Update Time: I am currently in Chapter 11 I think? I'm polishing off the Training Graveyard.

Pros:
  • Sector 6/Wall Market was a blast. Even though it has a bunch of extra stuff to do, it never felt quite as padded as other sections. Probably helped by the fact it's the only town part of Midgar you spend any significant amount of time in.
  • While the scenario concerning getting the dresses and into Corneo's mansion is changed significantly, the new stuff is just as amusing and fun as the old one.
  • I bombed the first dance off with Andrea despite being pretty good with Rhythm games because I was laughing too much. I got a really good score when I reloaded my save and tried again.
  • The new characters in this section were all amusing. I wonder if Chocobo Sam is going to turn out to be related to Chocobo Bill and his crew later on.
  • For those wondering, I wound up getting all three classic outfits for the team instead of the new ones, simply cause I wanted to see these outfits in high-def.
  • I was very happy they kept the amusing bodybuilder characters. I figured they were going to be axed but was happy to see them return, simply toned down so they weren't as offensive.
  • The Battle Arena was amusing. The Hell House was an amusing surprise, though I found the fight more annoying than fun.
  • Weird that the Fat Chocobo is now a separate summon, but it was fun getting them regardless.
  • I'm happy the whole Don Corneo scene was largely untouched, though I do wish they kept the joke where Cloud says Barret is his boyfriend.
  • The three recurring bandits are amusing.
  • I find it amusing that the All Materia is kind of a superflous materia in the original, but here, the Magnify materia is actually pretty useful.
  • Glad the Hardedge is still a pretty badass weapon. Like the new redesign as well. Speaking of, Aerith's Mythril Scepter is also just as broken as it was in the original.
  • Happy I finally discovered how you unlock new Limit Breaks.
  • While their roles were largely removed, I was happy to see some of the familiar NPCs of Wall Market are still here like the Materia Shop owner, the crazy guys running the weapon shop, and the Ramen chef.
  • I do appreciate the fact the game is trying more to establish a real relationship between Aerith and Tifa that doesn't center on fighting for Cloud's affection.


Cons:
  • Man, what is up with this game dragging dungeons out indefinitely? I mean do we really need to turn them into full chapter sequences? I never thought I would get out of the sewers, and to have it segue into the long ass Train Graveyard sequence has been a drag on the game's story pacing. I'm already dreading the plate battle, cause I imagine it's going to take five times as long as the original.
  • I am really disappointed in the Steal materia. Not only does it feel like it has an abysmal success rate, but since all the good stuff is now relegated to hidden chests in dungeons or quest rewards, it's not like enemies have anything worth stealing.
  • Speaking of bad materia, Independent Materia really loses a lot of it's luster in this game. I'm sure it's going to be super useful in hard mode where the extra HP/MP or stat gains will come in handy, but so far they've all been collecting dust in my inventory. Partly cause I just don't have enough slots to spare for them, and largely because the weapon upgrade mechanics make them moot since several of the upgrades raise your stats.
  • Combat has been a real mixed bag for me. On the one hand, I feel that for cannon fodder enemies, it has reached a real good balance of the fights being tough enough to warrant using skills and magic to make it go smoother, but the fights are still fast and frantic enough to not overstay their welcome. I can't say the same with boss fights though. These just drag on forever and I'm getting annoyed how often I Stagger a boss only for them to activate a cutscene to switch their mode and change the stagger gauge back to zero, forcing me to start over. Staggering really does just make boss fights drag on in this game. Not helping things is the lazy party A.I. that is too passive for their own good. It's been really annoying getting into a few fights where things would go smoother if both Aerith AND Tifa were actually being played to their full potential instead of only one working well cause I'm controlling them. This game needs an online co-op mode or something. I get that the design of the game is that it wants the player to consistently switch between party members in order to mimic the originals ATB system, but the action based combat makes it so there is often too much going on in battle to effectively use everyone proficiently. Not helped that the ATB bar only fills quickly when the player is actually controlling things, so too often I would love to activate one of Tifa or Aerith's special abilities that boost their basic skills but since they only have a single ATB bar filled and because the boss pulled off a devastating blow my non-controlled party stood there and blocked with their faces, I have to waste the turn on healing/reviving instead. I'm grateful I can control the whole party directly, so at least I can avoid the FFXIII issue of half my battle strategy was working around the faulty A.I. but I don't think it's quite where it needs to be yet. I'm hoping the sequel episodes will tinker around here a bit and fix this issue.
  • This is largely going to come down to how Episode 2 handles things, but I also feel the game may have shot itself in the foot by letting power creep come into the gameplay. I feel like they should have capped materia growth like your levels so you have something to look forward to in the sequels, cause I'm not sure how fun it's going to be to have to either relearn all these skills or watch as the games add more suffixes to elemental materia to give them higher ranks. They should have handled this like the .hack//: games did.