Really fun and engaging!
So here is my updated review after delving about halfway into the game. This is a remarkable little action RPG and a worthy Final Fantasy title. It often brings back memories of Secret of Mana (the music really does it), and Kingdom Hearts (fighting style). You are a young, nameless (you do get to pick a name), voiceless hero. You have to save the world, starting with saving a friend in need. The story starts kind of silly and sluggish, but definitely picks up pace quite a bit. The story, while not to the epic levels of a main numbered Final Fantasy, is enough to keep one interested, and is pretty serious stuff (unlike FF Tactics A2). Controls take a bit of getting used to. The stylus is really unnecessary. You control the player with the D-pad and can execute attacks, jump, cast magic, and pick up objects with the ABXY buttons. The L and R are for swapping magic and characters, but this is more easily done by tapping the player or magic you want on the bottom screen with your thumb. Once you get used to it, the controls are quite nice. Just be careful opening the menu. Hit start, not the reset button on the left! (I did once... glad I save often!) Difficulty is medium at first but definitely builds up. Puzzles can be challenging (especially the timing puzzles), easy, or just infuriating (the really lame easy yet time consuming ones). There are tons of interesting and challenging side quests to accept from a town moogle. They are very fun and can be played solo with just your main hero or multiplayer (separate quests for each). The rewards are okay, but the challenge makes them fun and worth doing. Equipment is kind of a toss up. While I love the customization (synthesis) style, It seems that too often you customize a weapon or armor and then the next is ready. You never really have to spend time hunting down the items needed for a particular good because the next batch will be ready to order soon and require different loot. One other thing I like is that you level up the weapons and armors and then can have them made into a crystal which can be fused to a different weapon or armor with a cool effect (such as HP Boost, Attack Boost, etc...). It makes for an interesting system, I just wish they had actually put in less weapons and armor within each category, therefore making it a necessity to get the new gear and forcing you to go hunting for some loot! Magic system is nice. It takes getting used to but works well. You only have 6 spells: Fire, Ice, Thunder, Cure, Revive, Esuna (Clear). You can stack attack magic for higher level spells (fira, firaga). I like that each attack spell has an effect (burn, freeze, paralyze). This makes using magic a bit more fun and often a necessity. Some enemies will do nasty things if you don't zap them with freeze or paralyze status first! Magic is also used in some of the puzzle solving. Graphics are slick and pretty. Often the camera can be a nuisance, but other then that, the graphics are stellar. Characters actually change appearance with new gear. Spell effects look nice, enemies are well drawn. Music is rather nice, catchy, but the songs and styles are rather similar to one another. They are really nice and you do get drawn into the setting. I can foresee the replay value being an issue. Mainly because of the nature of the puzzle solving. I believe there will be higher difficulty settings for New Game + (according to what one NPC said). I will update later. The most glaring issue is the one player teammate AI. Often it gets annoying when they continually jump off cliffs into fire, therefore taking damage. They often don't seem to want to attack the enemy, while other times they go berserk. And they rarely hit a cure spell unless someone is on the verge of death. So while I gripe, this does add to the difficulty. It is more like having three backups. You will be the main attacker and can switch to the other players with the touch of the bottom screen. This helps, but in the heat of battle you really can't swap out. Another issue is that drops and gil must be actively picked up to go into inventory. I would have liked to have you just walk over it and collect it. But it's a minor thing. Another minor beef is that when going into the menu to view status or equip, you cannot change characters. You must back out of the menu then actively select a new party leader. At least you can hit -select- while in the shop to switch characters. Despite the few issues with the game, this is one of the best and most fun DS RPGs I have played. I would highly recommend it to any action RPG fan! A must own for the DS. Read more
