I duno Sakaguchi said something about 200 different shadows, i have yet to even see a real form let alone a different one.

May be he meant 200 Shadow attacks because 200 forms seems like a lot of work to me.

of course ^^
Here

http://localhost:7144/pls/88F1DEE3E9E3A380EB70A381...

I get a "page cannot be found." :(

Here's a link to Idol Master stream :P

http://kiiropage.dyndns.org/r.php?cn=NAUx3+rev.TV&...

dose not work...

You guys can expect some faceplates over at eBay.

Yeah but they will be ridicously expensive.

Okay, haven't quite hit the 4 hour mark yet, but I just finished a pretty long dungeon. The game's pretty good. It's VERY enjoyable, but not really ground breaking. It reminds me a lot of FFV in terms of story presentation and characters, and it makes me really happy. The areas and locations aren't that impressive visually at the moment, but the game is well paced and everything feels nice and proper. The game is still pretty in introduction mode as far as the story goes so it's hard to tell how much wider the game will open up (I'm guessing a hell lot).

Oldschool JRPG fans will be VERY happy with the game because it has tons of details for completist players. Each area and dungeon has tons of examinable spots and stuff that nets not just items and gold, but special exp, sp or stat bonuses as well (you get to choose which character gets it) so it really rewards exploration properly imo. Each area has gimmicks to play around with like pushing trees to create paths to chests, or light switches in the recent dungeon I was in.

Gameplay-wise the game is very well balanced so far. The game leans on the easy side (for now at least) but that's mostly if you decide to take advantage of the various little systems the game has. It's pretty much impossible to lose so far in the game as long as you're not retarded and hammering attack over and over. The game encourages you to exploit the available systems fully and when you do you won't feel the game is "easy" but instead you will find it fun.

In the world map field areas you can lure a stronger enemy group near a weaker one and initiate a concurrent encounter - if the two groups are compatible the stronger enemies will start eating the weaker ones, so you can finish just the stronger ones off and benefit from the entire encounter. When you pull this off there's a much higher chance for the enemies to drop poop (YES!) on the field after the encounter. You can choose to examine the poop or to discard it, but so far there are no disadvantages so I just examine all the poop and get extra gold! WOO HOO GOLDEN TURD! :P

The enemy groups are also all very well balanced for fun play instead of frustration. As you progress you'll find that there are many tricks that are usually quite obvious to making each battle easier, either through elemental attacks or by using enemies against each other. It feels more like you're solving puzzles (really easy puzzles though) sometimes than actually fighting an encounter.

There's also a good amount of customization you can do for your characters using the different categories. They're like jobs in FFV, with you gaining SP (Shadow Points) that rank up each category. At different ranks you will get new skills. These skills can then be equipped on your skill slots regardless of category, but each category has a basic skill that is only active when that category is equipped - this is usually the main active skill for that category like Black Magic, White Magic, etc.

There's quite a lot more to the game but it's impossible to cover in short impressions and those details don't really matter in the long run until you're actually playing it. Graphically the game looks pretty good, if a little plain. It looks really pretty in HD and does resemble a Pixar movie most of the time, but there is a feeling that sometimes the enviroments are just a little too bare. Otherwise the details are really good and Toriyama's humor and style is pretty much all over the game.

As for what makes it feel like Chrono Trigger, as I said, it's not VERY similar in any way, but the entire setting with a young energetic cast of characters trying to stop an evil they do not really understand while exploring ancient ruins and lost ancient technology is very similar. The fact that Toriyama's designs are all over just adds to the flavor of it.

That's all I've got at the moment, hope that clears up some thoughts! If you have more question feel free to ask!

By the way, I see that IGN has mentioned that there's slowdown in some battles. Yes, I have noticed the framerate drop at various points in the game (not just in battles) and well, yeah I guess that sucks, but personally it doesn't take away from the experience imo. It's a little distracting, but the designs and models really make up for it.

yes, you choose the shadow type for each char, much like jobs in FF games. Sword, White, Black, Monk etc. There's quite a few. What I was trying to explain before is, if MaruMaro levels up with Black shadow, he will gain more MP and less HP than if he levels up with Sword shadow. Chars have levels, shadows have ranks. A shadow's rank is tied to that char though. When you rank up your shadow, you gain new skills for that shadow type, and at certain ranks, new shadow types will become unlocked.