Flashy and Cool, but felt like a rat in a maze
First off the graphics, you just can't fault them. They are stunning, everything feels so perfectly crafted and everything feels like it wasn't designed so as much as grow into the world. I wouldn't be hard pushed to describe it as one of the best looking games I have ever played. The music is also great and fits in perfectly with the games changing pace.
The Story is well written too, the plot starts with a grand opening and builds wonderfully... for about the first 2 disks. When we get into disk 3 thats where I felt things started to slide plot wise. It just felt a little like they were just expanding the game for the sake of it and it started to drag on for me, to the point that it became a chore to try and complete. Which is just something a Final Fantasy game has never done for before. I usually always feel so driven to keep going, even when things start to look like there getting boring somehow Final Fantasy games always make you feel the need to go on. This game just didn't do that for me, I almost began to resent the fact that the game was on going still, which is just something you never want from any game.
Next the gameplay, the battle field design and the way you fight battles is inovative and makes you feel like an active part of the combat. The paradigm system is a clever way to stratergise your combat and adjust your fighting style when facing an enemy. The enemies themselves look great and the way the combat alters in some case really keeps you guessing and making you think about which paradigm works for the situation.
However the general gameplay outside the battles feels just way to restrictive. If you ever played a Final Fantasy game before you know half the fun is exploring areas and finding tonnes of side missions to make the game go on forever. This version however seems to omit all of that, its not until disk 3 your really start getting any proper side missions and even then its like "whats the point?". I'm not getting at the linear games at all, I own quiet a few like that, but it just simply feels in this game like your not in command of your character, your simply just pushing them to go onwards without really engaging. Its fine when you have battles to break it up, but eventually it just wears thin and feels just a little like they maybe should have not even bothered with the non battle aspects of the game. It just feels a little too much like they focused so much on making the game look great that gameplay suffered as a result.
I suppose then you can guess my conclusion for this review. I was disappointed at the end of the day. In a day and age where so many games now give you a much more open feeling and a much better illusion of feeling like your part of a bigger world I just felt this game took a step backwards. It all just felt a little too controlled and a little too much like you weren't really engaging in the games world. The battles break up the monotony well, and keep things fast paced for the first 15 -20 hours, but after that it just feels like your going through the motions. While I can't fault the graphics or the story or the battle sequences, the general gameplay became such a sticking point for me that it started to drag the whole game down.
At the end of the day, if you like the old Final Fantasys and wanna see how this one shapes up then by all means give it a go. But I warn you, you could be in for disappointment as your adventure draws to a close and the gameplay starts to grate at you. If you've never played a Final Fantasy before, this is a fun game still, but if you wanna get into the whole FF world, buy a PSone of PS2 and get yourself some of the older versions. There much better for gameplay even if the graphics are dated.