mmm. not sure about this one. battle system problems........?
im not impressed so far. Iv played around 16 hours so far, but I think that I may not continue, the reasons being;
I think the combat system is flawed. I dont think the 'groups' system works and has not been thought through. this games battle system has the player controlling 3 groups of 2 characters (typically). 1 command per group.
if for instance with my first group I choose to cast a spell with a view to damaging the enemy (alot of spells will also damage allies within the range), and then wait.....(the spell could take 2 turns before it is cast).....
...and then with the second group choose to heal 1 member of the 2nd group. Then the result is that one character gets a medicine and the other character who has not had the medicine goes off by himself and randomly attacks, placing himself in line for the spell cast by the first group.
this also applies to healing magic, as spells often heal enemies aswell. Very annoying. If you want to cast healing magic at these 'wandering' party members, you may also heal the enemy. also sometimes when i choose the same enemy for each group to attack, they didnt actually follow the instructions. It should play out your decisions.
iv found myself just choosing 'auto' during fights which is not what im looking for in an RPG.
Exploration is very tedius also, just walking from left to right in many cases, choosing auto fight and trying to find the next part of the story.......which is long winded and boring , and has initially to be played through 3 times from different viewpoints. There a few stories that i have the patience to replay 3 times, apart from the 'adult' variety of course.
There are many good things about the game but you've most likely read them already, im just pointing out the things that will probably stop me continuing with this title...........Im shocked that gamespot rated this game at 9.1, higher than dragon quest 8. ??????????? usually I can trust their ratings though so anyway, cheers for reading...................buy it cheap if you are going to.......