Quote Originally Posted by Bright-Flower View Post
This was honestly one of few times I really felt like the 'play as someone else' thing had a real narrative purpose and wasn't just there for the sake of itself or padding.

The gameplay elements of having to be sneaky, picking your fights, being so weak etc fit the story very well in ways that a mere cutscene alone couldn't convey as effectively. As opposed to 'we're going to make you control Alisae for a fight that could have just been a cutscene' etc.
Honestly I agree with you there, I like how they made a quest that's meant to make us feel helpless and question if it's just our abilities and innate talents that carry us, and putting us in a body that doesn't have any of the gifts that we the player character do have access to was pretty brilliant, though for me I mostly enjoyed it because it made me remember my Heaven on High solo runs and just how utterly scary those upper floors were since everything there can easily kill you if you don't pay attention and pick your fights

That being said, I really wish they could have done it without the random barriers or quest objectives, if they simply did the quest in a more defined area marked with actual visible borders then it would have saved a lot of people the frustration of "What does the game want me to do exactly?" and kicking them out of the moment when they should be focused on survival, not the invisible objectives that Square Enix set for us to pass the battle quest