Little late, but here it is

Managed to get some actual playing in today (read: few hours into the game, maybe half way past the game's first 'cut scene'.)  Combat is fairly interesting, though I don't think I have a full grasp on it yet.  Effectively, you have this bar, use an ability, and the bar goes down.

My character, for the purpose of this overview, is a thaumaturge, essentially a battlemage (read: my kind of character).  They have some of the kick your standard mage has, but can afford to be near the front lines.  This also means I have three buttons to press in combat.  First is poison darts, second is...something, it's an area of effect that lower resistance to it's damage type, the third skill is the same as the second but of a different energy type, astral I think.  Using each skill will also put it on cool down for a few seconds, meaning you have to press your other buttons. 

So far, the best measure of a skills cool down that I've found is how long it would take your action gauge to full recharge after using that specific skill, and no others.  There are some draw backs to this.  It makes the game feel like one of the earlier console games.  This isn't necessarily a bad thing.  Yea, this is an MMO, but it's a Final Fantasy MMO.  It does feel a lot different from FFXI, but in a good way.  It seems more accessible, for one.

First synopsis.  If you are looking for an MMO, but aren't a hard core gamer, or can only afford so many hours of play time per day, then this may be the game for you.  Over all, it's a casual game, and I think a casual gamer would enjoy it.  The ATB-ish system for ability use means combat does have a bit of a slower pace than most traditional MMOs.

 I don't even think my character has hit level two yet in his class (thaumaturge) though he is 'physically' at level two.  I have no idea what this means.  I think, when completing a quest of killing monsters, you get XP for both your class and your...'physique'?  In a way, this encourages playing multiple classes.

Assuming your physical level has any sort of impact on your stats, lower level areas should be less trouble when revisiting them.  Alternatively, maybe your physical level determines almost all of your stats, this would also encourage trying other classes, as you could still progress through the world without having to go to the 'noobie' areas.

This marks the end of my first post of my playthrough, sorry I didn't have too much to say about the game, hopefully the next post will have more information.


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At least, that's what I typed up last night.  Apparently Blogger decided to save it as a draft instead of publishing it.

Or maybe I dreamt clicking 'publish' and just went to sleep.  Either way, sorry readers, again.