This game is definitely a present for all the die-hard fans of the series!
Ok, so this game is indeed one of the finer games on the PSP, and with the slew of unlockables, story, different arcade modes, and multi-player, it's a game that one could happily spend hours upon hours playing.
The battle system is a little odd, as it's not a typical fighter. More of a action game, with fighting and RPG elements tied all together very nicely. It takes a few minutes to understand how everything works together in battle, but once you get the hang of it, you just keep getting better and better, and the battles become more and more enjoyable.
The story mode, admittedly, is actually kind of weak, for a Final Fantasy title (at least, every Final Fantasy before IX had a good story). I enjoy the story, personally, but it's not full of surprises, or played out in the greatest fashion. It's decent, but it could have been so much better. That, and the voice acting for some characters is a bit sad. It's almost embarrassing to listen to sometimes. But there are quite a few characters whose American voice overs were done perfectly (Sephiroth and Kefka come to mind).
The customization of your characters is un-effing-believable. None of the equipment you use will change your character's appearance, but the amount of weapons, accessories, equipment, summons and abilities you can learn, gain, create and buy are very nearly endless. Especially with the multi-player items you get just from battling. In that same field, there's a calendar system in the game that will give you rewards based on what day you play. By unlocking more bonuses through the catalog in the game, you can make these days occur more often, and yield much greater rewards.
The multi-player is 50/50, in my opinion. Yes, it's very, very nice, it works really well, and the rewards can be unique, but it's only Ad-hoc. There's no online multi-player, which is really disappointing. While my cousin and I played, we experienced a bit of lag, but it was hardly noticeable at all. Very slight, and it didn't ruin the battle, or the experience. It's quite a bit of fun, so if you have or get this game, find someone else who does too. The ability to handicap the level so it's an even match makes it much nicer as well, so that you can fight someone brand new to the game, without them having to spend hours leveling up first.
Arcade mode was a unique addition to the American version, and while it's a lot of fun, it's straight forward, with pre-set characters. No customization here. So, it gets old pretty quickly. However, since you initially only have access to the heroes (you have to unlock the villains via the catalog), this is a good place to go to get some practice with all the characters, as all 20 of the main characters are available to play right off the bat in Arcade mode.
Unlockables in this game seem endless. When you unlock new characters or items, more appear to unlock. As you progress through the game, you get random items and rewards, and more items appear for you to unlock through the catalog. The museum allows you to see all sorts of Final Fantasy info on characters, and, once you unlock it, the replay editor is here, allowing you to go back over battles you've fought and saved the replay for, and allows you to edit them, save them to AVI, and import them to your computer.
Over all, this game is an amazing package, and the only things that really hold it back from perfection are a few poor choices.Read full review
