I have been playing for about 32 hours now and I am inside the Heracles going to save Estelle and kill Alexei. I have been loving this game. My last boss battle with Raven (Captain Schwann - didn´t see that coming) was really hard. I even died once. I didn´t have Estelle (my healer) so it was pretty hard to keep my HP up. Also, every time I attacked with skills or artes, he would either be blocking or somehow receive my attack and attacj at the same time, which prevented me from doing combos. I had to use several limit bottles to fill my 3rd level overlimit and used Yuri´s mystic arte.

I have been really liking the story so I haven´t really done any sidequests. And the fact that I don´t know where to find it. Maybe I ´ll go looking fot it after I´m done with this part. With the help of guides, of course.

This game has really rekindled my love for JRPG.

P.S. - I specifically like Yuri´s voice actor. He´s doing a superb job.

He's not bad. The characters are really balanced. He's considered the "worst" because he's a hybrid character, there are better art users and a better caster. However, like I said, it's all opinion.

Oh here's something cool. Rita's Voice Actor is also the VA for Etna in Disgaea 2(and maybe the rest)?

Also, lol, Flynn has the same arts as Lloyd. Sword Rain Alpha! I dunno if it you can play with him as a permanent character without a cheating device, but I imagine that could be something that Namco could add with DLC.

I'm 72 hours in. I have the fel arms, but I still need to collect a ton more materials and titles. I also have about 4 more main sidequests to finish, as well as my grade farming.

If there are any endgame questions you guys have, feel free. The end game here is quite daunting and overwhelming to say the least. Just remember, different enemies spawn in different areas after dark, once the final dungeon appears, and don't try the 100 man melee until your close to level 60.

Spoiler tips(Non-Story or character spoilers are slightly involved, but you'll never figure this stuff out without a guide anyways, so read on. I left out anything even remotely related to the story or characters)

Needless to say, if you beat the game once without meeting certain conditions, you won't be able to get everything on your second playthrough. You'd be looking at 3.

For now, I'll give you a tip at poker. You should always go for pairs, and then double up in attempts to reach the 100,000 marker and then cashin. I was able to win 1.5 million chips.

You can then buy the specialty gels and sell them at the hotspring and earn almost 200,000 gald a minute.

The guy in the tavern at Dhangrest has your guild jobs, btw, and don't forget to visit all the cities for your end game quests, so you can unlock the 100 man melee with challengers(you'll need the challenge from flynn, hunting blades, and yagers cronies). Start in Capu Torim.

...and do yourself a favor and don't miss out on the hotspring skits.

Raven and Karol are hybrids. Ranged/Heals/Spells make Raven not great at any one thing, but alright at everything. Karol is actually a great healer, and for Unknown difficulty, you'll want to swap out Judy(she's meh unless she's player controlled anyways).

Repede is kinda like the rogue of the game. He can steal and has quick attacks, but he just doesn't excel where the other players do. 3 places are already taken, really, Yuri, Estelle, and Rita are pretty much staples of the perfect party. So, your other two best choices are Judy and Karol. Judy for an offensive(I'm stronger than you, so lets have fun) battle and Karol for a defensive(This could be tough, lets bring some extra healing and whiddle) battle.

At 90+, however, Karol does enough damage to where it's either a gimme 3 second battle or you're fighting the hardest monsters in the game and need the extra healing.

The biggest damage creator is Yuri, especially early on(in the endgame) when you get the hypertension skills, with which you can perform a nearly infinite combo. His Final Gale altered art is also quite powerful if you understand its implications. However, a well played Judith does perform infinite combos with greater efficiency, but being able to play Judy well, apparently requires you to be TG Cid IRL. She's reaking impossible. Just the skills you need to learn to be able to pull off her good combos are rediculious.

The fact that Judy and(imo) Rita are dead sexy hot doesn't hurt for their bids to get in my party, also.

Now, the best character in the game is, imo, Yuri, followed by a two way tie between Flynn and Raven. Those guys are just hilarious and enthralling everytime they open their mouths. There aren't any really bad main characters, but Judith and Rita are probably the most 2 dimensional(though they've obviously tried to flesh out all the characters quite a bit).

I was surprised at the depth the end game in Vesperia goes. It's unfreakinbelievably huge. A game that was basically made to play through 3 or 4 times before you are finally satisfied. You can't even start powering up your fel-arms until the second playthrough(the final boss' death "unlocks" them). Then there's the zomg huge ex new game + dungeon and 200 man melee(which can be unlocked in 1 playthrough, if you are really, really patient), and finally the unknown difficulty, only unlockable in playthrough 2, as well as the grade shop which is as fleshed out and unbelievably important as ever(10x exp, can carry 99 of each item, and skills cost 1 point, lol, wtfpwnd).

You can't even see all the skits until the end of your second playthrough(you unlock the player though grade shop), and in fact, you probably wouldn't have even seen half of them until that point. I mean, you can miss a straight hour of dialogue and character development, by skipping a second playthrough, just from not unlocking the skit viewer.

The rewards for end game are as magnificant as ever. The super weapons are more badass than ever before, and the fel arms are, as always, uber pwnage once you level them up.

...btw, you'll need to land 10,000 killing blows with each character to max them out. You can't start until a second playthrough. In my 70ish hour game so far, I dunno for sure if I've killed that many enemies alltogether, lol.(I think I'm around 6,000). None of those kills count though. They counter doesnt' start until the weapons are unlocked. You can also check the progress of your game against others online, just by going into your game menu and clicking on stuff like your overall combo count, something else I've only recently noticed. The top players have million hit combos, lol.

So yes, when I say the end game is massive, it's not FFVII massive....it's World of Warcraft massive.