The first hour of the game is pretty slow. Hell, I'd say the first 2 or 3 hours are weak because all you can do is Attack. It's not until you kill the first boss that the actual battle system opens up to you, so I can understand people's poor first impressions.

I like Snowe's theme, better than Auron's though... The point is the soundtrack may be pretty even until you get to those crappy songs, unfortunately there are several crappy songs that push X's soundtrack far and above XIII's.

The Final Fantasy cycle continues.

Basically anything after FFX is a piece of junk, specifically those horrible 13 games in terms of everythang but world map being the biggest culprit.

XV really looks like the bar is raising to the next level in many ways, didn't know any of this news about the details until now, crazy how many improvements seem to have been made.

Fixed.

Go, Flash Fire Arcanine!

"I was an adventurer like you, then I took an arrow in the knee"

Why do I say that?  Because if this map and all developer talk is to be believe and the very genre of the game is taken into account this should occupy me fora  good 60-100 hours.

That one video where they drove the car out and then went running out into the wild is a good example.  Go and watch it.  I only watched it once and before it was even done I was already cringing and super annoyed by the bending over and panting of his companions when they stopped running.  Every freaking time he stopped running there would be one or two that would bend or and pant the same as they did before.  I got annoyed by it in that just short demo video.  

So those characterisations you list better be a very very very large list of unique things or we are going to have our "arrows to the knee" every 10 seconds in this game.  It looses its neatness when you see your copmanions run away like a little bitch for the 1000th time.  Sometimes less is more.  Just having them follow you around like in FF13 or xenoblade.  or most other jrpgs i guess.  They may not do these neat new things that bring characterization, but also they don't end up annoying us by seeing the same animation for the 1000'th time.  

Hahaha wow..after reading posts in this thread I realized my taste must be really quirky.

My favorite Final Fantasy games are VIII and XII. I tried the others (IV, V, VI, VII, IX, X) but got bored along the way.

Then FFVII & IX soundtracks makes both look like amateur hour but *whistles*

Never got to play 12, but 8 was probably my favorite.  

I think it might be because it was basically my first game.  Played 4 and 3 on the DS when they came out.  Loved 4, hated 3.  Played 7 on the PC at some point, and hated it.  Loved 9.  10 was great, though i think the blitzball made me love it more than the story.  13 was horrible.

Haven't played 1, 2, 5, 6 or the MMO's.  Also haven't played any of the x-2, 13-2, crisis core, ect.  you know the sequals, spinoffs.  

Well, I certainly don't understand why would it be annoying, but I see your point. It would definitely lose its uniqueness overtime. But my take on characteristics as when they interact with each other in different situations. Like when when you have low HP and they are nearby, or like when a big enemy perform a heavy attacks and it is too late to dodge, a third exapmle is when everyone was timing their attack of the giant enemy ( all examples were shown in previous trailers ) I can't see these examples being repetitive like the one you have mentioned.

It also has its effect on the battle. The point is that the party management makes a difference in gameplay, it has its own management system. That is something, if done right, is indeed a great achievement.