More Impressions-
I\'ve managed to put a couple more hours on the game and I\'m still indifferent to it.
The quality is still there...this is not a game that pulls you in for the first hour or two, then drags you through the rest. The story has kept interesting, the characters engaging, and the action has been fun.
Up to this point, I have run into Wakka, Tidus, Yuffie, Squall, Aerith, Donald Duck, Daisy Duck, Minnie Mouse, Pluto, Goofy, Jimney Cricket, Fairy Godmother, Merlin, Queen of Hearts, Alice, and Mog. (POSSIBLE SPOILER!!!!!!!-----. I\'ve also heard and somewhat seen (it was dark), Ursala, Hades, Malefecint, among a few other badies I didn\'t recognize.) The reason I point that out is because the characters voices I did recognize were done perfectly. (END SPOILER)
Donald Duck and Goofy have recently joined my party, I\'m not complaining. The number of enemies has increased significantly, as the difficulty continues to climb also. Some of the shadow enemies are just to strong...the reason I\'m complaining about that is it seems I\'m always reviving Donald and he runs out of MP all to often leaving him with his staff as a physical weapon...doesn\'t harm much. Yes, there are other weapons available for purchase but the game is very tight with money.
Let me hint a little on gameplay too since I\'ve gotten a better feel for it. You start the game and get to choose your weapon...you have a choice between a blade, sheild, or staff. You must also answer a few questions that I\'m assuming puts you on a specific path in the game. Either way...I choose the blade as it seemed the most appropriate. With that, you can obviously swing it around...so far I\'ve seen a few different moves. He has a three hit combo...bad thing is that he stalls for about half a second afterwards leaving you wide open for a hit in a room full of shadows (bad guys). I know what you\'re saying...so just hit them two times. Most of all the shadows I\'ve encountered take 3 hits to defeat, and seeing as how the screen is usually swarmed, you\'ll be swinging away as fast as possible. You do have a lock on button (R1) that works out very well and you\'ll be better off to use it rather than manually aim.
I\'ve also recently acquired magic, fire and ice. Since the game doesn\'t allow you to pause and choose what you want to do, the game makes it pretty easy to act on the fly. Once you learn a new ability, you can assign it to a button. By holding down L1, you have access to that assigned button. The other way is to scroll down the menu with the right analog, choose the element, then fire away. The latter process is more difficult when in heated battle so you\'ll want to train yourself to use the assigned buttons ASAP. Of course, this is assuming you want to waste your time with magic. I\'ve found it to be pretty ineffective in battle so far...but my elements are only at level 1. That and you run out of MP VERY QUICKLY! Ether is a rare delicacy so far, so I\'ve tried to suspend my use of magic for the time being.
I\'ve also done my first travel in the Gummi Ship. It\'s the way you fly between the various worlds. I can say that the game could have done well not to include this. It\'s pointless as far as I can tell and from the look of it, was last minute addition at an attempt to vary the gameplay. You are in a tiny ship on what seems like an tiny track. Your movement is extremely limited which can cause problems when trying to dodge the debris.
Last thing...the camera. It\'s still giving me problems, jumping is more than ever a pain in the ass. In addition to that, it seems when the their is alot of action on screen...and yes, it gets very hectic at time....instead of panning away or above the action so you can get a better look, it goes right into the thick of it making it extremely difficult to see what you\'re going for and ulitimately making the task of fighting a dreadful event.
After reading that you probably think I\'m bordering on hating the game...wrong. I\'m still very interested, charmed, and can\'t wait to continue. However, I feel the above problems I mentioned could have been avoided very easily if Square had put a little more effort into it.
