The plot / writing feels like it was put together by a 13 year old, or maybe an AI. it's almost interesting, and almost makes sense, but doesn't. Things just sort of "happen", and they don't really make sense and aren't really explained. Character motivations are unclear. Also, the gameplay is shit.
The world they created is super compelling, which seems to always be the case with Final Fantasy games. I just wish they could make an actually good game to go with their top tier world building and art direction.
Right at the end of the game like 15 green icons pop up and I gave up listening to them talk. I started skipping through the dialog by mashing X (this was before I realized if you paused, you could skip the interaction by holding triangle) and even then, they were way too long. NPCs use way too many words to convey VERY simple concepts, it's maddening.
I think the most hyped I was with the story was right around when you
spoiler
start learning about bearer/slave dynamics and then decide to crush the mother crystal which is clearly causing the blight AKA climate change
and then I just got less hyped over time because it never actually examined those things in any meaningful way. Clive just shouts boring platitudes about human will and that's about as deep as it goes.
Exactly my thoughts on the NPCs using just an incredible amount of words where you do not need that much. Spoilers throughout the next parts:
I agree that my interest was also the most piqued right before Ultima became a big part of the plot and the main focus was blowing shit up and saving the people in chattel slavery. I would say my interest starting really waining once Jill gives up her power to Clive to make him even more powerful, super special and important. I understand this is a game for teenagers and so the very important young person that saves the world is going to be utilized, but yeesh.
I did wonder with a lot of the talk about "will" and "conscious" and all that if it was a translation problem? I know these days we get much better translations than we did in the old days of the series, but the words almost felt like they weren't be used properly and I don't know if that's because they were being poetic or if there just wasn't a good English translation of the concepts? I'm honestly not super familiar with Japanese language, so I was just guessing or maybe giving them too much of the benefit of the doubt.
I think I remember reading that the English localization team was given a lot of freedom, so I'm not sure how much can be chalked up to translation. But yeah, his use of the word seemed inconsistent. And I agree about the part with Jill. That was basically when I was praying for the game to end and then it went on way too long after. Oh well, I got to see some cool kaiju fights I guess.
Literal women disempowerment to empower the male protagonist. Anita Sarkeesian was right
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btw on that note, did you know Phil Fish (partly hated for being right during gamergate) is back on social media (mastodon) and mostly posts about killing rich people? Very cool!
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