A step in a new direction can be quite refreshing
The first thing you'll notice when you start controlling you character is that the battle system is really different from the previous installments. You no longer go "into battle mode" sort of speak, but you fight enemies like an MMORPG. The active time battle bar is still there, but thats only there to actually show when you can carry out an action. Let's just say the battle system is menu driven, while still "actiony" if thats the right words. Much like Final Fantasy XI for those of you who played the game. Also, since battles are active, there is this set up called Gambits that let you customise the AI of your uncontrolled allies. The Gambit system is much better at making the AI more responsive than Kingdom Hearts II's AI, but some commands would have been much more useful if they were acquired much more earlier in the game. Another thing thats different is this chess board type ability learning squares called the License board. Its basically like the sphere grid on FFX, but it basically enables you to equip certain weapons and armors, and learn certain skills and even revamp your stats. So this set up enables you to customize your characters in anyway you like, much like job building on the FF Tactics series. The only dissapointing aspect of this is that all your characters can all be the same, which kinda removes the whole uniqueness in one character over another. The story of the game is pretty good, I'm only about 15 hours into the game and I feel like I'm not even half way through the game. I don't want to spoil much of the story, but lets just say, you'll expect a lot of it if you are a veteran of the FF Series. Also, the way the story is told is in a way that the "main character" Vaan has no direct effect on the overall story, hes just basically an eye into a much bigger story, rather than being the chosen one, or that sort of mundane theme that reoccurs on most RPGs.
The graphics of the game push the PS2 to its limits, without you feeling like the game is killing your PS2. As stated before, it seems like Square wants to go out with a bang with the final days of the beloved PS2. Theres more to say but if i wrote a detailed review, I could probably make a new instruction manual xD.
In conclusion, I'm just reviewing this after I just got the game; the visuals of the game are pretty, the gameplay is a good break from the previous battle systems, which means no random battles (a good or bad thing, your decision), and the License board is, to me, a good idea. The only things that are bad with this game is that you can't change characters names, which isn't really a bad thing, considering Square added a lot of talking rather than just reading into the game, the massive size of the Arcadia takes a lot of time to get from point A to B, and some other small things not worth mentioning. Aside from these minor aspects of the game, the game is definitely a buy, if not a really good rent (if you plan to keep it longer or re-rent it over and over again :P )
Overall score 9.3 out of 10.