this game starts out very strong, and continues for awhile, falls off a bit in the last third or so, falls off even moreso near the end, but the very end saves it all and made me forget about it for a moment. one of the things i consistently didn't like about this game were the boss fights - they just wouldn't stagger ever, dealt like 1/3 of my hp every hit while i'm playing on normal, and maybe this is my fault but every time they would do one of their mystic artes i couldn't for the life of me figure out how to stop it despite the characters' dialog alluding to a way to stop it. i also didn't like the cp system, think it needs a rework, and the xp gain seemed very weird. i played on hard (minus boss fights) for like half the game and barely avoided encounters, even went out of my way for encounters a few areas, but nearing the end i seemed pretty far behind on levels. maybe i just avoided more encounters than i thought lol
alphen and shionne are fucking awesome though and i am very happy with my collector's edition purchase :)