I loved this game immensely and count it amongst my favourite RPGs such as FFV and Lufia 3 etc, none of those were perfect in my view either but they made great fun.
Now a short list of stuff I had on my mind: I liked the whole clean a dungeon and it stays clean system it creates a purpose to finish the game piece by piece and there is a final reward for killing all monsters which is also great, I wish this would have in some way applied to the random item findings (the ''!'') so that us 100 % completion nuts could make a valiant try not to use faqs.
Also the difficulty on the first half of the game was awesome, you were locked in real life or death battle for your characters and the ''!'' items were a must then you got alot of secondary ways of healing which simplified things but still didn't make everything too easy yet but once you got a few of the special attacks in combo with your ever-growing supply of mana potions it was almost like cheating a little, I started to miss the earlier game after I had been at this part a while. The mini-games held the game up way high still and some of the bounty hunt challenges and side dungeons were still difficult but it felt as the main story had gotten pushed over a little at that part so that it was more following the story and a lot less combat difficulties. But the same goes for most RPGs once you reach a certain point only the insane bosses remain to put up a fight. Perhaps it might've been that once you had gotten used to the paniced hunt for survival items in the start made it feel too easy even though it might have gone to what some would call normal.
Also it might just be me but I thought I missed a little of the subtle hints you should get from some random NPC to go to a place or do a thing outside the main line of events and perhaps some immense challenge that returned the difficulty on a long difficult sidequest (like the 100 floor caves on lufia, though they mostly consume time, or hidden legendary bosses in harsh lands etcetc). I also thought the high tempo was great and made for a lot of different backgrounds and getting to know the characters fast but it somehow made the end come a bit too soon aswell.
Now I feel like I am ranting a little but halfway in the game I felt so impressed I was locked at my computer and then it went down to normal for the larger part of the game.
Looking forward to Eternal Eden 2 though
I hope it will have the same amazing overall gameplay as the first half of this game and a proper finale with a lot of insane challenges to add outside the main quest.