The alternative title for this update is ‘Mike’s inner geek runs wild!’ Don’t worry, I won’t put a single spoiler on this update so please feel free to read it even if you’re saving the story for yourself. I know you want the pretty pictures so here they are!

I also put huge versions of these photos here on Flickr if you really want to get a good look at it.

OK, here come my thoughts on the game. I’ve played it for about two hours so far, so these are very preliminary ideas, but they might help you decide if you want to import it or wait for the translation. (Which I think is coming in around March).

• The game, even on the old TV I’m running it on, looks unbelievable. My friend is playing it on his HDTV and the level of detail you can see in things that are miles away from any action is crazy. If you blew a load of cash on a fancy TV you will get your money’s worth here. However, speaking of TVs:
• The Japanese writing used in the tutorial sections of the game (white on blue) are illegible on old TVs. At least in my experience – apparently everyone in Japan has a super TV so people like me stuck in the past get lumped with a series of white blurry boxes to read. I would imagine in the next few days a guide on what is going on will appear, and subtitles in the actual game are fine, but this game is complicated and it’s making it hard for me to play. If you can, I would advise hooking it up to a PC/laptop monitor as they are usually better than old TVs.
• The soundtrack is jaw dropping. It’s a shame it didn’t come with the lightning edition, more than once I’ve found myself pausing the game and just listening.
• The Japanese in the game is pretty tough. This game was aimed at teenagers plus, so it’s all pretty deep. Lots of odd words and colloquial stuff. Very useful for language learners, but I’d steer clear if you’re a beginner. The tutorials in particular are just huge paragraphs of complicated terminology.
• But despite all this, I’m having a hell of a lot of fun. I’m actually going to try to restrain myself over the next few days until I can borrow a friend’s monitor to play it on, but it’s going to be tough. It’s just such a pleasure to play.

I hope I haven’t sent too many die hard fans into a white hot rage! Thanks for reading!

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