Leyviur.net

First of all, if you haven’t read my official opinion, then go ahead and read my review here. Go ahead, I’ll wait.

Finished? Good.

Anyway, that’s my official opinion as a reviewer on a site, because I have mixed in some objectiveness and the knowledge that, yes, some people like this game. That being said, my personal opinion is much less flattering to the game. It’s horrible. Everything from the story to the battle system to the general gameplay just grates on my nerves.

Let’s start with the story. I know that going into the plot in medias res is a big thing these days, but the story is just nonsensical. In order for the player to have any understanding of the plot they need to delve into the datalog (basically a collection of information regarding the game world, its culture, and events leading up to the game), which is an atrocious method of storytelling. The story was already pretty bad to begin with but having half of it ripped out and stuffed into the datalog makes it that much worse. This is not good story telling, Square Enix. This is complete and utter tripe. The characters, similarly, are a collection of idiotic tropes and clichés that really end up doing nothing but annoying me to hell. One character, Hope, is consistently pissy and pathetic, while Vanille seems like she comes from outer space since her attitude is a cross between a retard and a stupid blonde.

The horrible story’s the least of its problems, too, because it’s gameplay is similarly shoddy. Battles take place in a completely passive method, all you really do is select your party’s job and then auto battle. The fact that the game is over when the party leader’s HP reaches 0 is an absurd way to add challenge to the game; this is called artificial challenge, and this is bad. Also, the entire game is basically completely on rails. There are a few branching paths but they normally lead to dead ends or crappy treasure.

The argument most supporters of the game make is that it “gets good” about 20 hours into the game. That’s not exactly handing it a compliment, since that means the first 20 hours is just complete crap. It’s like digging through manure in the hopes of finding a few flakes of gold, not only will you have hands covered in animal feces, but you will probably not find the gold anyway. About the only thing that’s good about the game is the graphics, which are good – it’s almost like Square Enix spent all their time polishing up the visuals and no time creating a deep battle system, engaging narrative, likable characters, or a game that resembles fun in any way. Skip this game, please. It’s horrible.

The Good
+ Graphics are great
+ The music…. I guess?

The Bad
- Gameplay
- Story
- Characters
- No exploration whatsoever

The WTF
?! Whoever thought it was a good idea for the game to end when the party leader is knocked out, you’re a moron.

I have to say, waiting a quarter of a year between episodes is a bad move because I’ve started losing any semblance of interest I have for this show. Before it reaches that point, let’s take a look at the episode we left off at.

It starts with a pretty good cliffhanger type in medias res opening, but anyone who’s familiar with any type of storytelling knows that the subject matter is prime for interpretation. In any case, there’s a lot of progress made in this episode. While I find the entire ‘blowing up a pharmaceutical lab’ by a total of about four people to be incredibly absurd, it serves as a good example of how a well-planned attack can procure a well-needed result. In any case, this episode isn’t all about the flash of an exploding alien research lab, a lot of reveals happen as well.

Tyler’s mom finding out he’s now on the alien mothership should lead to some decent drama, but I find myself less and less interested in the character, since Tyler represents the whole ‘thinking he’s a nonconformist when he’s just a douche’ archetype. The entire reveal about how Jack used to be a soldier didn’t really work for me (I mean, come on, what kind of priest can fight like that?), but the fact that he’s stabbed and left for dead by the end is a pretty damn good cliffhanger, I’ll say that. It definitely gives the impression that the entire idea of Resistance is a complete and utter waste and that they’re fighting what amounts to be a losing battle.

The most interesting reveals are about Ryan and Valerie’s baby – presumably a half V, half human baby; let’s just ignore the utter genetic impossibility of two completely different species somehow coincidentally having the exact same number of chromosomes and the exact same conditions for gestation, but the original series had a pretty decent plot twist involving that aspect, though it was more horrifying than worrying. I can’t really say how the final scene reminds me similarly of Mass Effect 2′s final scene, as well… hm. I probably just have Mass Effect on the mind. Anyway, I look forward to where the series will go but I’m losing interest rather quickly.