Moving slowly through this, just reached -5 A.F.

The opening is a little longer than I was expecting, but at least setting up stuff. I can't get over how much Noel looks like Squall's kid brother. I also feel like he should be voiced by Richard Cox. The ship tease between the two leads is a bit weird too. Especially since Serah is being very coy about talking about Snow. I'm still very early in the plot, but it was interesting to see NORA get some actual character development since OG thought that these four bumbling around and following Snow was enough.

The search for Artefacts is giving me 'Nam flashbacks to DQVII and looking for Tablet Shards by wandering over all of creation to find them. The CP lock on Accessories is an interesting idea, and I'm guessing it might play into crafting where I can make the same items but at lower CP costs, but we'll see. I am worried that I'm screwing myself a bit with the Crystarium, since it seems ability slots are shared, and so I have to choose which Paradigm Role to make better. I still don't like the skill ranking nonsense, but seeing how I don't have to farm weapon materials and the item drop bonus is very generous, it feels less like a nuisance outside of flubbing a boss battle here and there.

I am still on the fence about the new random encounter mechanic. It's not super annoying yet, but I must say that Serah has the most awkward swing animation for getting preemptive strikes.

New Bonhum honestly feels like something out of Spira. I remember walking around and feeling like I was in some offshoot village near Kiltia or Beseid. I believe its the same team overall (at least the X-2 team I imagine) but amusing none the less and again, showing that Toriyama has particular tastes in his design works. I really don't care for Serah's character design in this game. I think it's the fact she looks twelve and is wearing an outfit that wouldn't look out of place in a conservative lingerie magazine. Hell, even though Noel is older than Squall, I can't help but feel like the dude is fifteen or sixteen for some reason.

So far this meme is turning out to be really true so far...
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