@jinzo9988:

Breaking it into episodes destroys the continuity of the world and the sense of progression. It isn't a full experience in terms of story and exploration. Seems like a lot of that expanded content in Midgar is filler fetch quests.

Will there even be a world map in the follow ups or are we talking about running down linear corridors again, aka FF13? I'm genuinely curious how Square will break up the rest of the game.

@kingfish1984: This is ultimately what kills it for me too. The environments and characters are too far removed from the original anime art style.

Also the episodic element..ugh. That destroys that sense of progression the original had, far example as the world suddenly expanded as the player left Midgar leaving the player with a sense of awe.

@BoxOfPocky: Consoles lost the 'creative platform' status a long time ago. Now they're little more than downgraded PCs with few worthwhile exclusives. One decent return-to-form JRPG isn't going to change that.

By not making a PC version available on Steam at some point, Atlus will be losing a hell of a lot of potential income (Obviously there is some contractual arrangement with Sony otherwise it would happen)

Does these games really need to be a console exclusives now?

It's 2017 FFS!

I enjoyed Persona 4 on PS2, but a lot of RPG fans migrated to PC years ago.

@Angryduck67: I couldn't care about the graphical idiosyncrasies, animations, etc. It's an RPG (well..sort of) The previous games had a lot more going for them as far as engaging story, characters and an enigmatic threat to overcome. I still have fond memories of KOTOR and ME1.

Inquisition was the real turning point for Bioware IMO. This is the kind of bland open world blueprint they obviously want to work from. Too bad.

It's obvious Gamespot have sensed which way the wind is blowing as far as consumer attitudes to AAA mediocrity are concerned and approached this review with that in mind.

If it were 2013 it probably would have gotten an 8/9

Not surprised. Looking at the previews I knew this was going to be just like DA:I ie. full of dull MMO filler.

Gamespot tend to overrate anticipated AAA titles, so the game getting a 6 is really saying something.

Like most ex FF fans I'm not expecting great things. It looks like Square-Enix don't know where to take the franchise, instead throwing this weird collage of ideas together. Hopefully it will at least be better than the abomination that was FF13 and its follow-up.

@saturatedbutter: If all that is true, then that is a problem. Particularly for the poor schlubs who pre-ordered.

Being able to leapfrog content in a game that isn't outcome focused, however, is irrelevant.

This guy didn't pay $1250 to play a game prior to official release, he paid for the notoriety that goes with 'exposing' a highly anticipated title's shortcomings.

Except nobody who's likely to play this is going to care that you can skip past 90% of the content and 'beat' it in 30 hours.