Hmm, I'm on Chapter 11 now, and here's some of my impressions of the game so far.
1.) The linearity doesn't bother me as much as I thought it would. Maybe because I find the story to be pretty engaging. In fact, I was a little thrown off by the big expansive map in Chapter 11 after getting so used to the linearity. Now it feels like FF12.
2.) It really is too bad they don't have towns in this game. I think the world of Cocoon could be so much more fleshed out if they let us explore the towns. The one dream city, I forgot the name, it totally reminded me the Gold Saucer in FF7.
3.) I absolutely HATE the weapon / accessory level up thing. It basically takes the fun out of getting any new weapons, since the new weapons are crappier than my upgraded second weapon of the game. And after putting so much resources into upgrading, it'd be a waste to leave it by the wayside and start on another weapon. Thus, all the accumulated weapons are basically wasted.
4.) I do like the fact that every character gets crystal points even if you're not using them. One of my pet peeves with JRPGS are when idle characters don't get experience when you don't use them, and then when you have to use that character for a story driven part later on, they're so weak that you have to have your party protect the character all the time.
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