After about 20 hours in and still feeling like it's a darn tutorial the game has really lost me... haven't played it in a few days and am having a hard time getting back to it.
It's a shame as I feel if the thing wasn't so insanely linear and took some more queues from Monster Hunter it'd be a heck of a title.
There's a saying that kept popping into my head while playing which, while harsher than is fair, I think sums up my view of the combat and such thus far: "Wide as a lake, shallow as a puddle". Every time I learn of a new combat mechanic, slot, or what have you I'm immediately disappointed to see that it's remarkably limited. Rather than making the mechanics deep and interesting, they seem to have favored quantity to provide the illusion of depth. Perhaps there's still more to be revealed in time but, seriously, fucking tell me everything so that I can finally play this game properly after a couple dozen hours of time invested.
Still, I'm decently early in the game by virtue of taking every opportunity to go salvaging and hunting on my own so that I can, you know, actually play them damn thing, so maybe it gets better... I'm just not sure I can force myself back to it. For a game that I actually rather like most of the characters, voice acting, and aesthetics in, that's quite a rarity.
I do love the Nopon though, and generally I'm someone who's not that interested in cutesy people. Dang they're cute and funny.
I just remembered one of my biggest gripes: Thus far I have, in nearly every scripted battle, mopped the floor with the enemy only to have it cut away to what feels like a full-length episode of anime where the person I just wrecked is actually completely fine and kicking my ass. This wasn't a one time thing, but instead it seems to happen almost every single time. That is one of the most maddening dang things I've ever encountered, and makes you feel as if there was no point to playing.
At least in most other RPGs and JRPGs when you beat a boss they want to stick around they show him struggling and fleeing the scene, making you both frustrated and satisfied. Having everything you do in the actual game amount to nothing and instead rely on cutscenes for the consequential fighting to occur has just killed this experience for me.
I don't know if this is something others have experienced often, but this is one of those rare titles that I initially liked and still feel I would like if the game would just get the heck out of the way and let me play it.
