Forwarning, this isn't a fluffy, there's nothing wrong with this game, post. Maybe I expect different things from games in 2020, or maybe my tastes differ from some of yours. Just something to keep in mind. First off, some of the things that I found very annoying or just bad game decisions.

I gotta say, as someone who hasn't played much of the previous games (a few hours worth each of 7/8/10/12) , but has put a lot of time into other games, some of the mechanics in this game are straight out of 1996.

Dodging doesn't dodge. Period. Most things track your character and cannot truly be dodged. It needs to just be renamed "Roll". No I-frames = not a dodge. As someone who put a lot of hours into the souls series, I was incredibly frustrated and disappointed by this. The combat I like, once I realized that dodging was utterly useless and guarding was the only real defense you have...because 98% of enemies have some kind of attack that will Stagger, sleep, transform, or knock your ass down. Most enemies will die before I stagger them, but almost every hit from certain enemies will stagger me and some will sleep/stop/transform you for 10-20 seconds! I get some creatures having this, but I don't think there is a single chapter in the game where a monster type doesn't do one of those things. But once you get used to that BS, and you realized that the combat is totally rigged against you from the start then you can understand it and avoid those situations as best as possible. Once that's mitigated, the combat is really fun. It's a blast to boost your magic damage up and just wreck everything on your screen with a Magnified FIRAGA like a spirit bomb! If 1 of the above 2 issues were addressed in some way, I think combat would be a lot more fun.

Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, is padded out to make the game longer. Not to show off anything, but just for the devs to bump the playtime. From opening a door (5 seconds) to going through a fence (4 seconds) that should take half the time, to things like slipping through a crevice to get to the moogle kids taking like 12 seconds...it's incredibly frustrating to realize you didn't need to go that way and now have lost half a minute. Other games from almost 10 years ago have handled this better (games from 2000 have handled this better)

The worst part of the game for me is the lack of control. There are a TON of points in this game where I don't have control of MY character when I should. Try to go a different direction than where someone wants you to go (even if it's just down a path to smash a box) slow walk to a stop, turn around slowly, slow walk back a few steps (this take like 6 seconds) all in order to tell me "you can't go that way right now". I'd have settled for the countless other games since the EARLY 90s that just put an invisible wall there and let me maintain control of my character rather than waste my time. This happens CONSTANTLY throughout the game in other scenarios like a short cut-scene to go under a pipe, transition to me controlling character (transition is 3-ish seconds) I take 5 steps CUT-SCENE....what is the point in that transition??? Just make it all 1 cut-scene.

The game is more of a movie than a game. That's really my issue with it. It's a Square game, so they have to show off their cut-scenes...we all understand. Know what other game had a TON of cut-scenes, but still retained the immersiveness of being a game? Uncharted 2. It came out in like 2010. I could skip a cut-scene and just be playing the game again...not loading that same area I was just at for 15 seconds. I get that Square is pushing the PS4 to it's limits here and this would probably be a lot better of a game to play on the PS5 or PC with faster load times, but when the game is constantly saying "Hey look at this view" when I just want to control my character it breaks immersion for me. "I" want to be the one than pans the camera and looks out over Midgar. "I" want to have the choice to go and look where I please. That it what really frustrated me the entire time playing the movie...err...game.

With all that said, and I'm sure it sounds like I really didn't like the game, but I did. I love the game. Even with it's faults. I'd love to replay it on PC in the future and see how different of an experience it is. I think the story and world is amazing and I never wanted to skip a cut-scene the first time though. I loved the choices you can make and the different items/weapons. I cannot wait for part 2 to release in 2-3 years (hopefully). I just really hope they fix the dodge, cause it almost cost me a controller a few times.