Started playing again on the leadup to Ace Combat 8, this is still a very good arcade flight sim. You can do crazy things but there are still enough limitations that it feels that you're flying a plane and not a spaceship.

This is a very solid improvement to Demeo. The stories in the campaign tie the dungeons well and the character progression makes you feel more powerful as you go. The dungeons are not as punishing or puzzly as the previous game too, you are rewarded by knowing the game mechanics and the stage gimmicks but they're no longer strictly required to beat the bosses like they were in the previous game. Warning: the game mechanics are still just Demeo but with some D20 rolls put in, but it's still a good if simple system.

The new diorama style are is a lot better than the more basic style of the previous game, and the way the story is presented by moving the characters around has a very nice nerdy charm to it.

Very well done, I hope they keep adding campaigns and characters.

A good well told story with extremely likable characters and a slick positional turn-based combat system. This is a wonderful game, even if you have not played the original. Well done.

tldr: Anno 4x, but really, really clunky.

Pros:
- Interesting resource system
- The region-based map system is a fresh change that other 4x games should try instead of just doing hexes again.

Cons:
- Clunky, clunky clunky UI, especially once you get to the modern age.
- Mustering armies make no sense, you can't muster armies AT ALL in a city under siege. Also there is no partial mustering, it's as if your armies do not exist until the very end of the muster duration.
- The resource system also gets out of hand towards the end of the game, they can probably cut the goods and resources to a third and still get the flavor of game they want without the complexity.
- Not enough management tools to deal with the complexity late in the game (why can't I set resource reserve limits to critical resources? Also, where is the city summary spreadsheet?)

- Good driving model
- Very good Japanese-style open world map
- Can be hard at the start (once you get the first car you actually own get ecodrift tires and engine upgrades ASAP) but practice pays off

The reviews were right, this is a great game. Only a few hours in and I'm already seeing interlocking gameplay mechanisms that makes fights very cool (applying mark with Gustav makes Lune apply fire better which allows Maelle to go to her high damage stance). And they found a way to make grinding levels in a JRPG interesting: you're not just grinding to get your stats up, you're grinding so you can learn the enemy's attack patterns to dodge and parry them better. Very well done and I hope it only gets better from here.

The game is beautiful and performs pretty well. I'm able to get a stable 60fps/1080p on a GTX 3060 on DLSS performance mode.

Can't wait to see how the rest of the game turns out.

A very meaty CRPG with a LOT of mechanics. If you like minmaxing and optimizing builds get the respec mod and play this game. I'm not quite pulled in by the world and story, but the characters are interesting enough, the crusade/campaign metagame is interesting and the encounters test out your builds.

Try it out if you like CRPGs and are willing to spend a lot of time in one.

Played this after getting annoyed with FFVII Rebirth and was not disappointed. FFX came from the era when Square still knew how to tell stories and not just make pretty graphics.

Terrible stuttering even at 30fps on recommended specs. Even lowering everything to low, 1600x900/30fps at 50% resolution I get 1-2 second long stutters at random intervals. Do not believe their recommended specs. Will wait if a patch shows up in the first two weeks otherwise I'm refunding this game.

My specs:
32GB ram, i9 11900 CPU, 3060 6GB, SSD

Edit: Fixed by getting the latest version of directstorage. Get it direct from Microsoft: https://www.nuget.org/packages/Microsoft.Direct3D.DirectStorage/1.2.2

Download the package and unzip it, get native/bin/x86/dstorage.dll and native/bin/x86/dstoragecore.dll and copy it over to FINAL FANTASY VII REBIRTH\End\Binaries\Win64

Such an easy fix but Squeenix could not be bothered to do it themselves. Do not get this game yet until they patch it.

TLDR: Beautiful but repetitive. Takes too long to open up, but gets interesting when it does.