Anebriate

I was very enthralled with the game and its promise for satisfying my PvP itch, but after reaching 60, I came to realize that it was neither interested nor knowledgeable in how to implement player-versus-player in an MMO. Coming to that knowledge made for one of the biggest let-downs recent gaming years. All the pieces of the puzzle are here, and they couldn't figure out how to put it together. Class balance, matchmaking and equipment are all difficult challenges to overcome, but there are failed attempts and then there is whatever happened to Wildstar.

Its hooks will sink in DEEPLY, and then, suddenly, you will come to a terrifying realization that the scope of what you want to achieve in a game and the scope of what the game demands of you are irreconcilable, and the hooks will release instantly, but not without some pain. This game is not for someone who wants to sit down and have fun; it is for the most extreme masochists who want to repeat the same 20-minute fights dozens or even hundreds of times in order to adequately dress themselves. If that person is you, then Godspeed--I must move on with my life.

Satisfying, briefly, but unless you have a particular compulsion to obliterate the same 3 enemies tens of thousands of times, you might consider borrowing it from a friend or checking it out from a library for a few days

This game really does feel like the last of its kind. Squaresoft did so, so many things right in the Playstation 1 era, and Final Fantasy IX is the culmination of all of its past knowledge and experiences. I believe that those crucial people who made Final Fantasy great saw this game, realized that they had fulfilled their ambitions, and moved on with their lives, leaving the franchise in the hands of a new generation. Even after all these years of fumbling around in wake of that departure, Square still has not managed to recapture the elements that made Final Fantasy IX one of the best RPGs of all time.

This is a good game. It's not perfect, and it's not as rich and meaningful as something like Morrowind or even Skyrim, but it takes a lot of classical formulas, mixes in a few new mechanics, and delivers a fun, dizzyingly vast and satisfying, if somewhat repetitive, experience. I think that if they had spent a little less time creating up SO many things to do in the world and redirected that effort into making those fewer things to do more meaningful, the game could have been one of the finest action-RPGs of its generation. I see a lot of weird conservative reviews citing disgust for the LGBT promotion, and... it's actually a little bit hard to defend the game in this case. I'm pretty liberal, and I was cringing a lot at some of the gender & sexuality mini-lectures they snuck into the dialogue. Come on, Bioware. You're not going to change anyone's mind by preaching. Just let us meet new characters and make up our own minds about them. Leaving that aside, I still believe that an over-compensation for typical character archetypes is better than falling into the archetypes themselves--so, it could have been worse. As a PC gamer, I found the port to be tolerable, if only just. It certainly beats Dark Souls. I have a powerful machine, and the game looks spectacular on maxed settings--especially the environments. A lot of work was put into this game, and it deserves to be played.

The game is good. Let's get that out of the way, because you probably already knew that. Like practically every giant nerd whose review of Smash 4 is in the red, my only concerns about the game are its imperfect and shallow mechanics which, MAKE NO MISTAKE, are a fully intentional and almost comical overcorrection of Melee's depth. I've never seen or heard of a company so determined to prevent their final product from being enjoyed by as many people as possible. They genuinely, honestly, cannot stand the idea of their game being played in any environment that isn't a spacious, white living-room full of people who don't know what to do with their hands.

I find it very playable, except that it feels written by someone with an undergraduate in gender studies and a point to prove. A little preachy at times, a lot predictable always, but its heart is in the right place. If the developers had cut a few fewer corners and really tried to make your choices more meaningful, this game would be hugely successful. Instead, you get what you pay for: a pleasant jaunt through a lovingly crafted setting rife with amateur mistakes and superficial placeholders for something that never got around to being great.

It does not compare well at all to the Squaresoft masterpieces of its era, but in the end, it's still a decent game. If you absolutely must complete every game in the series, you'll find that there are far worse hurdles to overcome than Final Fantasy VIII (like XIII, for instance), but don't expect its quality of design and storytelling to live up to some of the others. The plot is convoluted and a bit too convenient at times, and nearly all of the characters are tiresome cliches. The game really throws you for a loop when you suddenly take control of a completely different cast with no context whatsoever, but I came to care about Laguna's plight far more than I ever did about Squall's, which I think says a lot.

The only thing keeping this game from being a perfect 10 is the fact that your party AI is atrocious, and will get you killed through means outside of your control. That's the most frustrating experience in the game, but fortunately, you can usually solo your way through tough fights if you're good enough, making the problem negligible in the grand scheme of things. Otherwise, it's a modern masterpiece. Far superior to the Final Fantasies of today--it's as though the torch has been passed, and all it took was a fresh set of eyes and hands to produce the kinds of games that we thought could never be again.

This is one of the worst games I have ever played. How in God's name it has a 7.7 user score on this site is completely beyond me. I've heard it said that it gets better towards the end, but something this bad can't be redeemed, regardless of how it ends. Every character is a pathetic cliche. The battle system is rigid, formulaic, tedious and repetitive. In fact, that describes the entire game--a 10-20 minute jaunt through poorly-balanced, often unavoidable encounters against a handful of boring enemies followed by a cut-scene, ad infinitum, all in one giant straight line from point A to point B. I was bored after 30 minutes of this. The graphics earn it 2 points, even though the hand all look like turds. The fact that they released this game to the public as it is means they aren't even trying anymore. The fact that they are making this cesspool a trilogy means something is horribly wrong with the world.

This game has no ambition. They tried to coast on a well-known brand and plaster a series of stale mechanics onto a lifeless setting. There are a few sparks of creative energy, but by and large, it's not worth the slog through the soulless husk that is the Boston and its surrounding wilderness--a region, you would think, almost impossible to make completely devoid of interest. Somehow, they managed. The gameplay and graphics are passable, which saves this game from total disaster. Give it a pass unless you are obsessed with the genre, in which case, prepare to spend the rest of your life on a collection quest for the 100 pieces of your broken soul.

This is a faith-based score--a score set with the firm belief that in time, this game will become what it has set out to become (and I have no reason to doubt that it will). Unfortunately, it is not yet that game. You, as a consumer, must do a few things with Forge: 1. Buy the game to support the work it will require to make this something incredible 2. Expect to wait a few months for it to become the game it is trying to become 3. Return to it later, if necessary, and experience one of the best competitive games of this gaming era. If MMO PvP and Team Fortress 2 had a baby, it would have been born prematurely, and it would have been called Forge. Don't pass over it as simply another failed project. They are making great strides already, and it has come a long way from even its launch several weeks ago. Support it and sit on it--consider it an investment a grand future that can only occur if your pledge is made. It's like a post-launch Kickstarter, in that way. It sounds absurd, but it offers more up front than a Kickstarter--you can immediately begin to play this beta of sorts, and you will even enjoy it immensely with the correct frame of mind.