. Having the twist just involve Garland and some weird interdimensional crap would've been sufficient.

[Tyrath]

It's tacked on but I still don't see the big issue with it. Kuja said he was gonna break the crystal to destroy the world. He breaks the crystal, the embodiment of world ending shows up and you have to beat him to stop the world ending. Typical JRPG stuff.