I finished the demo today. It's mostly the EO we all know and love, but I'm not sure if I like the new systems they've added.
The system I liked:
There's a new building in town called the guildhouse. You can pay the guild keeper to prepare food for you, which gives you a buff that lasts for the entirety of your next trip to the dungeon. This buff lasts for one trip only, you'll have to pay again after you return to town I expect these buffs to have a variety of effects as wide as the food buffs in EO4. Initially in the demo you only have access to a buff that slightly restores your HP every turn in battle. As you do quests for the guild keeper you raise your relationship level with her and unlock new buffs to choose from. The other 3 available in the demo boost your HP/TP or slightly restores your TP every turn in battle respectively. You're only allowed to have one buff, although perhaps later in the full game you'll be allowed to stack a few effects.
The system I didn't like:
The Grimoire Stone system. Each character is allowed to equip a Grimoire Stone, which contains up to 7 skills (judging by the number of slots in the menu). These skills can come from any class, and be actives or passives. They can even be enemy skills! (Enemy skills which can be put into a Grimoire Stone will be written in yellow font in the bestiary.) In addition, Grimoire Stones can have affinities withequipment types. I thought this meant that you'll get higher stats from wearing the equipment type the Stone has affinity with, but according to the Japanese wiki I consulted, it allows you to wear that equipment type even if your class normally can't. Furthermore, if you possess at least three Grimoire Stones, you can fuse them. The rules are as follows:
The first Stone decides how many skills you're allowed to pick. (If it originally had three skills, you can pick three skills in the new Stone too.)
You'll be able to pick any combination of skills from the first and second Stones.
The third Stone does not contribute its skills, but its equipment affinities will be inherited by the new Stone.
Thus far, this all sounds really cool, I'll admit. What I don't like about it is that acquiring Grimoire Stones is pretty much a random process. When in battle, sometimes a character holding a Grimoire may get a "Grimoire Chance" prompt. After the battle, those characters have a chance of generating Stones out of nowhere. The skills in the new Stones seem to contain a random combination of skills from the character in question and monsters participating in the battle. In addition, even if the character has Cure 10, the Stone may only have Cure 1 in its skill list.
