@NEStalgia That's quite possible. I actually didn't not spend that much time in PS4 version tbh and even that was a while back. Recently, I just booted it up for a quick comparison (too bad multi-view on LG does not work with HDR content) and that turned in the results I described. I would have to switch HDR off and then run another comparison again, alas I kinda delete Nier Automata on PS4 right after that short test run, so I can't do any further comparison right away Considering how much issues the game has on PS4 but even more so apparently on PC and how Platinum Games did little to nothing to address those issues in all those months since release, it is certainly possible that they were busy with the Xbox port and ... well, everyone else was just a beta tester of sorts, left with a partially broken product =( Can't say that I appreciate that kind of approach, but it is what it is and it is a small wonder the game exists at all. To be fair though, the way the PS4 version looked and the way you describe it, too, is really close to the original game, which also had this somewhat flat, overheated washed out look ... I remember how that turned off the game more than once even back then. It's just like ... is this really a bug or feature? What I mean is ... maybe it is supposed to look so ... desolate (for a lack of a better term)? It would fit with much of the worldbuilding and atmosphere, but it does not really explain the issues with contrast and black crushing either. Also, as unconventional Yoko Taro is in handling all kinds of things, from tutorials to player death to game endings and the role of savaegames, I don't see him intentionally 'breaking' the visuals that way.

I'm curious, why do you feel ME1 was the only proper RPG out of the three? I mean, story wise ... sure, I could see that, but as far as roleplaying goes, aka choices and character progression, I am not sure how 2 or 3 felt really short that much - if at all tbh. Sure, the combat shifted, but like I said, considering how the first one played like a utterly mediocre 3rd-person shooter, I consider the changes they made to smooth things rather beneficial.

I do think the boss battle in the first Octopath demo was a step up from the trash mobs. I mean, I did not make it at first attempt and I had to put some thought into timing my breaks and attacks right by managing the BP right. It took longer, it required more healing and it certainly had that one-mistake-and-I'd-have-to-start-over-again quality.The trash mobs went down much quicker, but I liked that they still did not just went down by spamming 'attack' for 2-3 rounds. I rather have fewer battles (esp. random encounters) and in exchange tougher and thus meaningful ones, than just grinding hapless enemies for an extended period of time. Speaking of FE, that is something I really loved about the series in the past. There was basically no option to grind, so it was on the one hand killing an enemy was a tactical move, in terms of the mission at hand, but it was also a strategic one, in terms of who gets how much xp at what pace, and on the other hand, if there was an opportunity to create additional XP, you had to work for it and invest ressources. So for instance, you had bosses that couldn't move, so you could just have someone, who wouldn't get one-hitted, stand in their range, take damage and get some XP for healing them. That would cost you healing staffs though and you could only do it for as long as you had the ressources, in this case staves, available. Also, you'd have to take the risk of eating a critical hit and you'd have to clean the map beforehand. So there as still no unlimited XP available, but there were ways to exchange money/items for XP:

I enjoyed that alot, as it meant the game could have a very finely tweaked difficulty curve, as most if not all players would have to work within the same margin of experience. It's something I also really liked back in day with BlueByte'S Incubation (still one of the best turn-based tactics games around, esp. the first half of the game and the addon). You had very limited ressources, and you need to make shor-term tactical decision that fed into long-term strategic ones and anything beyond that, you had to work for. So the game had plenty of enemy spawns, you could have grinded, but alas, you did have unlimited ammo, quite to the contrary, and your weapons overheated. So you better be sure that you had enough ammo and heat-room, so to speak, left to get to the exit after you went on a small grinding excursion and even then you had to setup your team in a way, that the unit you wanted to level up was the one doing the killing.

That's something few jRPGs do unforunately. The XP is just shared around and there is no thought required in terms of how to time attacks and who gets the kill for the xp reward. It's a layer that has, as I said, tactical as well as strategic implications and it's most of the time sadly absent.

FE changed alot esp. since Awakening, which was quality-wise an amazing game, but the inclusion of the DLC threw alot of things entirely out of whack i nthat regard. It became less about the careful management of preciously rare ressources (incl. xp) and more about min-maxing and breeding.

As for FF, I can't really speak to that, I played a few on the DS, I tried a few like VI and VII, I finished 13, got pretty far in 12 (which is a good game all in all, but it's gambit system made 13 look like a challenging game by comparsion, as there were sections in 12 where I could just walk out of the room for 15 minutes and have the characters do the leveling by themselves Oo) and that is about it. I was always more into SMT/Persona/Digital Devil Saga, but also stuff like FE, Baten Kaitos, Shadow Hearts (really an underappreciated series) or even the likes of Lost Odyssey or Resonance of Fate (had it issues, but I absolutely loved it for sure! another underappreciated gem of that generation). FF just felt ... I'd say cheesy to me and self-important for no obvious reason. 13 took that whole schtick to the absurd for sure, with so many alien terms and such a convoluted world and plot that even after the credits rolled I was not entirely sure what the whole mess had been about and what a Fal'Cie (was it spelled that way? Dunno) was. All of it sounded kinda cool and looked kinda flashy, but I could absolutey not relate to anything going on. It seemed like a caricature of what many people dislike about "those jRPGs".