Notices by ~BitBun~ :bunRetro: (bitbun@raru.re), page 2

@coolboymew Gameplay and quests for XBC1 was definitely the worst of it - I don't remember hating the dungeons (except for the "explore the caves" bits, which I do recall being pretty boring), but it wouldn't surprise me if they were bad to revisit nowadays. I personally still find the story in 1 to be the best of them though - it doesn't hit as high of highs as some of the moments in 2 or 3, but just consistently above-average which made the story as a whole feel better and more cohesive to me. Whereas 2 and 3 felt choppier, and sometimes they would take the story in one direction when another felt like it would've suited the situation, characters, or world better.

For gameplay, maybe it is just a general JRPG problem, but I am hopeful they can somehow rise above it. Like for example I enjoyed the battle systems for Triangle Strategy and Octopath Traveller (just pulling some other recent RPGs I've played, different kinds of RPGs entirely but still an example of taking an old formula and adding something new or just doing it pretty well).

Though those games have some other problems I still felt pretty engaged through most of them with the core battle systems, usually lacking only towards the end when all the tricks the game was going to play have already been played.

@coolboymew

The reason I ask is because to me, I felt like there wasn't really any one thing that 3 obviously did best compared to 1 and 2. Like I felt battles were more fun generally in 2, and story done better in 1, and environments better in 2, etc.

But now that you mention it, quests were done the best here hands-down. I liked the hero and ascension quests, and even the side quests were pretty palatable and sometimes even just genuinely fun. For many towns you could interact as little or as much as you wanted through the quests, as well - but you definitely got something more than just experience points if you went out of your way (e.g. good story, world, or character moments).

If you don't care to read on, that's fine but just sharing some of my extended thoughts:

I had a gripe with where the story went at places. The huge highlight of ch 5/6 was definitely the climax of the story for me (at least I think those were the chapters where "that" event takes place). It's a fake-out, but I think it was one of the better fake-outs I've seen. (Though as much as I enjoyed it, I'll admit that part of me wishes they committed and you continued the game onwards as Noah's son or reincarnations of the characters without Mio or something, that would've been one hell of a mindfuck.)

Aside from that one fake-out, I did get a bit exhausted with nothing substantial lasting after major events happened (all the other fake-outs). While I get the theme of the game is things not dying and instead getting remade and remixed endlessly (kind of a metaphor for the XBC Klaus story and perfect works), it got super old watching some huge events take place, but after the dust settles nothing was really different.

As far as fights go, one of my big complaints is sometimes the fights just take way too long, and the battle system really starts to feel more like a chore. I don't remember feeling that way as often as in the other games. Like I definitely felt it in the other games, but it was pretty prevalent here. I kinda wish the battles had some more unique mechanics sometimes, or they leaned into changing the formula up a bit more. Like when fighting M; cool idea with marking who she is controlling, but execution-wise it felt lackluster.

Or something bigger with the core battle system, maybe some tuning to allow for things to feel more engaging and challenging (especially considering how long some battles feel). More often for me if you're on enough of a downwards spiral you basically aren't recovering, which makes it hard to find that happy medium of challenging but rewarding fights. For the most part the fights felt too easy for me, but I didn't want to bump the difficulty to hard because it didn't seem like it'd be fun to potentially wipe on battles because of how long they felt even on normal. So I am kind of wondering if the battle system felt engaging or not?

I guess I'm excited to see them branch away from the Klaus story, which is apparently what they're doing for 4. And I am kinda hoping some of these story gripes which now feel common to the writing of XB don't carry their way over to 4. There is just always weird writing decisions where it feels to me like they had something great, and then they took one or two wrong turns with it. Plus, I guess I'm a little bored at this point of the battle system, I hope it gets shaken up a bit, or that when there is an interesting mechanic it is put to better execution.

@coolboymew Okay - I gotta ask, what did you think? I have some thoughts on the game, and I wanted to see if they line up with someone else who has played it (and basically nobody I know has played it).

In particular, I'm curious about the story, world, and gameplay, especially compared to 1 & 2. If you have time I'd be curious to hear what you think.

:blobcatHeadphones:

:blobcatHeadphones:

@coolboymew super hoping for a s2; really loved the series. It left me in that perfect state of wanting more but being satisfied with what happened.

@coolboymew メリクリ :blobcatHoHoHo: