Haven't even gotten to a full fledged race yet, just doing the tutorial and side activities. ...why does my racing game have such good hand to hand combat? How did this game do both racing and platforming well simultaneously?
Post story update:
That was quite a wild ride. Having watched Feperd's Q&A, I know the backstory behind the story's development, so I couldn't help but see all the cut potential it had. It was overly ambitious, for sure, but what was there was fun, if a bit long at times.
My advice is to not pursue the proving grounds challenges too seriously in story mode. While most daily activities take a few minutes or less, PG challenges give you 15 attempts, which can translate to up to a half hour of racing per day. With the opening months strongly recommending you pursue them, it contributes to those months feeling especially long. Completing the PG challenges does not unlock anything for story mode specifically, so it's just for your own benefit -- to get better at the game. And I do heavily recommend doing the PG challenges, as the advanced ones are more difficult than the actual courses you'll race on - ideal as practice.
The story itself maintains a central mystery that isn't solved until the very end. And true to Feperd's previous stories, it's a bombshell of a twist. From here on is an info hazard, reading it will change the way you look at XF: [spoiler]You can see hints of Feperd's original vision of a branching narrative, similar to Devil Survivor with the daily schedule and meaningful choices. The whole plot was scripted around it initially and you can see those marks everywhere, from the dialogue choices to the racer interactions. But it was too much for Feperd, would've dragged on development too long, so he condensed everything down to the best ending and shipped that. If your choices align with this route, the story may resonate with you, but if you'd have made different choices, the narrative might feel forced towards the end.[/spoiler] As for me, I'm glad I got to go along with Shell's journey till the end.
Mechanically, there's variety to story mode and curve on the challenge.
The game doesn't really demand much of you to progress, you can upgrade your vehicle to the point it can reliably take 1st in every race. However, the final cup seemingly expects that level of upgrades so you'll need to bring your A game if you slacked off on the economy front. Even with the upgrades, I needed to bring my A game to maintain 1st (even though you don't need 1st to progress). The game can be quite generous with resets, so the stakes are ultimately low in important events. The stakes are ironically highest in daily activities because failing there results in losing the day.
The racing in story mode is broken up with on-foot sections which feature a slowed down version of Spark the Electric Jester 3's gameplay. Due to Feperd having made this type of gameplay before, it came out rather polished, contrary to what normally happens when a game tries to do multiple modes of play. The focus is on score so going fast helps but isn't mandatory. Just like SEJ3, combat is combo focused and lets you juggle enemies if you're good enough. As an early upgrade scales your damage with a combo meter, if you suck at hand to hand, the fights will be a slog -- conversely they go by quickly if you're stylish about it. A case of "the better you are, the more fun it is."
I personally enjoy both sides of the coin, but your mileage may vary.
