General Beta Feedback

First and foremost, I think this is a very addicting game overall... I installed it because one of my co-workers raved about it and now I'm hooked.

That being said, given that it's in beta I want to offer my general comments from my first hour and a half of gameplay.

Visually, the only times I've had any issues is inside towns with other players. I assume that lag can't really be helped in such a scenario, but it's there. Otherwise I'm amazed at how well it does on my craptop and can't wait to see how it plays on my gaming rig.

The biggest gripe I have is with the overall gameplay and control of my character. I was able to play entirely using the mouse with absolutely no separation of move/attack. It seemed as though the combat system was effectively a flashy turn-based RPG rather than an action RPG. All I did was hold down the mouse button on an NPC and watch the sprites do all the work for me. Likewise, the camera always centers on my character... Good, but there is a relatively small window that I click to pick up Items or attack enemies. Given that creatures move, and some of them move quickly I found myself constantly moving into a crowd of hostiles rather than range attacking like I intended. I'm willing to bet that this is something I could easily adapt to, but given my history with other action games like God of War or Castlevania I would rather the movement and attack controls be separated. (I also find it difficult to click my mouse wheel for an action.)

The only other comment I would make is that I like the realism that the graphics give to the game, but it would be nice to see item drops appear clearer or have an auto-pickup system built in. After taking out a hoard of creatures I spend the next couple minutes combing the battlefield with my mouse for any possible items that I may miss. The hitbox is so tiny that I only notice the item when it flickers a notice on the side of the screen as my cursor passes over the item. I will say that it's much easier to notice an item drop on open ground in day as opposed to searching anything that I took out underwater. Underwater item drops are surrounded by the beautiful water effects and bodies everywhere making it difficult to notice the white highlight that briefly appears as I pass over the item's location. It adds more gameplay, yes... but I would rather spend more time exploring the landscape or attacking creatures than combing the battlefield for any rare item drop I may have missed.

Otherwise, I'm thoroughly amazed with the graphics, I haven't personally used this style of inventory system that limits based off placement of goods before and I think it's very solid. Probably a lot better than the weight limits of the Elder Scrolls series that makes one wonder just how they're carrying the 10 different axes they have. I'm also intrigued by the bartering system that completely removes currency from the economy. I don't think I've ever played a game like that before... Though I'm not entirely a fan of the sphere grid, as long as it adds a truly non-linear growth tree I'm game. and I'd be lying if I didn't say I loved the Materia system back in the day, so seeing it in a modern action game makes it that much more awesome.