I'm almost done with it, just cleaning up side activities before I start what feels to me like the last stretch. About 50 hours in.

I would say it's the best Final Fantasy game yet. I really love the more mature theme and even though the story gets into Final Fantasy-esque territory toward the end, it is all very structured and easy to follow. The VO performance is stellar, the OST even more so.

That being said, I have some negative points though:

• The game is incredibly easy. Even in the action mode without any helper accessories, I haven't died once. Even when hunting notorious marks that were 15 levels above me. I don't think I've ever played an action game for so much time where I have absolutely no idea what happens when you die... is there a respawn point, or do you have to load a save... no idea.

• The RPG elements are toned down more than I like. At this point, they are just so rudimentary that I wouldn't call it a JRPG anymore. It's a J-action adventure.

• Feels like they scrapped elemental affinities. The tutorial popups when you get a new power say that it changes the elemental attack but I don't see any difference when attacking a fire monster with Shiva equipped for example. There are also no status ailments (poisoned, blind, etc.).

• Controller mapping is bad. I don't know how often I used potions when I wanted to give the best boy a command.

I tried the demo and was convinced. The game is over-the-top action based but provides customization to difficulty and QoL features for people with all kinds of skill levels. You should try the demo if you are interested. It is literally the first 2 - 3 hours into the main game so you will see if you like it at the end of it

I'm playing it yea, chapter 52 (of about 70 I think). I'm enjoying it a great deal, I've been playing FF since FF on NES. I still remember renting it and the game store guy explaining to my grade school ass that if I wanted to play as 1 person, get dragon warrior, but if I want to play as 4 people, get Final Fabtasy.

Anyway, the game itself, it's definately a modern final fantasy game complete with all the themes , items, and moogles you'd expect. The world is pretty big, even if it isn't open. It's like a collection of large interconnected sandboxes (but you'll have trouble convincing me that final fantasy was ever more than that). When this game rocks, it rocks hard, but some things could be improved. Your main companion, Jill, has all the personality of a wet dish rag. The game is also very easy despite attempts to balance it out (such as limits on potion carrying and no white mages ).

The game also has little joy or humor or much in the way of comic relief. They went dark and stayed there for the most part. Which is fine with me.

In any case, I'm very much enjoying it and hope they make ff17 using a harder version of the combat system and pay more attention to characters.