Once you get the full 8 party members there are a lot of cool PAs to see. There definitely should've been an indicator that gives you the number of PAs available in the current town. You could beat the entire game without knowing that you have to repeatedly enter the same town to witness multiple PAs you unknowingly have stocked. The game never tells you how many PAs you have stocked up, or where they take place. When you enter town in "PA mode" there can only ever be one PA active, meaning you have to scour the town to find who isn't where they usually are, and then watch the ensuing scene. Though the payoff from the events is good, the execution of the system leaves much to be desired. These events are the standout element of the game, and definitely contain some of the game's funniest content. These events are the "Private Actions" and they are opportunities to learn more about your party member's motivations, sense of humor, romantic inclinations, etc. When they can't be found at that spot, they can be found elsewhere in the town, usually interacting with an NPC, another party member, or the environment. Each party member has their own "spot" that they can be found at, specific to each character in each town. You then scour the town, looking for your party members. You enter towns and have your party separate and go to relax on their own, leaving you with just the MC. Case in point, the Private Action system. Getting a party of what you want playing the first time 100% requires a guide There are interesting non-combat systems, but they are some combination of: hidden, require multiple playthroughs, or will not be understood without reading a guide (all Tri-Ace classics). Some general things I liked:+All the shops have names and I think the NPC writing/world building is above-average +Item creation and the non-combat skills have great depth+Aside from some weirdness with Ilia's voice, I'd say most of the party members' voice work is above average. +There's a big pool of recruitable characters and you can't have them all in one playthrough, so there's good replay value And some more minuses:-The bosses in the first 3/4ths of the game are QUITE generic and have little narrative impact over being an obstacle-NPC voicing ranges from ok to not great -Character recruitment is a crapshoot. The ones that do alter gameplay are superfluous. Few of the combat skills alleviate this either, and really just add a bunch of proc effects. So combat boils down to using your 1 or 2 AoE specials on normal encounters, and the ones with the least endlag/most hits to stunlock bosses. Most characters don't really have many specials without a ton of endlag, and generally the higher level or steps it takes to unlock a special, the laggier it is. Once you can meet the stat check you just apply the same optimal strategy as the rest of the game. Sure, there are bonus bosses for a "real challenge" but those just require preparation. You can try playing a spellcaster character if you want, but the damage doesn't scale well compared to martial characters, and the game COMPLETELY pasues for every single spell. Even if you don't know how to unlock the most abusable specials, stunlocking enemies is trivial. I encountered many of Y-axis issues, with my character running around aimlessly trying to find a place to attack while next to an enemy. The battles being 3D instead of 2D doesn't add a great deal. The inability to equip more specials, input block, or alter your 3-hit normal attack makes the combat extremely repetitive and auto-piloty. Optimal combat involves stun-locking enemies with your basic 3-hit combo into one of your 2 (lol) equipped specials in battle. The unmodded game lacking difficulty settings does not help this, but the combat has problems that wouldn't be solved but adding more health and damage to enemies. 60% PlayStation PortableThe big elephant in the room for this game is the combat: it's far too easy, and generally unengaging.
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