I'm also loving it so far. The way overused and unfunny Simpson's catch phrase "worst ever" caught me off guard and drew (get it, FF8 har har I'm so funny) a couple chuckles out of me in the beginning. All of the characters' reactions were pretty funny. 3 hours later, I hadn't had as many laughs, but the game just keep throwing fun mini game after another. I really like the sense of accomplishment from beating a record. As someone else said, there is usually an immediate reward, being either a card, a new location or a rescued person.
In kind of a screwball analogy the game remind me of a mix of Rocket slime (DS) and Final Fantasy Mystical Quest (SNES). For me there's just something fun about being able to improve the "map" by finishing missions or whatnot. In Rocket S, freed people populate the town, giving it new life by opening up shops and giving the player stuff to do outside of the main quest. FFMQ on the other hand had combat tiles that needed to be cleared in order to open up new paths and change the landscape. Both of these styles are used together in Chocobo (minigames instead of combat tiles) and has been keeping me pretty hooked so far.
On an aside, What other games have used that "improve the city/ landscape" game type? I'd love to give more of those a chance. The only ones I can think of are the first Actraiser, and the Dark Cloud series.
