I found this relatively unknown game a few months ago managed to finally finish it this month. As soon as I popped in the disc I knew something good was going to happen when I saw an anime intro and, much to my surprise, cel-shaded graphics. You know, like Jet Grind Radio.

The battles are not something that one would expect if you've been trained on final fantasy titles. They are very linear and turns are decided simply by who has a higher speed statistic. In addition, nearly every battle goes the same way in the beginning: cast Valiant on somebody, keep shooting, and right before the end have Gallows heal everybody. In addition, EVERY battle is the same as soon as you get to about 3/4 through the game. Equip Finest Arts on somebody, get rid of their bullets and kill the monster in one hit. Yeah, when the final boss has 10,000 health and you have an attack that does 55,000 damage it makes the game just a little easy.

And that's pretty much where the problem lies. Use Finest Arts and win an easy battle or don't use it and fight a long, difficult and in the end, hopeless battle against monsters. They are far too difficult if you don't use it (and you don't really gain much power as you level) and way too easy if you do use it. This makes all of the battles in the beginning nicely balanced but in the end they are completely one-sided because hey, who wants to ensure their defeat?

The back of the box says something along the lines of "Exciting battles where you move around". Yeah, you move around plenty but in the end the battle system is almost a carbon copy of Earthbound's. When everything moves around it manages to accomplish nothing except annoy you to no ends.