No hyperamor when wielding the great swords. Frustrating when attacked by several small fast enemies.
That's the idea. They want you to switch weapons for suitable conditions, or time your attacks better. If they had hyperarmor they would be the best weapon in the game hands down. As it is, I found a fire elemental Greatsword 30 minutes into the game that borught Noctis' attack to over 150. His attack with the Javelin or Engine Blade is like 60. The big Rhino at the end of the first quest is advertised as being a big, nasty fucker. He went down in 4 hits - a warp strike, then 3 swings after he was knocked vulnerable finished him off. It was a joke.
The game also tells you in the tutorial in order to dodge you need to press the button before the attack happens. There are certain Ascension abilities that reward timed dodges by restoring your MP (which is a pretty important resource at the moment). Levels also don't seem to mean too much in this game. At level 1, I took out a level 22 giraffe enemy mixed with some level 3's and 9's. Not easy, but kinda fun when you get the hang of it. I had to use magic in this fight, and I'm actually surprised friendly fire made it into the game since it's marketed as casual friendly. Haven't noticed it doing much in the way of damage to allies, but it definitely hits them. One of the bigger positives in my eyes.
Biggest combat gripes at the moment: sometimes while phasing (dodging) nothing happens, and I take full damage. Same goes for parryable enemy attacks. You get a Large prompt to press and hold L1 to block it, then press Square if you successfully do it. At least 15 - 20 times so far I've done exactly as ordered, and taken the full brunt of the hit. I'm not sure if it's a level thing, an MP thing or what, but it's had me cursing to myself a few times. Nor can I seem to figure out the exact details of my report card. I kill a pack of enemies without getting hit in 15 seconds flat, and get A+'s in Time and Offense, but my Finesse is a D. Apparently killing shit before you need to parry, dodge, or warp is a negative in their eyes.
The controls kinda suck, and are going to take a long time to get used to. You get 3 control templates with no opportunity of complete customization. Permanently targeting an enemy is a bitch - you need to Hold R1, then Press R3 to make it lock. I don't see why it's a 2 step process when it could easily be one or the other. Second, executing the bros' special attacks can be a bit frustrating when you're trying to run around and dodge as you need to hold R2, and then tap one of the d-pad buttons. For comfort, I suggest choosing Type B as it makes [] your basic attack and is definitely the most comfortable.
I haven't played much but the absolute worst part is the open world. Areas are mostly empty, with very few encounters. The size of the first area should have been cut in half without question. It isn't quite as bad as The Hinterlands, but we'll see what future areas hold. I'm tempted to turn off the minimap in hopes of it making exploring a bit more fun, but when you have a world map on hand at all times, it's a wasted effort.
The game is definitely a bit of a half-baked Dragon's Dogma, with flashier animations, a shitty camera, and not being able to latch onto things. The one big plus is being able to control your
pawns' bros' special abilities as long as you have the Technique bar filled. Makes your characters invincible for the duration of it from what I've seen. I'm not going to comment on the story as I haven't done it yet, and you can watch Twitch streams and youtube videos for that. Nor do I give a shit about it as I fully expect it to blow. Gameplay-wise, it's not half bad, but it sorely reeks of "what could have been." It's plainly obvious it's been chopped up and rebuilt countless times over 10 years. Most likely to be attributed to someone upstairs in Square Enix looking at what RPG's were popular every 2 or 3 years and making the team emulate them until they ran out of time and had to throw some shit together and hope it stuck.