LogFAQs > #975715581

skullbone posted...

Switching characters provided some interesting strategy and the overheat meter added some thought into when to cast specific spells.

Yeah that's basically it. It's fine, but not great. It didn't help that switching characters was only useful because ability slots were super limited. Overheat was also only a challenge because ability slots were limited, and you needed to always have the correct color or else you risk dying. You could be doing really well in a battle but get an unlucky overdrive color and die. Of course it's your fault for not being prepared, but it doesn't feel like real difficulty or real strategy. It feels like the game was too easy to win by spamming the same attacks, and they wanted to forcibly break that up.

FFX and P5 are pretty boring at their core too, but I think they both do something really important that makes them more addictive: they focus on the rewards of battle. Interrogating personas or all-out attack is always fun, and in FFX advancing the sphere grid and creating OP characters is always exciting. So the fun becomes about beating battles as quickly as possible to get those rewards. Or even skipping them because you're experienced and can afford to speed through. CE has plot-based progression so there's no real purpose to combat, and a ton of fights are forced.

Persona and FFX also just have better boss designs that are more puzzley. CE had a couple of these, but they obviously don't have the resources to make all the bosses bangers.