You made my char go back to Majula to be safe while I reply to this thread >_>
First of all, no games in this world "sucks". I consider that, if a game manages to be of the likeness of just one player, it doesn't suck. And I doubt there's a game out there that isn't appealing to a single person. Of course this is my own personal definition, I just find "suck" to be a big word, especially considering developer's effort into crafting a game.
Okay, that's out of the place, let's analise what you wrote.
I'd like to go in-depth with everything you wrote, but I can't (problem with time were I live) so I'll just cherry-pick some things you wrote. Hope you don't mind.
The Story.
· There's two kinds of L'Cie (so one kind isn't feared): Cocoon L'Cie and Pulse L'Cie. The Party is Pulse L'Cie. Cocoon's L'Cie aren't feared.
· Sazh's kid focus was to find L'Cie. Not Sazh particulary, (he was supposed to find Fang and Vanille, that's the kids focus, since Fang and Vanille were attacking the base and the Fal'Cie had no means to defend himself, so he made Dahj a L'Cie. He later finds his father, which makes him complete his focus, since his father is a L'Cie now).
· They free themselves from the curse once Fang becomes Ragnarok. That's why their L'Cie brands disappear.
· The world was umbalanced. Killing all humans would be a reason enough to make the God from Lightning Returns come back and see the disaster, which was Barthandeus plan all along.
· L'Cie aren't supposed to be different than normal humans, so that's why Sazh and Vanille go back to normal civilization. They have no reason to fight for Lightning's cause and so want to enjoy themselves. Then Dahj shows up and Sazh gets ultimately screwed.
· Fang and Vanille sacrifice themselves as Ragnarok to save both Cocoon and Pulse. That's why they're the ones turned into crystal at the end. The rest of the party is free from the curse.
2. Gameplay.
· I agree, the game is linear.
· Upgrade system could definitively use some kind of explanation. It was annoying as fuck.
· Combat is awesome. For me, at least. I can understand people getting annoyed at the system, but they game itself gave you two ways of playing it: auto-combat, or you choosing the actions command. It's up to the player.
Switching to paradigms, using items and getting ready for the enemy strike. There's gameplay here to be found. You need tactics and a certain degree of strategy. You still need to Libra enemies. You can poison them, or debuff yourself. There's ultimate techniques for each character. THere's depth here.
· It's up to you to choose a specialization for each character once you have the Crystaliarium. It is pretty doubtful that you have EVERYTHING maxed out by the time you hit Barthandeus. And still, the crystaliarium expands after that combat. You need gazilions of CP to max everything out. So it's there for a purpose.
· I liked this game and I read through everything you wrote :)
