Yeah, optional install is brilliant. I went ahead and did it and the load times are brisk to say the least.

Here is how it goes for me.

1. Scouts

2. Snipers

3. Tank Commander

4. Shocktroopers

5. Lancers

6. Engineers

How can you forget Welkin?

I played some of the game as my bro rented it from GameFly. Got up to chapter 2 and I am really liking it. The game is a bit heavy on cutscenes but the story is suppose to be really good so I don't mind much at all. The gameplay is very fun and has plenty of strategy. I really love the art style. In fact, it is worth watching the cutscenes just for the art style alone.

Exactly, I'll sometimes miss some of the VA while being distracted from the game.

The reason I didn't put him up there is that he is automatically entered into battles, and he's the only tank commander. You're not forced to use/deploy scouts, snipers, etc unlike the tank. He'll probably second to last. He provides some great coverage.

omg... this game better get a 500k+ life time or I am going to cry a river. this game is soo good... i've been playing it since the JP version came out.

anyone have week 1 sales prediction? i am thinking about 70-80K first week... since it's a new IP and all :/

OK, I got the game yesterday. It's a very good SRPG from the few missions I have done.
It's one of the best actually, I couldn't resist playing it a little despite not having finished other games.
I'll have to play a bit more to get a judgment on the overall game, but it could become one of the three best SRPG I ever played.
It's also the first PS3 game I really bought (the others were in the bundle).

But playing two missions with original japanese VAs revealed several problems with the game, that surely are due to HD costs and lack of mastery of the PS3. None are really annoying to me, but are annoying to develop the SRPG genre (I have the European version) :
- The game only has english subtitles + VA in addition to original japanese VA. No translation in any of the FIGS (France, Italy, Germany, Spain) languages. This game just won't sell well in Europe already because of this fact. Sonic on the Wii had original japanese VA and english VA too, but it had subtitles for every one of the FIGS languages. I attribute this to the cost of HD games which is too expensive for niche genres like SRPG.
- The english subtitles, and so I suppose the english VA, is horribly badly translated. Lots of the time, they don't even say the same thing, or even reveal the plot, thus destroying the impact. Like when the first tank arrives, they say it's a tank in the english subtitles, but don't even say a word in the japanese VA. Huge differences in dialogue start from the very fisrst scene of the game. I just don't understand stupid translations like those. THANK GOD I got the original japanese VA, now I know I won't even try the english VA except to verify it's the same as the english subtitles. The original japanese VA is light years ahead of the translated one.
- I started the first mission countless times to get S rank. That's until I realised that they removed S rank from the european version at least. Well, it's not really a bad thing, but why did they do this ? So now, all I can get is A rank max. I can't even know if I succeeded the mission with the best possible score. It makes it less of a pure strategy game and more of a SRPG though, so it's better for me.

I forgot about the rest, perhaps there will be more. Despite these, it's a very good game.

Well even with my money saving habits for my computer....I bought the game. Gamestop said there was only 2 left but here's the problem....i wont be able to play until after christmas. 1. I have to play magna carta first. 2. ) i have to redo the entire xenosaga series (i have a tradition to do that ever year) 3. I just got into the Killzone 2 beta....>.> and that has sucked my life away.

It's fucking awesome, huh?

OT: This game is so amazing.  The artstyle, the music, everything, it just pulls me in!  Just starting up the game is enough to have me hooked for at least an hour.  The way the intro video starts, with the scene being drawn before your eyes, it's captivating.

My only complaint about the game is that the awesome songs are rather short and very few, so they're often repeated.  It makes me sad that there's not more of the awesomeness, cause they are really awesome.  :(

I love the battle music!

The game is now 50$ on Amazon:

and it ships for free.

amazon

Go get your copy NOW.