Very excited for the sequel but i wanna say the game did let me down in two things:
1) The "main boss" of the game or at least the human boss of the game is a dude that is so forgettable that when i first saw him i didnt realized he was a boss and just thought he was anothe big generic thug, and only later did i found out he was actually an important character to the story... also he barely appered in the game which makes him even more forgettable. (i will address this point further below).
2) I thought the final boss or at least final fight of the game was gonna be against a Metal Devil (the Horus), you know those gigantic things that rest upon mountains that are so big you could make an entire stage inside them... for the longest time i kept thinking about how they were gonna make that huge thing into an actual boss fight and how it would play out, and i got to the conclusion that... i didnt know how they could possibly make it into a boss fight but if they did this game would have one of the coolest final showdowns in any RPG i have ever played, sadly they didnt and while the final boss is still practically the most interesting enemy they could throw at you (especially considering it has the cannons from the tanks you see everywhere) its still no Metal Devil.
Also i wanna say that while I thought the game was pretty great i do see many places where it can improve, for example:
1) More side activities in towns (in the first game they are just places to go pick up sidequests or main quests and or buy and sell equipment), i want the ability to play games, im not asking for Poker or any other mini game that has been done to DEATH in open world games, but rather completely new original stuff, considering this is a new world i wanna see some new interesting and original mini games, also let me sit at a bar to eat and drink while i absorb the atmosphere of the city/town and hopefully even have a fun conversation with some NPCs while im at it, anything like that would help me feel like i am indeed in a living breathing world.
And maybe make some attractions in the big cities like race tracks or something (im thinking about something similar to the chocobo races in final fantasy), or better yet something completely original, i want them to impress me.
2) Make human encounters more interesting, i saw many people complaining about this one and while i wasnt really bothered by it at all (it was what i expected from this type of game) i do think they can improve, maybe give more depth to the melee combat and make it so its easier or preferable to fight humans this way, that way it would also feel very different to fighting machines.
3) Get rid of all the ubisoft open world design elements, this gotten really boring for me (and many other people since ive seen many compalin about this exact type of thing), get rid of the towers, clearing enemy camps and other tropes we have seen in Ubisofts games, i want them to come up with completely original elements in design for their next game.
4) I wanna see more old ruins to explore in the next game THAT ARENT tied to the main quests, i was hoping to find a lot of them but honestly (aside from the armor ruin) there is only the cauldrons, and what i want are tons of places like the other metal ruins but completely optional, and you access them to expand your knowledge of the ancient world and it be awesome if we could get some really cool ancient weapons or gadgets.
Gadgets that would allow you to do some cool stuff in the open world (like manipulate gravity for a period of time, or become invisible for a period of time as well etc.) and also... ancient weapons which i think can be implemented and balanced so the player doesnt use them all the time (for how op they are), like for example they could make the ammo really hard to find and very limited so you only use them when completely necessary.
5) I understand that this game was mostly about explaining the history of the world to the player, and thats the reason why other things like the human boss of the story got pushed aside for the majority of the game but... now that thats done i wanna see a very memorable, cool looking, interesting and most importantly charismatic boss for the next game, someone who is constantly present through the story, who is very human as well (unlike other "cartoon villains" ive seen in other games like uncharted 2), someone who you can understand but also hate a LOT.
and finally...
6) I WANNA RIDE MACHINES!, DO YOU KNOW HOW COOL IT WOULD BE TO RIDE A THUNDERJAW!?? THE FREAKING COOLEST!!!, (or at least let me hack them and control them, that would be equally as cool).
