Other jRPG makers, especially Square, could have learned a few things from this game:
- No annoying random encounters. The monsters are visible and you can avoid them if you don't feel like battling. Even if they manage to catch your party you can easily run away from the battle. You don't have to wait two or three turns while watching your party being beaten. And after running away you don't have to go through stupid screens saying that you didn't get any items!
- If you lose a battle, you are offered to restart it right away, ZING! In other jRPGs you had to watch a stupid 'game over' scene and then go through the interface to load the game.
- No unskippable cutscenes before battles! Well there usually are some dialogues but they are short.
- You can save anytime anywhere!
As for the game itself, with 20+ hours in I can say that it's just another jRPG but without those above mentioned annoyances it plays really great and is hooking enough to keep me returning for more.
The battle system is perfect! Turn based goodness with various approaches and strategies you can use.
My only gripe so far is that there's too much unnecessary blabbing and I often catch myself drifting away and missing the important parts.