I just got this game a few days ago and I'm pretty hooked to hit. Sprites are nice looking and the combat is lots of fun especially when each of your allies are doing a special move so it's a flash of crazy effects and colors. My only complaint would be that if you try to go to a location you're not supposed to go to you'll get assaulted by enemies who'll destroy you in a second with some cheap enemies, and some dungeons can just be unforgiving even if you grind your level high. 1 part that I hated was when you had to get the herbs for Bowman. I went into that cave with these stats: Claude: lvl 14 Rena: lvl 13 Cecil: lvl 15 Ashton: lvl 18 I kept getting owned whenever I was ambushed by those 3 bunnies and completely decimated when I came across the group with the witch who can 2-shot you and has 3 wolf looking friends that run up to you and do a combo that will kill you instantly. I had to grind outside the cave until each of my characters were around lvl 30 and even then those 2 groups of enemies I mentioned were still trouble.
I did that quest around level 25. Personally I'm enjoying the game more than First Departure, a much better story, that actually is quite engaging. But everything else is exactly the same in terms of gameplay, the menu layout, all the skills you can learn, most the special attacks, it feels like a 1.5 rather than a 2.0. Seems kind of lazy from the developers. I personally had no problem getting from point A to point B, I've rarely had to grind so far, only time I grind was in the dungeon I'm suppose to be in. But I did gain some levels from doing the Ashton side quest.
