Update Time, finished Side quest hell and I'm now heading to the Shin-Ra building.

Pros:
  • I've decided I really do like the Battle Arena in this game. It adds enough nuance to be interesting, offers great prizes, and is short enough not to feel like a slog unlike Star Ocean. Not having to farm GP and simply using standard Gil to enter is also a blessing.
  • I will also give the game mad props for making each character feel distinct, made the arena more interesting and reminded me of Xenoblade in a good way.
  • After Aulayna's advice, I've come around to the Provoke materia.
  • I finally managed to take down Leviathan, who has been one of the tougher fights in this game.
  • I had a sneaking suspicion I was going to have to fight Abzu again, so I'm glad I was right.
  • The Music quest was amusing.
  • The Behemoth fight was interesting and I like the small shout out to Type-0.
  • I've apparently gained 3 out 4 Enemy Skills I can obtain in this game. I'm aware the final one is locked away in Hard mode. Shame Missile isn't one of them...
  • I've obtained an AP Up materia.


Cons:
  • smurf Jules and his pain in the ass exercise mini-games. The first one wasn't too bad, but the new one with Tifa is a pain with the funky direction of the buttons.
  • I feel this section has pretty much shown me that I really feel nothing for most of the new NPCs. They're just quest dispensing machines as far as I'm concerned except for Madam M and Andrea. I remember when all the characters from Sector 7 appeared and Barret and Tifa were getting all happy and I was like Cloud thinking "who the smurf were these people again?"
  • I'm a little surprised that Barret's second limit break was Catastrophe. Bad enough Cloud's second one was a mini-Omnislash, but whatever. I know the serial escalation is coming.
  • I find it amusing I've probably been killed more often by being careless against normal enemy's with annoying status magic or multi-hit attacks than I ever had with a boss. I didn't realize this until I fought Leviathan and watched it bulldoze my party with Tidal Wave. I don't think I've ever had a boss fight yet in this game that made me have to really pay attention to what the boss was trying to do.
  • I'm kind of disappointed with the Enemy Skill materia in this game. I mean it was OP as hell in the original, but the spell selection in this one is pretty terrible.
  • I really hope the pacing improves in this game. I feel these sidequest lulls in the plot are detrimental to the flow of the game. I was pretty excited to head to the Shinra Building, but now I'm feeling less excited since I killed an entire evening doing quests instead. It's really been the greatest criticism of the game's design for me.