Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be in a video game worrrlll HOLY MOTHER IT ACTUALLY HAPPENED!!
This is probably one of the slowest, or quite possibly THE slowest, moving game that I actually enjoy. The funny thing is that the battles are what move the slowest in the game. There are no dungeons. There aren't puzzles to solve or anything like that. You don't control your movement except when you're on the map or in battle. That might be why this game just doesn't get the love that the other Final Fantasy games get even though that in the end, none of them have the same story. They're all different games. Getting off of that, even though the battles are slow, it's decently hard (decently?) I'm not saying you have to be a master of strategery, but you have to be prepared. This game is weird when it comes to its storyline. Just at random times, something will occur, but you have to do missions until that event occurs. I like the main characters' backgrounds, though. Especially the one who has been picked on his entire life and comes into the videogame world only to find that his deceased mother is, well, NOT! That seems to poison him and make the story a little more interesting. It's not just about the three kids getting out of the world and returning home, it's saving a delusional kid from what he wanted the most: to have his mother back. And, I guess ruling the world wasn't so bad from his point of view. The storyline is interesting, there's just not enough of it. Puzzles are replaced by missions that can get tedious, but for the most part go pretty quickly. It's fun.........fun.
Graphics are decent. However every platform seems to look like a plateau. It's just that everything is flat unless there's a rock blocking the way. Smoothness is decent. Everything is decent about the graphics. Nothing special here.
The music gets really annoying, especially in the battles. It's not great and since the battles move so slowly, you have to listen to it for the longest time. This game can last awhile. If I recall correctly, at one point, you do return home after finishing the storyline, but when you go to continue, you're back in the game world. And I think I even fought the final boss again. It's weird like that. The storyline took me around 25 hours to beat, the length of your average Mario RPG, which is fine. Yes there's other stuff to do, but you'll find that after awhile, it's just the same stuff over and over and over and over and over and over and (POW!!) OW! That really hurt! Who did that? Geez.
This game makes me think that I'd be okay with Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance and maybe a few other Fire Emblem games. I dunno why, but I've always wanted to get into that series, but I've always had my doubts. That's not important, though. What is important is that this is a game worth your money. If you're playing this obsessively during the summer, you MIGHT be able to get enough out of it with a rental. It's 2007, so chances are, the price is no more than a rental anyway. "But it's Final Fantasy!" "Who cares! It's old!"