The dialogue and story is much more interesting to listen to. The humor funny instead of childish. No retarded romances to deal with (yet).
Outstanding battle system. Similar to Final Fantasy but you can go into free run so you can go anywhere during an encounter. It's live action but you can easily stop the action by hitting your menu or buttons to evaluate the enemy.
Excellent NPC party support with options to link to a particular party member for support and combos and an extensive strategy NPC actions flow chart with plenty of options to tailor how you want the rest of your party to act in battle.
You can switch your linked party member on the fly. The monster evaluation pop up even sometimes gives suggestions on which party member would be your best linked support.
Seven hours into the game I was still getting tutorial pop ups during battles, etc, so as with many of these types of games, don't expect to know everything at once.
The skill "hexagon/trees" for advancement is extensive but after looking them over, I went with "auto advance" and just paid attention to the new skills and "artes" I received and adjusted/inserted them into my battle plans. On a second play through I'm sure you could do better focusing on what you want.
Expect very similar potions/foods, music, experience/leveling to Final Fantasy.
The world is pretty and diverse. Bright colors.
Most of the game and all of the main character's are voiced. Minor NPCs that give a line or two about a city or something aren't. Quest givers are voiced. Voice acting is all well done.
Menus and battle system are very well done. It may take a little to get comfortable with the battle system but you can put your NPCs on auto and yourself on semi auto or manual attacks.
There is an easy to use defensive shield stance which works well. Live fights are great. You don't just sit there and wait for your turn in the sequence, you can up your agility (movement) to get behind mobs to increase your damage/crit chance, etc. At the same time it's easy to pause the action if needed. Great balance in this area.
Style is a on the anime side but not extreme, more of a teen look than child look.
I was wondering why I was beating the crap out of everything in the beginning of the game but it turns out there's an extended "start with all of your powers and then lose them" type sequence in the beginning...like an hour long.
You can also choose to play as Milla (the goddess) or Jude (smart teenage kid doctor). The main story is the same while about 10% of the interlude scenes are unique to the specific character you choose. You can switch between players in your party so I don't think it matters much. I chose Milla. She has the four spirits that can be summoned but you can switch freely between characters and also switch team links on the fly as well in battles.
Team links are pretty cool as you can set your linked NPC to be the aggressor, healer, etc and they will also taunt so you can backstab, etc. The NPC decision tree and combos you can setup are extensive.
Easy saving, lots of save points and you have one quick save slot you can use any time.
If you enjoyed the Final Fantasy games like FFX and FFXII, then this is a no brainer for you to get. Remove the goofyness, add a little more interesting story (although don't expect much) and less drama, much less crazy cut scenes while keeping interesting interludes for story development, keep the same quality of in-game music, add in the best battle system I've used in a JRPG in a long long time, some sensible equipment/items/food leveling that's not tedious, very good English voice acting (for once) and you've got Tales of Xillia.
