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Crappy game screens courtesy of my digital camera. I wish I could hook my PS2 to the computer so I could get better quality screens..
Anyways, I don't think this game will be received well by everyone. The foremost group I have in my mind are the fans which play the games largely for the romance of the characters. Matsuno is not known for writing such stories, as many of his games focus on war, and the like. If there is any romance in this game (due to the theme "Kiss Me Good-bye", he was forced to put a slight bit in I believe), it will be practically nothing compared to games such as FFVII and FFX/X-2.
As for the battle system, I love it. Gambits are awesome; it's probably the most customizable AI system I've played so far in terms of my gaming history. If the player wishes, Gambits can be turned off for each character and you can select which actions for them perform. But the game is not meant to be played this way, and so it detracts from the experience.
The music is brilliant, as expected from Sakimoto Hitoshi. His pieces suit the game very well, mainly because of their complexity and Sakimoto's flair for harmonic and chordal pieces, and also the fact that he has done music for past Matsuno games too. For all the Nobuo-crazed fans, they need to realize that there are other extremely talented composers out there too. Uematsu isn't the only one. Hamauzu, Shimomura, Mitsuda, Sakimoto, Kondo; I could go on forever especially if I wanted to include arrangers and synth operators. :D
Anyone who says Vaan is fruity-looking, needs to look past appearances. I did not find him annoying at all, and I'm about 30+ hours into the game. If anything, I think Tidus is more of a whiner compared to Vaan. Vaan is as boyish and male as one can get. He's merely a character with many ambitions: to be a sky pirate, to own an air ship of his own, and to be free. I don't see how people can confuse a character's sense of ambition and goals for wankiness (for lack of a better word).
[ will edit and add more later ]
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