Eden Normal Personal Review (Hopefully no Spoilers)

[Kisshu]

The lore given behind the Flood of Light was interesting, but that's the best thing I can say about it I think. Overall a very easy raid tier on normal, I've wiped more times on launchday E4 than this entire tier.

Find it odd that the concept behind E10 was the same as O10.

Also has the Ivalice syndrom, nothing about the end boss before the last part, making it feel disconnected. That's something the other 8-man raids did well, we knew(more or less) that we would be facing Bahamut, Alexander and Omega.

Also watching the twitch stream, the savage exclusive phase looks very story specific, much more so than any other savage phase I've seen before.

[Infindox]

I enjoyed the fights but the part of the story with Gaia that got revealed at the end I felt was fine but was like all of a sudden. I liked the fights but I'm getting annoyed of the ones that have long sections of nothing for cinamatic purposes.

[Ultimatecalibur]

He clearly understands that, and even mentioned it and that is entirely the point being made.

They edited their post to include that part 30 minutes after I responded.

[Unease_Lemming]

In reality, the fight is only about the union of the two, not the Savage-only form.

I can agree with this, but I maintain that the battle simply feels unfinished. If after the memory phase we'd return to new music, or an altered arena, that alone might have helped make the battle feel complete.
It's the same reason last tier's Shiva battle felt fine even in Normal mode, the new music after coming back from adds phase plus the cutscene near the end made the battle still feel very involving. That's just completely missing from e12.

They edited their post to include that part 30 minutes after I responded.

I edited a typo'd "to" to "too" and a "plain" to "obvious", nothing else.

[Mansion]

I enjoyed the fights but the part of the story with Gaia that got revealed at the end I felt was fine but was like all of a sudden. I liked the fights but I'm getting annoyed of the ones that have long sections of nothing for cinamatic purposes.

I think the overall writing is awkward. The first tier feels like they didn't finish Gaia's model in time, so she is only in E2 and then nothing happens. Which makes tier 2 rushing a bit on the development Ryne and Gaia's relationship. And the third tier just fell flat for me because at that time I did not care anymore for anything. The shifted the focus on the Empty (which was intereseting) to Gaia (which isn't as fascinating). I am also very disappointed in the explanation of the fairy.

I literally told myself when Eden came out "Oh that's great for once, the big baddies aren't Ascian related. Nice change". I'm afraid the "It was Ascians after all" starts getting old

Gameplay-wise, I think E9 is fine and should be the benchmark for normal raid difficulty. It's hard enough and punishing if you don't get the obvious mechanic. E10 is okay I guess. E11 is as disappointing as E7. E12 is bad, for me the worst final fight in raids. Too easy, too long, another godamn intermission phase with no relelvant gameplay attached.
Definitely, Eden is the weakest raid for me.
I just started savage so I don't know about this yet.

Music and visuals were top tier at least!

[MsMisato]

I am going to be honest. I found the story mehish almost somewhat forced compared to early bits of the eden story. But the raid fight themselves, this was way way to easy and I felt actually pretty damned disappointed.

[xxmiamorecadenza]

Also is it just me or does e12s looks like something you’d find in Shin Megami Tensei or Persona games?

Legit think it’s just me.

[Vickii]

That extra bit in the savage raid isn’t important to the story as the savage raids don’t actually happen in the story just the normal one.

So maybe they just didn’t want that to be part of the canon story.

But at this point I wish they’d gone with the predictable Griever/Ultimecia storyline which would be better than what we got.

[TheMightyMollusk]

Some of the ideas were interesting, like E11's boss, but overall I wasn't terribly thrilled to find that it was just Ascians all along again.

Also, I really hope we get to visit the festival they kept talking about. Make it an extra quest in 5.5, like this patch's role quests. And give us Gaia's hair style as a reward.

[ItMe]

but overall I wasn't terribly thrilled to find that it was just Ascians all along again.

Really?
That was the best part for me.
It wasn't some new ooga-booga they would have needed to establish and give context for at the 11th hour.
Instead it was used to show a new side to the Ascians and make them a rounder group.