I just started playing this a few days ago and I'm absolutely hooked. I love the depth of the combat, the fact that so many options are presented to you without ever feeling overwhelming, and the boss battles I've experienced so far were a lot of fun. I'm not too keen on the kid-oriented aesthetics but there seems to be an interesting story going on beneath the saccharine presentation. It feels like they took the Crystal Chronicles formula and merged it with some of the ideas from Kingdom Hearts. In fact, if 358/2 Days ends up playing similarly to this, it could be one of the best RPGs on DS.

Anybody else share my opinion?

The story was absolutely wonderful, and really depressing. I won't say to much obviously but still. Gameplay is hit and miss though, combat is fun and way faster than the original, but when you get more than 1 character to control in the single player campaign it can become a mess. The ally AI is utterly stupid and will do absolutely nothing, often times getting themselves killed meaning you have to waste a res on them. Still though, I found it to be a solid game.

I definitely agree with your point about the AI. It's a shame I'll never have the chance to play it with three friends, as it really feels like the game was built with multiplay in mind. Still, I'm really impressed with the depth and intuitive nature of the combat mechanics. And thanks for not spoiling the story!

The main reason that im not playing this games is because i dont have any friends that have a DS, I want to get the best out of that game that there is so i'll wait until a have some people to play that with