[zaburai]

Well have played it for 25 hours thus far and I have to say, it seems a lot shorter than the predeccessors, I am nearly completed chapter 10 out of 13....convenient number, I know that side quests will bump it up but still VII - IX took at least 60 hours to complete, I think X was around the same.

Here are my 2 pennies thus far:

The graphics are the best I have seen for any multiplatform game, it rivals Uncharted 2 and MGS4 and Batman: Arkham Asylum.

The story is pretty damn good, not as good compared to others in the franchise but better than what has come out of SE since FFIX.

The battle system is brilliant, it is like Persona 3's battle system if they actually did it right.

People have complained about the linearity of the game, I dont care, no JRPG is fully free roaming, 90% of all JRPGS aren't....screw that 99% are linear.

If you like your bishies you will love Snow and Cid Raines.

Now for the bad parts, yes I am afraid that there are some problems:

The characters for the most part are not really that great or memorable, except for 2 people Snow and Sazh, Snow because he is an optimist who will help anyone in need and he is a tank. Sazh because at the start you don't know all that much about him and it slowly opens up revealing a really deep character that is easily relatable with, though why do they always give the black guy guns?
I dont really have anything to say about the other characters because they are clichéd.

As I have said before it is shorter than other FF games.

The walkthrough is usless against bosses.

The plot though good can be predictable at times.

Hope is an angsty teen and I am really hating them at the minute and he is the strongest mage in the game, which I am annoyed about while they make Sazh near useless, why not balance out the characters SE?

The difficulty difference between bosses and normal enimies is quiet big which is annoying, yes the bosses can be really hard at times as early as 2 hours into the game

The soundtrack is okay nothing really memorable

I have said this in the IRC a couple of times, but why is Leona Lewis singing in this game.....she isn't good and the song that was chosen sucks. I know this is to make...it...appeal..to..a..wider..audience...JRPGs are a niche genre that no-one other than nerds (afraid to say it is true most RPG players are nerds or are really into anime...in which case they are probably a nerd) touch, so that attempt is wasted, just keep the Japanese song in it, mabye translate it but use the same goddamn singer, it worked really well in IX, I actually prefer the English version of Melodies of Life to the Japanese and it was done by the same singer. I should have guessed this would happen when the Gods themselves left SE.

The summons are not that great they are good in Gestalt mode but thats it.

Well that is my opinion of the game, hope I didn't bore you with this wall of text lol.

PS There is practically no androgynous characters, Hope is slightly questionable in this aspect but other than that YAY YATTA YATTA YATTA...sorry about that, though I will admit that I do disagree with Sage's review quite a bit for this game.