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
My main issue with the action game mechanics is that it stops being an ensemble cast and turns into a story about one dude because turn-based is the only reasonable way to control an entire party
One thing I hate about a lot of classic Square JRPGs that you are strictly verboten from benching the designated anime boi hero. Let me run around town as Cid, Tifa or Red XIII you assholes
Yeah you either need the Chrono Trigger treatment or an ensemble cast like FF6.
Am I a joke to you?
Yeah, on reflection that was something they really got into with the PS1 games
I don't mind having a forced party if it makes sense for the story. I don't like it as much when it's enforced for no apparent reason
FFXV did a great job of telling a four character story with action rpg mechanics.
But dis it do a good job of feeling like you were playing the whole party?
No lol it sucks so much that the other three boys are unplayable until you unlock them one by one on the skill tree. And that you can only momentarily play as them during a fight, after which you'll immediately switch back to Noctis. Noctis is the lamest one!
The devs couldn't even give us the decency of playing as them in comrades beyond one (1) mission. The only good mission.
The original release: absolutely not. Noctis is the clear protagonist and occupies 75% of the player's attention
With the DLC or in the Royal Edition: Noctis occupies about 30% of the player's attention. Each other party member gets their own lengthy side quest and returns to the main storyline as playable characters and with deeper motivations for their actions and contribution to the plot.
It's one of those games where they solved many of it's initial flaws way after the impression of the game was set in the public mindscape.
Honestly FFXII is probably my favourite because it successfully merged real time with party control through the gambit system. Tell 'em what to do and you just need to switch around the characters for a bit of fine tuning. Having to unlock the gambits was bullshit but apart from that I had no complaints.
I thought the FF7 remake handled that pretty well
Yeah that's a pretty fair criticism. The last couple have felt that way.