Recent reviews by Tumalu

The concept of playing the game backwards was pretty interesting at first. However, the gameplay was not what I thought it would be. You need to "perfect" each level in order to pass (jumping on enemies to revive them, returning coins that have been collected, etc.), and your ranking for each level is determined by how many times it takes to complete the level.

You need to avoid enemies that have not been killed and coins that have not been collected when you are moving backwards, otherwise you will fail the level. As such, the path that you need to take is predetermined and all you need to do is time your jumps or actions properly. The difficulty throughout the game remains pretty consistent - while the "earlier" levels are a little more difficult, it's not a significant difference. The actions you can perform are pretty limited as well, so the gameplay can get stale.

All in all, I wouldn't say the game is bad, but I would not recommend it. It would have been interesting if you were free to go through the level yourself - but then again, that would be a completely different game.

The game can be easily completed in its entirety (100% achievements) in a little over an hour, which was before all of the cards dropped for me.

First of all, I would like to start by saying that I did enjoy this game. There are certain problems that can be deal breakers to many people, so I went with "Not Recommended", which I will explain why below.

Beautiful graphics. The soundtrack is magnificent, as with any Final Fantasy game. The voice acting and plot development was just okay to me.

Warning: The game will freeze every few seconds for about a second (referred to as "stuttering" on the community forums) unless the game detects a gamepad plugged in.

The port to PC isn't particularly great, but can be looked over. I use keyboard controls myself, which can take some time to get used to. The keyboard controls cannot be remapped. You shouldn't have a problem if you're using a gamepad though. Also, pressing escape at any point during the game will open a prompt to close the game, so be careful about accidentally closing it.

The game is as linear as they say. You'll mostly be traveling down a single path for a good part of the game. This doesn't give much room for those that love to explore and find hidden treasures. Eventually, you will get to a point where the game becomes more open world, but the world itself can be a bit overwhelming. You may run into monsters that you'll have no chance of beating until later on in the game, so pick your battles wisely. You'll also be spending a lot of time just running around the map.

The game feels like it's about 50% running, 40% combat, and 10% cutscenes. Running and combat doesn't add too much to the game, so you could probably just watch the cutscenes and still understand the plot. The running around doesn't bother me because the scenery in the game is absolutely beautiful and very enjoyable.

My biggest problem is with the combat mechanics. You only play as the party lead, and you don't really have much control over what can be done. One huge problem for me was that you don't have control of character positioning. Therefore, if two or three bombs decide they want to self destruct in front of someone's face, your characters will have no problem just standing there accepting their imminent demise. While this can be remedied by playing with a smarter setup, the lack of character positioning can be annoying. In older Final Fantasy games, you could at least send someone in the back row to deal and receive less damage, so the concept of positioning was there.

There are a few new mechanics introduced which are definitely worth pointing out. Square seems to enjoy reinventing combat mechanics with each new game. You do have the ability to switch your character's roles at any point during the battle. This can switch your team's behavior from offensive to defensive in order to adapt to the situation of the battle. You can also build up chains on an opponent, which will cause them to become staggered. Staggered oppoents take more damage and get interrupted whenever they are hit, which makes this mechanic pretty important!

Non-party leader characters will do their own thing, which unfortunately, you won't have control of either other than the role they are playing as. This can actually be both good and bad, since the AI will surely be faster at inputting commands (unless you use the Auto-Battle feature). The AI for the Synergist class isn't particularly smart though, and can be a crutch if you need to prioritize offense over defense to achieve a 5 star ranking in a battle (getting a bad ranking doesn't affect your game too much, but it's still nice to try and aim for the best!). Lastly, some battles can also be extremely difficult to the point of frustration, despite the difficulty level being on normal. All in all, the combat feels a bit uninspired as you don't have much control over what's going on.

The "leveling up" system is fairly linear as well, and may force you to learn skills that you could strategically leave out to specialize certain characters (again, not a huge problem, because it isn't game-breaking).

The weapon and accessory upgrading feature is pretty interesting and is new to Final Fantasy series, I believe. The upgrading tutorial only covers the basics though, so you could end up wasting a bunch of items unless you're following a guide.

If you can look past what was mentioned above, then you will enjoy this game. Otherwise, there are better Final Fantasy games out there. Personally, I have a high tolerence level for these kinds of things, so I definitely enjoyed most of the game.

Started a new game and got thrown right into the fray.
No tutorial, didn't even get an explanation of any game mechanics.
Got surprised and got chased around the room by 15 or more flying skull heads while dodging a never-ending barrage of dive bombs.
Got cornered by a bunch of chicken-like creatures and faced my inevitable death in a pool of acid.

Loved every second of it. This game is truly amazing.

The default controls use the standard FPS setup, which makes it easy to pick up. If you're not used to any of the controls, you can easily remap any of the keys - always a huge plus.

The music is "epic" (I rarely use this word but I can't find another word to use) and fits the mood perfectly.

The graphics look incredible. The art style and quick weapon switching animation are very similar to Bioshock Infinite. The game manages to look both bright and dark at the same time. The colors and contrast are absolutely brilliant.

The gameplay is outstanding. The game is extremely fast-paced and you need to be moving around constantly to avoid getting killed. When you level up, you get to choose either a perk or a one-time special effect. With each choice, there are tradeoffs. Do you want a permanent passive ability that will help you progress through the ziggurat? Or do you need to instantly heal to full to not die in the next encounter?

The fact that they throw you straight into the game without an explanation even adds to the experience rather than taking away from it. Expect yourself to die. Expect yourself to learn the mechanics bit by bit. And finally, expect yourself to love every moment of it. (Unless you get motion sickness, of course!)

The premise of the game is simple, but fun. You have 24 different classes to chose from, each with their own pros and cons. Some of the differences can be subtle, so try out every class to see what works best for you or try to master them all!

The addition of the running mechanic adds another level of unique gameplay. If you stop attacking and move towards your mouse cursor, your character will run faster. You will have to switch between offense and defense to survive and conquer each level. You need to constantly pay attention to where your mouse is positioned instead of mindlessly holding down the mouse and targeting enemies, or you won't get very far.

The developer is very active on the forums and frequently updates the game based on player suggestions. There's definitely a lot of potential with this game and I can see future enhancements that will expand and improve on the game.