So, for all thier flaws, I like JRPGs. Quite a bit. And while it's great to see some more mainstream hype for one which isn't Final Fantasy, having just watched the quick look, I'm left with more questions

than answers. So I'm wondering if anyone across the pond could clear up a few of the more important ones.

1. Does this game feature much grind?

In particular, that one MMO-style side quest in the QL kinda scared me, being what I like to think of as a grindquest, which reveals little to nothing about the gameworld, story, or characters while involving no special combat challenges, serving entirely as padding. It's just poorly disguised grind, and if you have to do things like that to get reasonable money or xp that kinda sucks, and i hate when games do that.

2. Given the style of combat, do the computer controlled party members have good AI? What input from you, before or during battle is required?

The MMO-looking combat isn't necessarily bad but I'm thinking of FF12 here, where the half-ass gambit system was used as an excuse to not program AI. It's a hard combat type to get correct because if they're too competent the player feels redundant but if they're too dumb the lack of control gets frustrating. Where on the scale is this game?

3. Is the writing more event-driven or character-driven?

Asking whether the writing is good is an exercise in futility, taste varies too wildly. However, I know that in my case, having the spotlight on the characters is much more appealing than having the events propelling a players investment. Or, to put it another way, I care about the events of a story based on how well they help develop a strong cast of characters predominately. How much is or is that not the case here, and, additionally, is there a lot of side content that gets you extra character or world fluff? Because that's, to me, the best motivator.

As much as it's like an MMO, it isn't overly grindy so long as you don't run away from all the combat. The AI can be problematic on occaision, but overall is perfectly fine. And pretty much the writing is event-driven, story is not a strong point in this game.

Just play it, and if you don't like it, hold on to it until people are looking for the limited copies of the game and then sell it for big bucks.  Anyways I think it's one of the better JRPG's to come out this generation of systems.

If you grind, the game will be painfully easy. The pacing is excellent so far IMO and I've played for 15 hours. The story is decent, and I would say a mix of event and character driven. Within the first few hours of the game, a character driven situation really got me. I gotta say that the Japanese voices are better for me with subs than the English ones, so I dunno how it fares if you play with the dubs.

AI is very good. They will not carry fights if they are under-levelled/equipped but they won't let themselves die easily if they are well levelled.

You don't need to do quests to be strong enough for the main story (although if you don't it will be much more challenging) but I wouldn't reccommend this game to anyone who didn't want to at least try and do them as this is the best side of the game. The quests aren't that grind-y, in fact the MMO-style ones are given to you at the start of every area usually and can be done if you accept them by just going to the nest story-event area and not running from every battle. Most of the sidequests are more fetch-quests/talk to this person-quests, they are mildly annoying if you want to play it purely on the game but be simply googling the item or "where is X character" then it isn't much of a grind as you can move to places pretty quickly and you can set the time to the exact hour needed at anytime.

The character-driven thing is hard to answer. I think if you are looking for it you will find it. If you want it right away then the Japanese VO will probably be the best way to go, but with the English one they get pretty interesting and memorable once you get used to them making it a much more memorable experience for me playing it. There is a really interesting character-driven side being the affinity grid which shows the status and relationships of the NPC's of the world. It really adds to the game but to get that to happen you will need to do quite a lot of the side quests (but for me it was definitely worth it, especially seeing all of the characters of the world fit together).

I think you should definitely play it. If you really want a character story then you will find it (even if you will have to do quite a lot of sidequest stuff if you don't like the main characters - but I do think you should find them appealing even if they aren't the main focus of the game) and there really isn't a massive grind to this game compared to other JRPG's.

Okay, it sounds like I should give it a try. The affinity grid stuff does sound cool, and I'm glad to hear that grind isn't really required though I hope that they have some more challenging side content for people who do do a lot of side quest. Still a little iffy about how the combat looks, but I guess missing a legitimately good game cause of first impressions would be pretty dumb.