I went on a quick run through (and by quick, I mean about 20-30 minutes on either area) through the available sections. I talked to the various bots and NPCs to learn a bit about that game. ...but to be perfectly honest, I wanted to go straight to the meat of the game. So in I go into the Fortress!! The in game cinematic sequences are nothing short of stunning. Not a jaggy to be seen and it looks totally awesome in all it's 1080 splendor. The first thing I noticed about the characters is how incredible they looked. It was almost as if I were playing the long lost 3D remake of Chrono Trigger with Akira Toriyama's trademark style.

So right off the bat, I'm impressed with the look of the game. Next up was the voice acting which sounded about as good as your slightly above average afternoon anime series on Cartoon Network, that's about all I have to say for that. The next thing that truly grabbed my attention was the music. It brought back a flood of memories from the Golden Age of RPGs. The background for the music in the fortress instantly made me think of the Magicite Factory from Final Fantasy VI with a flare of style from Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy VII. Of course, you can certainly attribute that to the musical genius of Nobuo Uematsu.

When you fight Szabo, you are treated to a very Tenacious D-like song...truly worthy of an epic battle such as this! However, I hope it's not a common thing. If it is, I'm sure I can get over it as the singing is a bit distracting, in my little ol' humble opinion. Even so, it's funny. While we're on the subject of battles...

The battle music sounded great, though I think it borrows quite a bit from the days of Final Fantasy VII and VIII, but that is not at all a bad thing. The battle system is not completely different and many of you will slip right into it. While I don't have the game in front of me to accurately give you the details, my understanding is that the Shadows don't appear all of the time. Now these Shadows appear to help you dole out pain and destruction be it physical or magical. The battle menu is your basic menu, though some have certain sword abilities with magic attached to it and others either have black or white magic to choose from. No longer is the menu this tiny little thing you have scroll though. Now it displays almost everything at once over a transparent, greyish-black background.

The transition into battle is pretty nice, graphically. To get into a fight, you run the area and if there's an enemy that detects you, they will try to come after you. It's pretty easy to go around most of them without getting into a fight, but if you really want to do some damage, press a button to get a preemptive strike or attack from behind...if that's your style, savvy? Otherwise, if they snag you first, they get the first swing. If you run into several foes at once, you can tap one of the bumpers to open up a circle around you. At that point, you can select which enemies you want to take on. This might make things a little easier on you. I failed to mention that while you're in battle, you have the option of 'charging' your attacks. This will allow you to muster more power at the expense of moving your turn further down the line. ...but there are markers letting you know how far you will go down so you can control how long your attack will take to come to fruition...if that makes any sense.

the spell effects and the general look of everything is great, but I wish there was something like a Tech (Chrono series) or Summon (Final Fantasy) I could execute. Unfortunately, if there is, I haven't had the opportunity to use it. Please let me know if you have!!! Moving onto the forest area, it was very pretty. Same deal with battles and such, just a different locale. Oh, and before I forget, the movable camera is very nice. I will say this though, after playing Eternal Sonata and Blue Dragon...Eternal Sonata was overall prettier, but I have 100% confidence that both are going to be absolutely stellar. Mistwalker, I love you already and I cannot wait to support you with my hard earned cash. final thought, download it and see for yourself, it'll be fun!

Second final note. That little tiny voice that we heard about so much? Not annoying. They must have toned it down a little bit and it doesn't speak nearly as often as I expected it to. So there.