At it's core, it's a Gauntlet-style "walk around the map and totally kick the ass of things with your buddies" game, but with a Final Fantasy sensibility (including, naturally, Moogles) and a gorgeous visual design. But it has some interesting innovations:

• The Bucket. Someone's gotta carry the bucket. If you get too far from the bucket, you'll take damage. It's a simple yet compelling reason as to why you have to stay together on the same damn screen.
• No experience points. When you go into dungeons, you find artifacts the boost your stats (they might actually boost the whole party's stats in the dungeon you first find them in, I'm not clear on this yet). At the end of the dungeon, everyone gets to keep a single artifact, which provides a permanent boost, like an extra heart (kickin' it Zelda style!) or better magic, or whatever.
• Magic system. I can't tell yet if it's brilliant or just weird, but there are only six kinds of magic (ice, fire, lightning, cure, life, clear). You can combine these in slots to create better spells. You lose all of your spell stones whenever you leave a dungeon, so you gotta build up your stuff again every time. Oh, and NO MANA POINTS. The only cost to casting a spell is time. It's like the complete opposite of Gauntlet's ticking clock of "video game needs quarters... BADLY!"

Plus of course some nice touches of the super-freaky Nintendo variety:

• Sense of time passing. Every time you set out on the next quest to find more magic drops of keep-my-village-safe, another year has passed.
• Crazy world detail. Moogle mail, relationship levels with family members, and that your favorite kind of food will heal you more than your least favorite kind. I kept thinking, "Hey, it's Animal Crossing except you go out and kick some ass!" You can even find templates for new weapons, and (I think) find or come up with your own patterns. And of course, you can go "visit" your pal's town to help him or her out on the single player quest.
• Game Boy integration. What can I say? I'm oddly compelled by the idea of using the gameboy as a little portable screen for dealing with the menu system. And even in the single player, you have to use the gameboy to get at the radar.
• Bonus conditions. This is straight outta Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. Every dungeon has a bonus condition, like "Don't use magic!" Whoever does the best job of adhering to that gets first pick of the artifacts (remember, the things that take the place of leveling and experience points?). I can't tell if it has any practical purpose in single player other than braggin' rights.

So I'm totally charmed and entertained, and must against all odds form a hardy coalition of brave souls with game boys to help save the village of Ologia. (Oh yeah, you can also -- naturally -- name your village :)  8:46:59 AM  (comments [])