erratio

The plot is decent but manages to fall short of epic despite the usual "topple the world order to save it from evil" stuff, the characters start out incredibly annoying but eventually get less so (with the exception of Vanille, who has both the most annoying voice and the most annoying dialogue I've ever seen. Also my current lack of hatred for the characters might just be simple exposure). The mid to end part of the game where you're allowed to run around and do all the cool stuff is... disappointing. The world only has 5 or 6 (albeit large) areas to run around in, the only sidequest/minigame things you can do are bounty hunting (to be specific, killing monsters. No "retrieve my purse I left it in that lake" kind of thing) and treasure hunting from the back of a chocobo. There are no people anywhere that you can interact with, and the monsters all fit into a relatively small number of templates such as 'flan', 'behemoths', 'flying dragon thingies'. The graphics are gorgeous, the music is highly disappointing. The combat system has swapped in micromanaging your characters for micromanaging your party tactics, and the score you get from the battle (which fuels your "do awesome stuff meter" and includes summons) is dependent on finishing the battle as fast as possible, so it turns into something of a reflex-based/button-mashing experience. I personally enjoyed the combat as switching between party tactics is something of an art form, but it's not friendly towards people who like to have time to plan.

Overall, the game ends up being pretty average. The plot is disappointingly short, the world, usually a star exhibit in its own right, is physically large but conceptually tiny. I'm increasingly coming away from my gaming sessions with the feeling that they spent all the development money on graphics and voice acting, but forgot to develop the content to go with it. The end result is an interactive movie that's fine as long as you don't want to do anything outside of combat or gawking at the pretty scenery.