It is back to 84 on metacritic. And the user score is pretty much worthless since there are tons of trolls giving it 0/10 scores for the lulz. And yes, it is certainly not a masterpiece. The game has plenty of flaws but overall I think its a solid game.

For the people saying those are bad numbers for FFXV, I hope you guys realize that it is still the fastest selling ps4 game in Japan so far.

http://gematsu.com/2016/12/nier-automata-demo-launches-december-22-west

Can't wait.

My point is that since you have not played the game you are not in the position to comment on either the fuctionality or depth of the combat system. And the monsters I am talking about were just 4 levels above me, so I was not that underleveled.

No, the gameplay is not shallow. I am very well aware that you have not played the game, so please do not go around saying how functional the combat system is. I am over 23 hours in the game, I am still in chapter 3 as I have mostly done just sidequests and hunts and let me tell you one thing, there are quite a few hunts with monsters that kill you in 2 hits, so no, its far from "easy".

There is much more to the combat than "holding circle"

If you just hold circle, you probably end up performing this badly against some of the bosses

Oh yeah and spoilers since its a story boss

I do agree that the poor story will prevent it from being considered one of the top FF games. However, that does not stop it from being a good game. Considering good gameplay as irrelevent is absolutely ridiculous. It is perfectly possible to love a game despite it having a poor story. There is more to a game than just story. In fact the game itself seems to focus more on gameplay than story judging from first half of the game. Xenoblade Chronicles X had a terrible story and despite of that it is considered a solid game. And just like FFXV it is a JRPG too.

Also the use of a certain gameplay mechanic can make the game feel repetitive if it is a chore to use.

Did you even read my previous post? No its not hold O to win. Also FF did not require any tactics ever since FF6 came out. Since then FF became a casual series that never required any tactics or skill. Atleast this game does require some skill and execution for your combos. And from what I hear with the day one patch that just came out you can fix most of the camera problems by going to the camera options menu and turning auto correction on.

And by investigative I guess you mean searching shit with your witcher senses which is exactly what I said. And it being dialogue heavy is not something that changes the actual gameplay mechanics related to each sidequest. Like I said, it enhances the presentation of each sidequest by adding some narrative but it does not change it mechanically. Most of the praise that The Witcher 3 got was not because the sidequests were mechanically very different from your avarege RPG, but rather because they offered additional narrative.

First, some of the hunts and late game dungeons are actually really damn hard, so you are wrong on that regard. There are only like 3 set pieces in the game with actual QTEs. The combat is actually really fluid compared to other action RPGs and it actually has a combo system with quite a lot of options. There have been people are dismissing it as "hold O to win" for quite a while but it is far more than that. Each type of weapon has a set of specials that can be executed by either pushing the left stick in different direction while holding the attack button or with delayed imputs. There are 8 categories of weapons with different movesets and each weapon in the "Royal Arms" category has its own unique moveset. So yeah, there is pretty decent amount of options for your combos. And on top of that you also have stuff like link arts, team commands, warps, arminger..... So yeah the combat system is really good compared to other games of the genere that are currently on the market. Also from what I am hearing the monster are very well designed in this game so maybe these "standard kill quests" might be quite enjoyable. Also like I said, most sidequests in the Witcher 3 are structured exactly like I said in my previous post, like it or not.

Also most people that got the game early loved the combat system for the reasons I stated.

I do agree that the story is a mess, however the combat mechanics are far above most AAA RPGs such as Dragon Age Inquisition, Skyrim or the Witcher which makes up for the poor story. Also do not trust the leaks as they got parts of the story wrong. Also the side content in the witcher 3 was just as repetitive as other RPGs from a mechanical point of view. It was basically most of the time:

1. Use witcher senses to lead you to your objective.

2. Fight enemy.

3. Speak to NPC.

What people praise about the witcher 3 is how the sidequests were presented with some story, but like I said mechamically it was as repetitive as other RPGs.