So I used a US account to get this and... Ok to get it out there "match 3" kinda stuff isn't me to begin with. But I'm just not getting what is all the rage here. Probably due to above. You just link your guys up for some attacks and some heals. Drag them around the board. That's the depth of strategy!? Someone please tell me it gets better.
Well many units have different skills and attacks. There are long range and close range attacks and the battles get much harder. You'll have to move multiple units at once and plan out which ones to attack / stay back. You'll notice mages and fighters have completely different stats and they'll do nearly no damage later on. Enemies will lay traps, status ailments, etc. The strategy will be heavy once you get into the later stages. I think it does get better later on but what you see is the basics of the game. If you hate it already I'm not sure if this would be enough to sway you.
Then lucky for you this game has NOTHING to do with match-3 at all, in any way. It's more of a board game that happens to share the displacement method of tile movement used in popular match-3 versions of this broader genre of collect & fight games (e.g. Puzzle and Dragons & Battle Camp), but that's as much as it has to do with match-3 Again, not sure what the above could possibly have to do with it, but if you've walked into this game thinking it's match-3, have played it and still think it's match-3, yeah, there is probably a disconnect here. Let's see... - Your "dragging them around the board" is the most original combat mechanic seen in this broader genre since PaD perfected the match-3 version of combat in these games and, unless you're a super ninja, far more challenging and skill based just in and of itself than you are admitting -There's 3 weapon type attacks with bonuses and negatives -There's 4 element types attacks with mutual strengths and weaknesses against their opposing element -There's an ever expanding proc skill set for all characters (that becomes a sort of skill tree for B & up class characters because you can mix & match proc skills from their different jobs) - There's varied team building where you have to bring the right characters to leverage your strengths against the enemies - bring the right team and a level might be easy, bring the wrong team and you fail -There's guns & butter choices as you have to allocate where to spend your energy, when/who to add jobs to, who to level, etc. - Environmental hazards and obstacles become common as you advance and you have to adapt to them - The enemies get progressively more challenging with their own proc skill sets -There are bosses with over the top powers and mechanics you have to adapt to Then you toss in the gorgeous hand drawn artwork, well crafted (for a JRPG at any rate ) storyline, great music, the collecting and unlocking, etc. and I'd rank this as the most promising game I've seen the past year over anything else I've played It's already "better", but whether it works for you is down to your own personal idiosyncrasies. I was loving this game from the first level onward, and as I've played it more and more the love has only grown. The highs of setting up the perfect arrangement that clears a bazillion enemies in one round, the lows of screwing up that perfect arrangement and clearing bupkiss, the anticipation of waiting for the results of a rare pull, the satisfaction of leveling and growing my stable of characters - it's all been a great experience, but maybe it's not for you.
C.hannum - All I'll say is "match three" was in inverted commas for a reason. And then you've gone and said this game has nothing to do with match three but then go and describe it as a board game utilising match three type tile movement. The rest of your stuff is good though and I appreciate that. Same with L.lawliet's. I think for any newcomers this game takes a bit of play through for it to start to click. I'm half way through the third mark on the map and starting to get a grip on it only really now. I don't think the tutorial opened up the tactics enough. If you will, C.hannum, allow me to call this a match3 of sorts just for now, then I will say coming into this third mark on the map now, if there ever was a "match-3" mechanic kind of game to hold me for at least a but, this could be it, which is a compliment to the devs! End of the use of the term "match-3" for this. Others call it what you will.
Ugh. I like it, I think, though the F2P is starting to show. 4-3 boss is perilously close to a paywall - I'm over-levelled, with two healers, and he still kills me in two hits (not enough time to move out of his charge attack - no there isn't - and anyone it doesn't kill is dead next turn). Still want to keep trying, but having a stage with X number of battles you sail through and then a final confrontation you fail out of nowhere is never a good sign.
It's a puzzle. I cannot remember that chapter but I have not spent any money and am on chapter 14 I believe. (I've mostly been unlocking jobs so can't remember) There are tricks to certain fights. I currently still do not have a single SS unit, and only use 1 S in my entire team. Just yesterday finally got a new healer (still been using the basic one). If you look at your team and the fight, you can figure out the trick and do it! That is actually why I like this game over any of the others before it. In a lot of those games you DO hit a paywall, where you have the best units or you just cannot complete the content. In this game I treat every hard stage as a puzzle and have to think to beat it. The other games are just constant grind fests. This game has a lot of grinding as well to keep a balanced team, but it always has something new to unlock/discover, and the next level may require a totally different strategy than you've used before.
A part of that process is retooling and rebalancing the game, and adjusting something like material required for a job falls well under the prevue of such a thing. Chill out, it's not like they deleted characters or made people start over.
Intriguing playstyle. The leveling process is still a little cloudy initially. A fleshed-out help section would easily fix that. The content also seems a little shallow right now. That might just be a symptom of having only played a few hours. 4/5 for now. Will reevaluate later.
I've been farming 4-3 because I really want that boss card to drop. It's getting tiring. I don't even know if it's worth it.
Not a paywall as such, then, but a heavy emphasis on grinding in a game with an energy system is pretty much the same thing. Comparing it to a match-3 isn't quite as silly as it sounds, IMO. It's basically Mistwalker trying to make the next Puzzle & Dragons (or basically the next successful puzzle game you're supposed to play over and over and over and over and over and where you'll have to repeatedly pay money if you want to do that for more than a few minutes at a time). I was hoping for something of an actual RPG - but none of your characters are important when it's basically "No, you need X number of these pieces or you won't be able to beat this level".
At the end of Chapter 4 you get Ba'gunar (B class lightning sword) and free job change material for your starter character (Grace or Bahl). Also I don't think it's really worth it anyways.
i also think is not worth it farming that boss, and you could also have it from the 3000 gold recluit Then dont you your "lightnings" or "energy" on the special recluits and save 5 to restore your energy then as simple as that you dont need to have pure SS or S class to playing i'm already going in chapter 14 and my party is pure B with only a S you get from the story Also the boss at 4-3 is pretty easy you just need your archer and healer on one side and the rest of you party on the other always heal the archer since he is the one to do most damage and when one of other (either sword, lance or whatever) you have is about to die replace him with another one with full heal, also never attack him from the top or lower part always from the sides so the charge attack doesn't hit you and the area attack shouldn't one hit you
I already got the char you get from finishing Chapter 4, lol. I'm already on the 2nd world below the 1st one, on Chapter 5. I'm just trying to get that huge lion boss card from 4-3 because of his atk. Idk, I think it will be useful in the future. I'm also curious to see what its stats will be once you get his card (not the original stats you see if you press your finger on his portrait for a few secs in 4-3).
Worked out how to hit him from the sides, but it still felt like a stupid difficulty spike. Pretty sure you can't clear out of the way without taking at least one hit - sorry, Shaun, there is some luck involved - and a breath attack will then finish you off. It's not a GIV ME UR CREDIT CARD paywall, but it is trying to get you to waste energy (I had to use one continue). I do like it, if grudgingly. I might even say it's the best thing Sakaguchi's ever put his name to (not a fan of any FF other than XII, Tactics and A2, Blue Dragon was rubbish, Lost Odyssey was tired gameplay and sappy cliches, Last Story was terrible writing and a godawful difficulty curve, Blade Guardian was dull, Party Wave was horribly unbalanced). In some ways I like the difficulty (turn up the speed and I find it really, really scary, to be honest - OMG STOP HITTING ME kind of scary). But it still has a lot of the stupid stuff the man keeps putting in all his games and I'm not sure how long I can play for before I get tired of it.
