Been with the series ever since Sky in 2011, and man, it feels like this past year folks went from considering this series to have "some of the best world-building and characters in all of gaming," to "nothing in these games has any payoff and I'm tired of playing."
This isn't a thread against either side of these groups, it is out of genuine curiosity to better understand the shift in mentality.
Do agree on pacing and payoff issues, even from Sky SC it felt like it took forever for the plot to go anywhere, with each chapter being a lot of catch up/set up for what will happen riiight at the end of it. And in the grand scheme of things, it kind of feels like this trend continued throughout the resf of the series too. With many of the overall narratives being super slow and then just taking things to mach speed right near the climax.
But I do feel amidst all this padding there is some great character development and interactions. Honestly, it feels more and more with these recent games that they've become much more character oriented, and are more focused on the journey than the destination, especially with how many characters the Cold Steel saga and onwards have; I wonder if this is what's caused the shift in opinion.
There's other criticisms being brought up like boring dungeons and the combat system being the same for a decade and a half/people not being happy with the combat changes in Kuro, but I'll leave that to y'all to discuss since I kind of am not as bothered by these issues since it feels like so many other RPGs have them lol.
This isn't a thread against either side of these groups, it is out of genuine curiosity to better understand the shift in mentality.
Do agree on pacing and payoff issues, even from Sky SC it felt like it took forever for the plot to go anywhere, with each chapter being a lot of catch up/set up for what will happen riiight at the end of it. And in the grand scheme of things, it kind of feels like this trend continued throughout the resf of the series too. With many of the overall narratives being super slow and then just taking things to mach speed right near the climax.
But I do feel amidst all this padding there is some great character development and interactions. Honestly, it feels more and more with these recent games that they've become much more character oriented, and are more focused on the journey than the destination, especially with how many characters the Cold Steel saga and onwards have; I wonder if this is what's caused the shift in opinion.
There's other criticisms being brought up like boring dungeons and the combat system being the same for a decade and a half/people not being happy with the combat changes in Kuro, but I'll leave that to y'all to discuss since I kind of am not as bothered by these issues since it feels like so many other RPGs have them lol.