Ok so it is official... I will totally say this game kicks ass.... Yea it has its flaws.... Yes it took a full week of play-time for to get to the "kick ass" point... but if you meander your way (painfully at times...) through the first long leg of this game, you'll be pleasantly surprised by a real gem of an SRPG here..
The coolest pro of this title for me is the way they keep the narrative (which is waaaay improved over Zero BTW) in tact whilst allowing you to play in a VERY non-linear way. In fact, dare I say, I've never quite felt such a sense of open-world, non-linearity in an SRPG of this nature before.
The cons really held this game back for the first 8-12 hours for me though, which is a shame because I can see alot of people putting it down and never giving it so much as another glance throughout its meager beginnings..... And to be completely honest, I still don't dig the skill system (too much random-ness in developing effective configurations of characters skills for the coming battles for my taste..... you'll find yourself thinking you've got a solid set-up for one battle and then completely dwarfed in the next without reworking things.... which requires a wee bit too much menu surfing IMO)...
But other than those two (albeit major) problems, this game is a HUGE step up for Idea Factory if you ask me.... I'll post more as I make my way through this title, but that is my final two cents on the first weeks worth of getting aquainted with this one.