Peh on 20 January 2018
| Asriel said: I'm at the 41 hour mark now, so 14 hours on from when I last posted (at the very beginning of chapter 5 now). In that time I'd say the game has definitely improved. I feel like the difficulty curve has settled down, whereas earlier in the game it was a struggle taking on groups of enemies that were the same level as - or sometimes lower level than - my party, now I can take on groups that are a similar or slightly higher level without difficulty. Some of that's down to having more rare blades, which means I have more scope for elemental combinations and special attacks in combat. So now I'm feeling more positive about the game as a whole. I do think, compared the to the original, it's not as enthralling or captivating on an ongoing basis, but I'm very much enjoying it and looking forward to what the rest of the game has to offer. That being said, for all the invention, particularly in the way the game's different systems combine and complement one another the more time you spend with the game, there are still stupid, frustrating elements that shouldn't have made it into the final game. My biggest frustration is the core crystal system - I've had 6 rare core crystals return common blades, which I think is unfair, frustrating and genuinely stupid design. I get they want people to grind and explore and salvage and do mercenary missions for lots of rewards and to build up the in-game economy etc, but a rare core crystal should equal a rare blade. There's an element of risk each time you bond a rare crystal anyway - what if you get a Tank when you desperately wanted or needed a Healer? What happens when you end up with more and more of the same element? If you get completely different weapon-classes of blades bonded to one Driver, that slows down the rate at which you can improve their attacks. Relatedly, what if you bond the wrong class to one of your characters? That can be a particular problem since you seemingly have limited opportunities to swap blades between drivers. I'm exploring and salvaging and interacting with the game's different systems anyway, so I feel my rare core crystals being wasted by the game's RNG is a slap in the face, and completely unnecessary at that. There are enough risks involved in bonding a rare core crystal without the frequent occurrence of common blades emerging from a rare crystal - it seems particularly poorly thought out and unfair to the player. |
I find the rare and legendary core crystals pointless, you'll get a lot of them throughout the game, but I never got a rare blade out of them, arf. Only the normal core crystal did that, arf.
So, whenever you have a core crystal, give it to the guy with the most luck equiped and waste them, arf. There aren't a lot of rare blades in the game anyway, arf. If you would get them all in the first 40 hours, there wouldn't be much of a point in having an endgame, arf.
It's only for people who want to see every sidequest and story about the rare blades and beat every freaking monster above level 100, arf.
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