It's unfortunate that I hesitated so long to get this. This is a great action game with a lot of gameplay variety, nice boss battles, decent enemy diversity, and serves as a nice homage to other Final Fantasy games in its level designs.
Everything has weight to it. When you power up a charge with a massive axe it feels incredibly satisfying to smack a floating eye in the face with it. The progression is mostly well done, though the item drops are even more obnoxious than the most plentiful of Diablo-like games out there. The dismantle system that automatically destroys items in accordance with parameters you set was a nice touch, but quality is always better than quantity in my opinion.
The maps are linear and offer little in the way of exploration, though there's a hint of that. The side quests of the game have you going over slightly altered routes of maps you've already played through. All in all, while each map is great to play through the first time, they do start to wear a bit thin.
Story wise, for the vast majority of the game there isn't much to say... the writing is peak anime cringe in a way that most people will love but will cause physical discomfort to some. It's silly and doesn't take itself seriously--except then it flips and absolutely DOES try to take itself seriously, and the tonal shift is awkward. Ultimately though, it's still decent for the most part, offering a unique take on the original Final Fantasy's origins. The characters themselves are right from the bucket labeled 'standard anime characters' and thus are dorky, lame, cringe, etc. If you're into that, you'll love it. I hated every character in this game and actively cheered for bad things to happen to them.
I didn't run into many issues with performance, some mild drops in frames once in a while. I had one CTD toward the end of the game and lost a few minutes of progress/item drops, but nothing too offensive. Your mileage may vary--other people seem to have more issues than I did. I do have to scoff at the inability to run the game in 4K though. What is this, the 1980s?
The shining part of this game is strictly in its gameplay. It's fast, fun, weighty, and mostly challenging. There are some odd difficulty spikes. The hardest boss (for me) was the very first 'actual' boss, whereas most of the others (including the final) went down in an attempt or two. Still, the encounters are fun. If you're not familiar with action games like this that rely on combos and diverse move-sets, you'll find a pretty ample challenge. If you've played Ninja Gaiden, Devil May Cry--even Dark Souls to an extent--you'll be familiar enough with the loop that it may not offer much resistance. I've just finished the main story and haven't done much of the post-game content, but there's a ton to do and I intend on playing more.
All in all I hesitated on buying this for years now, and I wish I would have gotten it sooner. It's genuinely a great action game and well worth the ~20 bucks I spent on it. I dare say had I paid full price for it I would have been satisfied, but since it goes on sale pretty regularly, you may as well wait for a sale before you do. Or don't. I'm not your mom.
