There is something I’ve noticed while reviewing these types of games, Japan and North America seem to receive the games a lot earlier than the UK. It’s not a couple of weeks either; it has taken roughly around 8 months to get a PAL release of this title. That is based on the Japan release date back in July last year!

The game itself has received favourable reviews in the US, thus needless to say a lot of RPG fans have been looking forward to getting their hands on it. It wouldn’t really surprise me, if a few of them had already imported the title in. You know the way it is, if you want to play a game, anything more than 1 month is too long to resist temptation.

It’s been a hectic few weeks for me, and I haven’t really had as much time to play on games as I would have liked. I mean, I’ve not even purchased the new Pro Evolution Soccer on the Wii yet. As you can tell, it’s been a struggle but I did find time to put a fair few hours into this title. When I started playing this, my body clock was out of power and my eyes wanted to close. With the help of a few matchsticks and number 11 on the volume control though, I perked up. I’m sure a lot of you will realise, when you are tired and playing games, you want to be pro-active. It helps you to keep concentrated and forget about your tiredness. With my luck the way it was, I soon enough realised that this game was pretty cut scene heavy. Back to the present, it’s not all bad, let me explain. The cut scenes are very well worked, graphically and in terms of voice acting. In fact, if I wasn’t so tired at the time I would have thoroughly enjoyed them. I know, I know, I’m giving a compliment to an RPG, what’s wrong with me?

Once the cut scenes are over, you are thrown into the game and your heart will sink a little. If only the game could maintain the same style of the cut scenes, in the actual game, it would be amazing. Sadly, they didn’t and the gap between the two is large and quite disheartening. I will point out, if you like a game to guide you through the ropes then you won’t enjoy this too much. When I said you are thrown in, I was talking literally. There are no tutorials, and you are left to your own accord on how to progress through the game. That’s not to say that the game itself isn’t linear, but it’s something that suits the game. After around an hour, you will have got the basics mastered. Unlike most RPGs, you won’t just be exploring and battling the same monsters every time. The game has introduced, what can only be classed as a character progression feature. It may not make much sense, but I’ll explain. As you play through the game, as a teenager in a high school. You will attend your classes, as any good teenager would do. As you play through the classes, you will acquire certain attributes for your character. These categories range from ‘Academics’ to ‘Charm’. These can affect all types of things during your time playing the game, so they’re not just for decoration.

Now some of you may already know, but I have never really enjoyed playing through RPGs. I am very happy to announce that this is one of the titles that has changed my opinion. Sure it doesn’t do much different to the other titles out there, but what it does do, it does superbly!

Overall, I have no problems in recommending this game to anyone. Some people won’t enjoy it, but surprisingly it has been a pleasure to play.