Well Worth The Wait!!! Like Nothing Ive Ever Seen Before.
The battle system was probably the biggest change for the FF series. At first it's a little hard to understand, but you'll get the hang of it in a few hours. Although it is sometimes difficult to keep watch of everything that is going on since most of the time you will probably have your other characters on AI. There is an option to use Active mode, or Wait mode. I myself normally play on Active mode, but with this game, I just dont see how it is possible. You just need to pause the action because the enemies will attack relentlessly, plus you will need to check what actions your allies are performing.
Well besides all that. I can not stress this point enough.....The Graphics In This Game Are Amazing! The scenery looks amazing. When your in a wide open field, or high up on a cliff looking down, or inside a huge cavern or tomb, you really feel like you are there. You can just tell the programmers spent alot of time on backgrounds. The main city of Rabanastre is a huge city with tall buildings, back alleys, shops and people everywhere. And I still have not noticed any frame rate lag. Even the characters faces look better than they ever have before. Its all something I have never seen before.
And something new to FF it seems, is that this one is actually alot more difficult. Gil is actually hard to come by. You'll find yourself wanting to buy a shops latest items, but then you realize you cant come anywhere close to affording them.....making item selection more of a thought process. There are also times on the field that you might pick a fight with the wrong group of enemies, and they will be quick to dispose of you. You'll find yourself running for your life a few times early on. Its a nice change
The "license board" is ok at best. Its kind of like the sphere grid from FFX, but it's just sometimes a nuisance having to look at what items/spells you can equip before you buy them.
If anything, I would say one of the downfalls of the game is that it tries to be a little too smart and sophisticated. I myself am 25 years old, and have a fairly good vocabulary, But alot of the speech in this game uses ALOT of big words that alot of younger players will most likely not understand. Besides that, the story is also fairly hard to follow, which is too bad because thats the main reason alot of people fall in love with Final Fantasy.
Sometimes the camera can go a little screwy on you too, but no big deal really.
All in all, Dont judge this game on the demo like I did. Just pretend you didnt even play it. Hands down, most amazing graphics and environments on the PS2. If you are a final fantasy fan at all, this will welcome in the new generation of FF quite well ! A-M-A-Z-I-N-G