JWeinCom said:
It's hard to say how I'd feel about the pacing if I hadn't played the original. I kind of wish I could experience the game that way, but sadly I can't wipe my memory. There are some segments, like the side mission to Jessie's house, which probably wouldn't have stood out too much. But, there are other elements that I think would've still felt really off. Like the last hour or so of sector 5 before you fight the boss. Also, I think the side quests are just uninteresting. And because of the way the game is structured, you have to do them all at once between chapters, or not at all and forego a lot of key items. Compare that to Xenoblade Chronicles 1 and 2 which had sidequests that were also mostly kind of boring. But, in those games, you could access them whenever you want, so you got to decide if and when you wanted some downtime from the main story |
You don’t need to do the side-quests if you don’t feel like it. To me, they serve as a way to grind without simply running in circle in-between random encounters. If you do all the side quests as they become available, you will have everything needed to mostly breeze through the rest of the content.
And if you don’t you will have a harder time, but there are other means later down the line that will allow you to build your characters up level wise.
And then there’s something waiting for you once you complete the game...
I personally had no problem with the pacing or the side content. I thought everything flowed quite well. But I can understand why others who played the original would prefer if the game sticked to the original pacing a bit more closely. It’s hard at times to refrain from thinking about the original. Almost impossible in fact. And for some, it can get in the way and prevent them from appreciating what this remake does differently. And that’s fair enough.
I’m just glad it didn’t do that for me. I enjoyed pretty much every minutes of it. And by the time the game ended, it left a [still]?lasting impression on me and I keep thinking about what everything it brought really means for things to come. I suspect it isn’t at all what most people seem to think it is. But we have to wait for part 2 to know for sure.
