Got my deluxe edition late and only get to play 2-3 hours a day due to work. I just beat titan. Here are my thoughts so far.

The writing and voice acting deserves an Oscar and academy award. This is the best English voice acting I’ve ever heard in a video game. The writing is so poetically beautiful.

Pros:

• Story is doing MOST the heavy lifting. You can really tell that this is DMC action/story focused more than FF RPG focused. It’s a step in the right direction but FAR from a 10.

-Action can be fun if you get creative with switching through Eikons during a fight. But yes it is a button mashing system that’s open to all skill levels.

-absolutely beautiful graphics and level design

-The hunt board is cool

-The active lore system should be adapted by every game going forward.

• BEST SOUNDTRACK EVER IN A VIDEO GAME

Cons:

-Game can be way too easy at times

• NO DESTRUCTIBLE ENVIRONMENTS, why add breakable boxes in FF7 remake just to not have them here??? Makes the levels feel like a ps2 game at times.

-Crafting system is an afterthought

-Items are an afterthought.

-Entirely too linear (invisible walls EVERYWHERE)

-Chocobo riding is waaaaayyy too slow, flying is pointless and does nothing. Missed a great opportunity for chocobo flying to gain access to cliffs and secret areas.

-Barely any enemy variety -Absolutely no reason to explore at all. -same boring enemy types

-Everyone agreed the side quests are ass

Suggestions:

-Petting the dog should do something. Missed a great opportunity for having a relationship system to where Torgal listens or disobeys commands.

-Go back to controlling the entire party, not just one character.

-This is FF…crafting gear should be the main focus of combat and defense.

-Gear changes should actually be displayed on your character, not just different weapons.

-Weapons should have different elemental characteristics and items should also protect against certain elements. Both these features have been in all FF games so why remove them??

-Certain side quests should have time limits…I shouldn’t be able to accept a quest to save someone and then do a million other things first before completing that quest.

-Too much hand holding, quests show you where everything is located so it’s just accept quest > look at quest on map and fast travel there and back > quest completed.

Final thoughts:

The titan fight was absolutely STUNNING. I was hoping I would have a longer battle at some point and they did not disappoint. It’s clear that they are putting all effort into the story going forward and taking a different approach to FF Series from now on. It’s not bad, it just needs further refining. If this game and Elden Ring had a love child it would be a masterpiece.

The game overall feels rushed.

Overrall: 7.5-8/10 so far