I'm on disc 4, and is not my favorite RPG this gen, i would give it 9.0/10.
Pros:
- The atmosphere of this game was well made; really, there's alot of sounds besides the music in this game that we can hear. Like, our steps, the wind, echoes, that crystalized sound when we find an item, our character steps, NPC steps, dogs barking, seagulls, loud of a crowd in cities, trains, doors opening, water falling from a fontain, dripings in a cave, waves and so on. They have put a LOT in this. Compare it to what we saw in other games to see what lacks in most of them in comparison.
- And then, there's also the music, that fits so well in this game (this was composed by Uematsu, so that's why). The music is not just there to put one catchy tune in our head, is there to make us feel the mood in that part of the game. Uematsu did a great job here. Imo, this is one of his best works.
- Detailed graphics for such a big game. Beautifull scenarios and backgrounds with alot of details in them. The characters and NPCs are also pretty well made. NPCs in some big jrpgs usually repeat themselves (or even repeat our character models -see Infinite Undiscovery and TLR for example), here, we don't see much this problem. Also, we can talk to anyone, and they actually have something to say, unlike some big franchise that came after 4 years or so in development and sold bajillions (really, that game could really be the Lost Odyssey punching baf, because it fails in what LO succed most of the time). The characters can show emotions, and even shed tears. In alot of jRPGs we can't see tears been shed, even the f*cking Final Fantasy XIII, and in Mass Effect, the tears looked like oil drops. Here, they look like tears.
This game runs smoothly. At least if you have it instaled.
- Lots of places to go, including, huge cities.
- The characters and the voice acting. I don't know what are your standars, but to me the story is good. Not the bests of the bests, to be honest, only Nier have the best of the best storyline this gen (yeah, i'm dead serious), but to me it felt unique and well crafted. The immortals plot was the best thing of course. And there's also the Dreams, that act like side stories that give us some character backdrop, some of them are a joy to read, if you have stomach to go trough all those words. for some i had, for otheres, i just skiped for another time i admit. :p I think i missed some, unfortunely.
And my other grip with some of you is the voice acting. Really, this is not "cons" material. "Boring"? It is some of the best voice acting work i've ever heard in a JRPG! And it's even dubbed to a variety of other languages, and we have the option to choose them instead of english, for example, Japanese (wich unfortunly, screw up a litthe the lip sync), German, Italian and French. God lord, give the guys some credit. They have put alot of work in this, unlike Tri Ace and others, who seems to use teenagers to dub everything and just to english.
- Random battle do not appear that often, they are still there and seems like we don't like them, but they don't break the game as they are not too often. And there is zero grinding as far as i know. Other than the special boss battles, i mean.
- I liked the ring system and the linked abilities that could be passed from the immortals to the mortals (or was the other way around? lol). We could get a lot of strategy from the characters at some point.
- No moe, no lolis, no spiked emo guys, no emo villains. Ah, J/K, i couldnt care less.
Cons:
- 4 disc game. This is a hella of a dics to use. And the standard box for the US and EU had only room for 3 discs at max, the fourth disc was sold inside the box, but inside a paper sleeve. A really crappy job they did here. I have brought the Asia version to made up this problem, but i think it only works with Asia/PAL systems. Dunno, i'm not psychic.
- Loading times, even with the game instaled, they are long. Some pop up textures also, but it is a big game, so...
- This game have some awkward scenes, all of them involve Jansen.
- Some times the game drags too much. As we have to wandering around, chasing for some kids, collecting items from the scenario, talking to NPCs, pushing boxes back and forth... gah. And the slow movement character didn't help much, i mean, the guy can run really fast, but his regular movement is kind of clunky and slow.
- Some bosses were a pain to figure how to beat, but this game is easy. This not goes well with the stratagy we can get in battle.
- Its linear and we have alot of points with no return, that can be explained by the story, but i think this is more like an excuse. But hell, better than most this gen, again.
And it's enough. Put it down as a 9.0 to me.
