Hmmm This is a toughie indeed.......
So far i havent played much of it, just about 11 hours into this beast. If your wanting a game that you can just pick up and play the way it should be dont get this game. Took me about 1 hour and 30 minutes before i was doing anything other than hitting X repeatibly during battles. After that the battles got more and more interesting as new abilities are unlocked. Some of the battles are insanly difficult, such as the first time you battle odin. But for the most part everything is easy peasy.
The part im most irritated by is the lineararity of the areas. I mean good gravy, this makes the game sooooo boring to me. If it wasnt bad enough that your pratically running through alleyway-like areas constantly, they are gracious enough to supply a map of the area.........wow. Makes my head hurt just looking at the needlelike maps from area to area. I have heard that later in the game you are granted more freedom to run about and all that which the game needs badly.
Also i read this from another reviewer but i felt i needed to complain about it as well. What is the point of naming all the crap you pick up for upgrades? The only thing i can tell is that each diff named item is worth diff amounts of exp points towards upgrading a weapon or whatever. But who in the heck is gonna remember the names of everything?? And even then what would be the point of remembering? Just so you can rejoice when you check your spoils and recieve that one item that gives you 300 exp per use even though it tells you when you go to upgrade. I dont know.
All in all i like the game even though its nothing like the previous Final Fantasy's. The graphics are really nice in full 1080p High-Def and the colors are rich and vibrant. I just hope to god it picks up pretty soon cuz im getting boooored.