Believe it or not, but this is my first Final Fantasy game. Despite that, I decided that I wanted to review it.

+ Fairly long, took me about 60 hours to beat it once, but then again I play like a tortoise.
+ Game looks great, especially Class Zero and a couple of other NPC's. Same goes for certain maps as well.
+ Story is engaging enough if you're into that.
+ A likable main cast that are well fleshed out. They're fairly cliché, but they also gets the job done. In this point I also want to include that there are a lot of playable characters, each with their own set of abilities and playstyle. You will most certainly find a favorite amongst them, and one of the greatest parts of the game for me was experimenting with all of them to figure out which one suited me the best.
+ Good replayability, if you want to experience everything you will have to play it through at least twice, and with several difficulty levels and the amount of characters available this will not be boring.
+ Combat was a bit difficult for me to get into at the beginning, but once I got the hang of it I was treated to one of the best combat systems I've experienced in recent years.
+ Voice acting is nice, although I thoroughly despised the English voices. The Japanese voices are amazing however.
+ No major difficulty spikes as you're encouraged to explore. If you find yourself underleveled, there is always the arena and special training.
+ Skill improvement for both abilities and magic is pretty fun, since you won't be able to unlock everything in a single playthrough most of the time.
+ Fun conversations/cutscenes and quests around the main hub.
+ Death system works great, and you're encouraged to try to keep everyone alive in order to get as high a rating as possible on missions.
+ Super speed for when you want to move from one place to another quickly.
+ In my opinion, a great ending. (reminded me of Mass Effect though...)

- A controller is a must if you are going to play this. Don't get me started on how poorly optimized mouse and keyboard is for this game.
- Textures for everything but Class Zero is generally pretty bad. Though since this is a remastered PSP game that is fairly forgivable. If you're not the type of person that cares much about graphics (like me), you will likely not mind the occasional Tomb Raider III type of graphics.
- Not very noob friendly, while it does explain all the major aspects of the game, some things are left out.
- The antagonists are not very memorable, and neither is the plot as a whole.
- While you're given the freedom to explore freely, there is time limit on how much you can do at once. Later on this was reversed and I was given more freedom than the US but not enough stuff to do.
- Side quests, while fun, are not as many as I had hoped for. Especially when you visit minor towns there are often only one quest to do in each, and you probably won't need to return to that town ever again.

All in all, I can definitely recommend this game. In the beginning I was not sure whether or not I wanted to continue playing it, but I'm glad I did. This has been all I've been playing for some time now and I don't want to put it down anytime soon. If you got the money to spare, or even better, if it's on sale, don't think twice about picking it up!

that is, if you have a controller

[h1]Great game with minor issues // Problems with keyboard and mouse[/h1] Believe it or not, but this is my first Final Fantasy game. Despite that, I decided that I wanted to review it. + Fairly long, took me about 60 hours to beat it once, but then again I play like a tortoise. + Game looks great, especially Class Zero and a couple of other NPC's. Same goes for certain maps as well. + Story is engaging enough if you're into that. + A likable main cast that are well fleshed out. They're fairly cliché, but they also gets the job done. In this point I also want to include that there are a lot of playable characters, each with their own set of abilities and playstyle. You will most certainly find a favorite amongst them, and one of the greatest parts of the game for me was experimenting with all of them to figure out which one suited me the best. + Good replayability, if you want to experience everything you will have to play it through at least twice, and with several difficulty levels and the amount of characters available this will not be boring. + Combat was a bit difficult for me to get into at the beginning, but once I got the hang of it I was treated to one of the best combat systems I've experienced in recent years. + Voice acting is nice, although I thoroughly despised the English voices. The Japanese voices are amazing however. + No major difficulty spikes as you're encouraged to explore. If you find yourself underleveled, there is always the arena and special training. + Skill improvement for both abilities and magic is pretty fun, since you won't be able to unlock everything in a single playthrough most of the time. + Fun conversations/cutscenes and quests around the main hub. + Death system works great, and you're encouraged to try to keep everyone alive in order to get as high a rating as possible on missions. + Super speed for when you want to move from one place to another quickly. + In my opinion, a great ending. (reminded me of Mass Effect though...) - A controller is a must if you are going to play this. Don't get me started on how poorly optimized mouse and keyboard is for this game. - Textures for everything but Class Zero is generally pretty bad. Though since this is a remastered PSP game that is fairly forgivable. If you're not the type of person that cares much about graphics (like me), you will likely not mind the occasional Tomb Raider III type of graphics. - Not very noob friendly, while it does explain all the major aspects of the game, some things are left out. - The antagonists are not very memorable, and neither is the plot as a whole. - While you're given the freedom to explore freely, there is time limit on how much you can do at once. Later on this was reversed and I was given more freedom than the US but not enough stuff to do. - Side quests, while fun, are not as many as I had hoped for. Especially when you visit minor towns there are often only one quest to do in each, and you probably won't need to return to that town ever again. All in all, I can definitely recommend this game. In the beginning I was not sure whether or not I wanted to continue playing it, but I'm glad I did. This has been all I've been playing for some time now and I don't want to put it down anytime soon. If you got the money to spare, or even better, if it's on sale, don't think twice about picking it up! [strike]that is, if you have a controller[/strike]