So I'm somewhere in chapter 2 and I think like 6 or so hours into this and general impressions so far:
Highs
- The art is beautiful. There really is nothing else to say about that, it's probably the best looking game I've ever seen and looks better than anything coming out that I've seen for the next few years.
- The animations are well done, though there is some twitching and other little problems but still over all very well done.
- The story isn't the greatest thing ever but definitely enough to keep you into the game. You still have the characters that just tag along for no reason but I suppose that's alright since the reason the characters are traveling and going through all this trouble doesn't make a lot of sense.
- The voice acting is very well done. It's not the best, but it's good.
- The battle system is a lot of fun and definitely keeps you into the game. It's a button masher but because of the time limits I still have to pay attention to what's going on.
- The music is wonderful. From the little history of Chopin shorts to the gameplay music itself, I love the music.
Lows
- In the first town I was able to get 17,000 gold without a problem because I took 3 pictures so I was set on gold in the first town and able to buy anything without a problem.
- I'm 6-ish hours into the game and I've only encountered one shop. I didn't do a super stock up on the first shop because I assumed I would encounter more.
- For the first 5 hours of the game you have your limited supply of items, Orange Glow, and Chopin's bad healing spell to keep you alive. There are no tents so sometimes it can be a little annoying to keep yourself healthy.
- Enemies respawn after leaving a room. This wouldn't be a big deal, but because of the lack of healing items and no tent items, it can get a little annoying while exploring areas (more on this at the bottom).
- You eventually get a character named Viola and she is just stupid overpowered while other characters are just weak. What's worse is that Viola eventually makes Polka worthless. Viola starts off as a decent ranged character and an awesome melee character. That means she can outdo Beat, easily outperforms Chopin, and even does better than Retto. To make things worse, she gets an ability called Healing Arrow that heals everyone in the party without a range requirements and still heals a lot even without any echoes which automatically makes Polka near worthless.
- The level design isn't really that good. Exploring isn't that fun, respawning enemies discourages exploring, and I'm currently stuck in one of the most confusing dungeons ever.
- You have some special attacks that can affect a line of enemies but lining up the enemies can be near impossible. You character can never get in just the right spot and being in a hurry just makes it that much harder. You can change your battle views which helps a little but your character still always ends up facing the wrong way just slightly to hit all the enemies you wanted to.
- Some attacks knock you down which wouldn't be too bad but getting up takes about half your turn. That just isn't fun and the game would be better off without it.
- I like the chance system, but it really is just too much chance sometimes. There are some attacks that are easy to block, and some the chance icon appears but you can't block them unless you just get lucky.
Right now I'm in a place called Fermata Fort and I just hate it. Up to that point I loved the game but this place is just a big maze which already bothers me, but the fact enemies respawn and healing items are low makes it worse (until I got Healing Arrow, then it just became too easy and tedious fighting and avoiding respawning enemies). What I really hate about this place is that it takes place over two areas and several small rooms and each time you cross over to the other area or enter a small room every enemy respawns. I'm sorry, but this place just isn't fun. Being a maze and a puzzle it's already confusing enough, but now I constantly have to kill the same enemy over and over again. Like I said, up until this place even with the lows I loved this game, but this one dungeon is really making me unhappy. Hopefully this will just be the one random bad level like the airboat level in Half-Life 2.
Still, this game is worth a look at. If you have a 360 and are looking for a beautiful and interesting RPG, this game is something you shouldn't pass up. If you were torn between this or Blue Dragon, don't even bother with Blue Dragon. I really don't think there was anything that impressed me about that game.
-edit-
Oh, and I hate that every achievement is secret, even ones like reach part level 2. I really like knowing achievements and I hate it when they lock everything. Having something to work towards is nice and it's just not fun having that taken away. If it were something like Bioshock's secret achievements that would make sense, but there are reach party level 2 or finish chapter x. Blah.
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