A very impressive JRPG. The combat system is its greatest asset gameplaywise, You can build your characters in all sorts of different ways, exploit many different synergies, and the battles themselves are complex and varied. It's a little easy though. On normal difficulty, the boss battles were suitably challenging... if I never used healing items or support characters. And the ordinary battles in the second half of the game faded into triviality except right at the end. Quests are mostly an excuse to get you talking to people or killing things instead of offering interesting choices.
Storywise, its great asset is the characters, and to a lesser extent, the worldbuilding. You can see the work that has gone into making the world make sense. There are a huge number of generally colourful minor characters to enjoy, and most of the major characters are convincing 'imaginary people', well drawn and not too strongly stereotyped. The only serious real weak spots are Arisa's early insanity, which creates a terrible impression of a character you're supposed to like, and the 'fat romantic girls are funny' character.
The general narrative is a lot less impressive, consisting mostly of Big News Events and Big Revelations. Apart from a little bit on WMDs, the only real attempt at thematic development is "nobles and commoners", and it bungles this badly by failing to include any poverty or any real class struggle, or characters who understand that the main problem with nobility is that they unreasonably get all the money and power, not just that they're snooty. (Which makes Machias occasionally infuriating.) You even have to choose between three banal opinions on nobles at one point. Thankfully, the story is also powered by character development, which is considerably more successful.
But I complain about things because it's really, really good. So I want it to be perfect, and am frustrated when it's not. Highly recommended. And the turbo feature is lovely.
