Visuals - This game looks great, especially for a JRPG. The environments are very detailed and look great, the actual cut scenes are what you would expect of Square, great! There was one point I think where there were tons of mobs running around on the screen and I had the camera kinda panned out in a lush forest and the game chugged a tiny bit, but that's really the only issue so far.
Gameplay - Controls are good. I had to "invert" the camera controls because by default it controls like what I would normally call inverted, this could likely be due to me playing so many damn FPS games over the past few years and being used to their controls. The battle system in this game has a ton of depth to it and is very fun.
It is similar to the last games if you have played them with a few tweaks and additions, but if you haven't played the previous games: it is a action RPG so you run around freely, can quickly switch between characters, can chain combos together with the other characters, perform crazy special attacks, try to build up combos for bonuses, and more. The one new feature is the "blindside" feature, which allows you to turn the tables on enemies, I will explain it the best I can
You can tap the b button as a enemy is about to attack you, and you will slip behind them and get a chance to do major damage (all crits), many enemies can counter a blindside, so for these guys you need to wait until RIGHT before they are about to attack before you blindside. You can also use the blindside if you are a long distance away from the enemy, and it will jump you close to the enemy, surprising them. You can also perform counter attacks to blindsides, and you can counter a counter (rofl).
There is so much more that I haven't got to as well. This game in some aspects is very similar to some of the MMO's, there are resource nodes that spawn and respawn in various points. You can raise up skills in things like harvesting, smithing, mining, etc and you can use the materials you make to make items and upgrades for weapons, etc.
There are also battle trophies (100 for each character) that you get for pulling off various feats in battle, and they add a ton of fun to the game.
You can really customize how the party members you aren't controlling act in battle too, which is awesome. There are three different "class" type things, you can choose which of these each member is (and can change it at any time). Each of these has it's own benefits like raising attack or defense, plus it's own line of special moves. On top of this you choose whether the player will be aggressive, passive, conserve MP, etc.
Sound - Sound, as far as the music goes is good. The battle music is pretty typical of a JRPG, but it hasn't gotten on my nerves yet and I've read that it switches up so hopefully that doesn't happen. The voice acting isn't great, but it's not terrible. The voices are fine, but what I think is the problem I have with it is the typical RPG voice acting issue; a lot of it is way overdone and too dramatic and makes it sound corny. This isn't a deal breaker for me, but could get annoying because from what I've read, some of the cutscenes in this game last 30+ minutes, yes, I said 30 minutes.
Overall - It's too early for me to say for sure, but so far I love this game. The depth, awesome graphics and good controls had me hooked pretty much right away. If things don't take a turn for the worse, I would give this game 9/10 for sure.
