So I've been playing this a little, and I have to say, it's pretty great. The slowdown some have talked about doesn't seem too jarring to me, and I almost wonder if it was intentional. I mean, it happens even when you do certain actions that have no real effect attached to them whatsoever. I can't be sure of that, but I can't come up with any other reasonable explanation.
Anyway, the new cutscenes are fucking gorgeous. Amazing even. I love them. The rest of the graphics don't hold up so well when you compare them to more modern stuff (the sprites are still pretty great, but the landscapes are beginning to really look drab), but everything looks nice on the PSP screen. Sound is fine, except for the parts that... well, aren't. I've never heard a worse imitation of wind in my entire life. Was it like that on PSx as well? I can't remember. But holy crap it's bad, heh.
That said, the new translation is indeed beautiful. I did count one error where somebody said "don't assume to tell me" and they meant "don't presume to tell me", but I'm hoping that was just a fluke. Thus far, it appears to emulate the tones of
Final Fantasy XII and
Vagrant Story very well. Voice acting in the new scenes seems pretty darn good, too.
All in all, I'd say this one is a winner. The press seems to agree.
Gamespy has a nice review.
What's funny, though, is that for all this... I still much prefer
Jeanne d'Arc. Having been at that one for so long, the switch is kind of jarring.
Jeanne is just a much better game in a lot of ways, suffering far less from the kinds of limitations that FFT does. And it doesn't hurt that it looks about a thousand times better (the muted tones of FFT are nowhere to be found in
Jeanne's vibrant palette).
But yeah, it seems like it's well worth picking up for anyone interested. I really don't have any complaints other than the camera, which sucks as much now as it ever did. Wish they'd freed that up a little more. But yeah, it seems like all the new stuff is pretty top notch, so give it a try if you can.
