One thing I haven't been loving about this game is the ridiculous amount of "parties", or groups, if you will, in the game. There's Team Xen, AA, and a new one, Bladestar. Then there's Angie and her little maid army. Indraid still has his own religious cult in the sewers. Adam, Saki, Braixen, and Valarie I COMPLETELY forgot about until I saw that mangled piece of mesh on Route 7. Then apparently Cassandra has her own little dictatorship in Grand Dream City, and we don't even know where Nim went and what she's up to. Honestly, it's a bit too much to handle. It feels like all these characters are just being thrown at us, then vanishing in the next version.
Enough with the negativity, right? The redesigned areas are absolutely gorgeous; I especially love Kakori Village and the Resort. Darchlight Woods was beautiful too, and that train for some reason was the highlight of the version for me. Stunning job to Jan and the rest of team; I eagerly await V9!