I recently got the game too ^_^. I got mine a few days you got yours I would guess. Currently I'm in a place called Tomb of Raithwall, unfortunately though, the only "ara" spells I've seen so far would be my Cura. I think I would find more if I looked for them but currently I've been playing the game loosely because I'm not going for the full experience, instead I just want to finish it once.

I'm really loving the game though, the new battle system (especially Gambits), music, graphics, it's all great. At the moment though, there are two things that pop out in my head.

1)Does Vaan have any other purpose than tagging along with Balthier and Fran...man, those two are awesome, they make up my primary party. Basch seems like a noobcake though, I don't think he'll be in my party the second play through either, though once my guest leaves, I think I'll need some muscle to compensate his loss....

2)So far I haven't really seen a large variety of environments, I was hoping to have been through at least a forest by now but it's only been the barren worlds and the dungeons. At first it was great seeing the big cities and the wasteland all around but now I really would like to see some forests, swamps, large bodies of water, snowy areas and so on.

Edit:

3)Why do Basch and Ashe (to a lesser degree) seem like such noobcakes? Is it because they don't have the personality of the sky pirates? I mean my current guest seems to have the same personality but he feels like less of a noobcake.

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