First off, this FF game seems to focus on the importance of family and truthfulness rather than what the other games built on, which was friendship, trust, and courage. This isn't to say that the keystone JRPG stereotypes aren't there (person who needs to get stronger, brooding emo person who comes around in the end, etc), but these personalities don't overshadow or really effect the story in any way other than pushing it forward. It's a nice change that I think is a necessary shift in the FF universe. I love the focus that family is important and that friends can be your family, too. A little cheesy, but it makes for a nice little lesson at the end of the day. Another great part of this story is that everyone is finely intertwined. It's sort of like watching a Sherlock Holmes movie/show or Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang. This leads to that, which involved them, and so on.
Let's move on to the game play. Overall I love it, of course I haven't played an FF game since X-2. The differences are beautiful. Instead of wonderful animation only during important cut scenes, this animation is everywhere. There are only a few voice acting problems that I could see (lips didn't match), but other than that this game is fething beautiful.
So, it's beautiful and has a great little story. What about the battle system? Honestly, the only reason why I picked up an FF game again was the change in the battle system. I hate turn based. They require no skill whatsoever and no tactics besides luck. It's dumb. Anyway, the new part turn based part live really caught my eye so I picked it up, and I found out that it is a great compromise between the two. This system requires your full attention (unless you fight crap enemies, which is true for all games) and forces you to think about your actions in real time while using the turn based element to challenge you a little because there is no MP and the characters can just use magic and such to their desire. I love that there is no MP, but unfortunately the turn-taking aspect had to be added so that the characters weren't like teen Gundam pilots that are stupidly invincible. The battles are linear in that the enemies move from one character to another very predictably, but I don't see that as a huge downfall. I use that to my advantage in most cases (in others all six enemies gang up on you and you die). Which brings me to the big problem I see with the battling: when the character your are controlling dies it is game over. Instead of doing what Tales of does and just letting the other party members fight and have a chance to bring you back from KO -- you just die. I get the logic of it, and yet I don't. It's very, very irritating, but the only way I can think of fixing this to match the game play is do it the Tales of way. The old way of moving control to the next part member would cause problems and confusion I think.
Overall, I really enjoy this game. Like all FF games it makes me scream in frustration, curse its existence, and want to cry. Now with this new battle system it brings in my Tales of attitude of yelling at my healers because they can't and don't heal in time or well enough. However, even though I am often pitted against enemies meant for three people, not two or one, I still love this game because the story is horribly enjoyable and the graphics are just plain beautiful. Plus, there is a chocobo theme park!
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