yes the new battle system is good. But seriously have you ever picked up a new rpg thinking to yourself "damn I hope the battle system is good." Its not the defining feature of an rpg and never was and never will be. All a good battle system does is make the dungeon crawling more tolerable ( which at times random battles could drive you insane ) however its not praiseworthy when the rest of the game sucks.
Another thing worth noting about this new and improved battle system was how terribley it was implemented. It could have been the best freakin battle system to ever grace an rpg, but the way this game makes you trudge through hours and hours of turgid mindless killing of npcs it just doesn't matter, thats not rewarding and does a number on the game's pacing.
As for the character development being "fair and decent" ... Well really I dont know how you could come to that conclusion, Vaan's persepective never deviates from "I hate the empire cus my brother was killed and I wanna be a sky pirate!" Its laughable .. 50 hours into the game nearly having beaten it and he still is no different. We learn nothing of him. All this while hes supposed to be the "main character" ... wtf? Oh and dont get me started with Penello, I still cant figure out why shes going along other than just for the hell of it. I think the game wants us to believe that too.
and then, theres the music. Oh god it makes me miss Nobuo Uematsu so bad. After having beaten it I dont think I could remember a single track from the game let alone like it. They are that forgettable.
