I really wanted to LOVE this game... but...

When I first watched GS's video review, I thought that it was a bit harsh. But actually, after playing it for about 20h I agree with it totally. The whole running against the clock wrecks the enjoyment of the game entirely. Maybe the director thought that it would be a thrill to the player and maybe exciting.. However it is just a pain to be rushing around, not knowing what exactly would be better to do with the time left.... I read many reviews saying that finishing the game in the first run is bordering impossible.. The game forces you to accept the fact that you need a game + or game ++ after failing to to what you were supposed to do... And that is not fun.. at least not for me. game + should be an option, not a necessity. The game looks so nice, I would love to wander around the Wildlands area without being rushed... I could, if I really wanted to but by doing so I would be compromising the rest of the game. That's just one example of the 'hard', forced-upon-the-player decisions that the director probably thought would be 'fun'... I hate to say that, because I am a big fan of the FF series, but this game is worse than the predecessors.... In the end it's not fun at all. It feels like a chore, the silly quests and the time mechanics/ areas closed until a certain time etc etc.... it all feels a pain. and before someone says that I didn;t know how to play the game, I actually am doing well in it. I am managing my time well in all 4 islands bla bla bla. But doing well in the game does not necessarily equate to having fun. I am a completionist and I will finish this game as a matter of principle. But, man, this game is a pain most of the time...

Please share your thoughts on this game and whether it's better/ more fun than the predecessors.

I literally have a lot of time left and im just having a blast fooling around exploring trying to get monsters extinct. trying to see if i missed sidequest exc.

@Albelnox0: The thing is.. without knowing the game well, the first half is a bit of a rush... the clock feature is a bit stressing. However, once you finish the main story, I had 4 days left with very little to do but side-quests.NOTHING to do but side quests until the last day when the main story would continue... The pace of the game is broken as hell.. I was first rushed around then I was bored... This game was a really bad experiment imo.

man I know how do you feel, i expend so much money buing this game and I'm very disapointed with it, I wanted to Level UP! I don't want to need to worrie about time, they forget to put "fun" in this game. I hope Square Enix back with the old way to level up our characters just like FF3~9.

if you go into this game thinking it's like the others you are going to fail. i played it on normal first and found it pretty hard. but it is an action game after all.i went to easy and found the game just right for me. after a while of building through ng+ i'm going to up the difficulty . personally though now that I know how the game works i'm having a blast with it. a 5 is still to harsh of score it more like a 7.

At 4:58 day 3 having done main quest for Luxerion and Yusnaan, up to 3.3, 5.2 on wildlands.

Good things:The combat! This is really fun! Including the swapping of the dress spheres (Sorry Paradimes, sorry Schemata!)
Configuring Lightning with garbs, skills and equipment
How good Lightning looks

Bad things:That fkn timer!!
How bad all the NPCs look
The looooooooooooooooooooooooong wordy explinations for literely EVERYTHING!
Even the smallest simplest sidequest seems to have about 5min of talking and explination that feels like 5 hrs
(I guess it is for the in game time :p)

The timer was an odd decision but I get why they tried it. Please don't do that again!

What I am getting fed up with though, is the overlong cut scenes or 'in game' scenes for even the smallest side quest. This has been a habit for a while now and is getting worse!
Size of game 1GB, Size of cut scenes, voice overs etc 1000000000000000000000000000000GB
When will it end?!!

Why the heck spend time and money creating these if your customers are going to skip them?!!
And we ARE going to skip them as we don't really wan't to have a big long explination on 'why little XXX started pickpocketing' etc, etc that takes at least 5 mins to explain!!

I don't like time limits as a rule, so played on easy. You get so much EP that you can almost always be in chronostasis, and I ended up having almost nothing to do from day 8 onwards, and ended up skipping to day 13 from 10.

It does take a lot of the challenge away, but I'd rather have that than be frustrated by the constant time pressure. Still took 60 hours to finish it all, I think I got my money's worth, and I ended up liking the game far more than I would have if I'd been running out of time. One achievement left to get, then I'm done.