Well, I got past Mom Bomb; never would've thought to use "Defend" after all. Even then, Yang was the only one left standing. Thank god his "Kick" technique is so damned effective now that he wiped the floor with the six remaining Bombs. Next up is Milon.... I mean, Scarmiglione. And Wanderer, your warning is scaring the jeebus outta me.
As for the rest of the game, I'm digging it so far, surprisingly. As said, the map completion thing is pretty cool; the actual inclusion of dungeon maps makes it a far easier affair to traverse, find treasures and the proper exits. It's true, the battles are much slower; I popped in FFIV Advance just to check it out, and even with its menu and off-timed battle glitches, it's still unbelievably zippy by comparison. All the same, if you afford yourself to spend a bit of time with the DS version, and you kind of allow its groove to work on you, the slower-paced battles is something you get used. Placing the battle speed to its fastest setting moves things along, and then it almost feels like you're playing FFIX.
There are a couple of minor annoyances I was quick to pick up on, though, such as not having the "Memory" feature where the game remembers what menu commands you chose last. Especially in battles; it automatically resets back to "Attack" after each character's turn, which is irking when you take into consideration the ample number of new commands added from the Augment system. Another quirk is that you can't change the message speed in battles, which might be what SonicPanda was alluding to. Like an in-battle piece of dialog will be playing out, and each box blurb takes like a good six seconds to play out. Even short pieces of dialog like, "What? Anna?" And, while it's nowhere as bad as Advance, there's still a slight pause delay between menu navigation and menu input that doesn't make it feel as quick and intuitive as the original game.
Regarding the Augment system, I haven't accumulated a whole lot at this point to pass complete judgment, but I'm not too keen on the idea that once you assign an Augment skill to a character, then they're permanently set to them. Does that mean that once they disappear from the game, the Augment disappears right along with them? All the same, I've been careful to assign Augments to party members who I know will be with me by the end, such as Cecil, Rydia and Rosa. It's a no-brainer to set the Augment "Counter" to Cecil straightaway; he's becomes an awesome force to be reckoned with.
But the best thing about the DS version? The overworld/dungeon themes pick up exactly where they left off after a battle. At last I can finally hear "Main Theme of FFIV" all the way through without having to stand still.
EDIT: And is it just me or does setting the ATB to "Wait" instead of Active not work at all? Even when you're in a battle's inner-most menus, enemies are still attacking.
Anyway, I'm predicting the game will get very favorable reviews because it's a classic FF game, and because everyone wants it to be great... but who knows. Anyway, your thoughts?
:D