This is a strange one. I'm liking it... but at the same time, I think I hate it.
The game is full of needless and bizarre design choices that frustrate the hell out of me. Little things like ending and accepting a quest. The game freezes you and takes 4-5 seconds before you get control back, even longer if you receive items at which point you're frozen until it cycles through each individual food item you receive.
Putting quest NPCs in the most inconvenient places forcing you to run for ages which in FFXV game world translates to 6 hours passing, meaning by the time you've driven to this NPC location, got out and walked to him, you now need to camp and make another meal.
The dialogue can feel fine and natural at times, but then goes downright bizarre and creepy, especially with that Ignis guy - *comes up behind you, hand on shoulder and stares into your eyes* "Are you sure you want to drive? It's dangerous at night." Yes, yes I want to drive for the 50th time!! Then he guilt trips you. "OK, well I hope you feel good about yourself because one day we'll all die due to your recklessness."
Also what is it with the characters stopping you? I see a mob in the distance, line up a best angle to attack from the rear, lock on and just when I press the trigger *Annoying and creepy shoulder grab* "Do this, then that, blah, blah." Meanwhile mobs have seen you, all are lining up and the fun gets taken from you. The game is riddled with this type of stuff.
So average day in FFXV:
It's 6am, got a list of quests scattered about in a nearby area, take car to location, hand in one quest and then head out to a nearby field for a hunt with a plan to complete it and then hand in another quest in a nearby town. Not much right? So I arrive and kill the monster, kill some airship guys and then head back to collect the reward. On the way I take a short detour to grab some nearby peppers by a tree, and then when I look up the sun is nearly down. Annoyed because this keeps happening, I grab the car thinking I can make the other town before the day is up. Unfortunately it's getting past my bedtime so I have to get permission to drive from mother Ignis, I drive along the road briskly only for the car to suddenly come to a screeching stop at which point all four characters swan dive out of the doors into the road, camera flips up and goes crazy, when it finally gives me back control I look around and there's NOTHING there. They're all like "We need to get outta here" despite the fact they were safer in the car and could have driven away.
I then quickly try to get back in but because the characters are on foot the game sends a random bloody airship. By the time I kill them one of those Iron Giants turns up and I'm forced to run back to the trailer park where before sleeping I have to appraise some random pictures and I'm given 2 levels for barely doing anything.
It's so frustrating. The game is fun when it lets you play it but it's riddled with decisions that prevent you doing too much. It's so weird, it's like the devs are control freaks and won't let you play any other way, but yet constantly give you stupid sidequests (which are pulled straight from an MMO) to do. I'm only in chapter 3 so hopefully it eases up on the shackles later on.
