it looks like you’d wail on one enemy for 3 minutes until it gives out.
Oh you’ll wail a lot longer than that in some cases. Some of the summon boss fights took like 30~45 mins of wailing. And yes. The RPG elements are non existent, and the side quests are incredibly shallow and boring. You are spot on. No status effects, no elemental affinities, absolutely minimal equipment and weapon systems which amount to basically making a single number go up. It was honestly embarrassing as far as gameplay goes.
I guess I don’t mind it. The side quests aren’t the most exciting of activities, but they lead to a lot of great things. Like extra transmuter options, and party level increases for synergy abilities. unique accessories, and unique conversations with party members you wouldn’t see otherwise. Plus some of the best materia is only accessible from chadley. So I haven’t been minding it all that much. As you unlock life springs, you unlock more info about the environments you’re in. For me the rewards outweigh the monotony.
I found the combat to be serviceable, and at some points I had fun with it. But it kind of got repetitive really quick. Like once you learn the core mechanics, they didn’t really introduce a lot after that to keep you on your toes. But the main problem I had with the game came from the quests, they just felt so monotonous. I love exploring the castle, but finding every little collectible just felt tedious and didn’t really seem to have any payoff.
All things I hope can be improved with an eventual sequel, I’m definitely glad I picked up the game. But it’s not something I’ve ever considered revisiting once I beat it.
Yeah, the more I saw this game and the more I learned about the story as it went on, the less interested I became. That was pretty much the only thing that was still keeping me interested, but it really looks like the story also falls flat.