Setting the scene
The game starts with something of a cut-scene setting the stage for our story. It seems that the world is headed to wrack and ruin, and according to the prophecy: "When darkness veils the world, four Warriors of Light will come". It turns out that's us... We appear outside of the City of Cornelia, and as I start to have a wander around and talk to people, I speak to a guard who whisks me away to see the King.
The King of Cornelia sets the stage - his daughter Sarah has been kidnapped by a man named Garland, and she's been taken away to the Chaos Shrine. At this stage I feel like having a place nearby called the Chaos Shrine feels like a bit of a red flag, and perhaps the kingdom should have been on top of that, but also we literally just arrived here, so I guess it's not our place to comment.
Exiting the King's throne room and having a look around the castle, it seems that everyone is distraught at the kidnapping of the Princess, particularly the Queen and the younger Princess. It's doing a good job of selling how much everyone seems to be struggling with the situation. It may also explain why they haven't already dealt with a 'Chaos Shrine'. It feels like they may be a bit ineffectual...
I make my way back to Cornelia, which I find out has the other name of "The City of Dreams". Interesting, both because there's about 7 or 8 houses, but also that nothing yet has spoken to the dreaming yet. Maybe it's dreams as in it's amazing, but to be honest, it's kinda nice but... it's our starter town, there's got to be at least somewhere bigger, surely?
I head to the inn, and spot that there's a group of 4 mage/sage looking guys who offer some basic info about the game's systems. I suspect these will be more useful if you're a total newbie to RPGs, but it's still a nice system. I know there's a name for them, but I remember there being a similar sort of place in Sector 7 in FFVII. A quick search tells me it's the Beginner's Hall there - probably the same here. Nice bit of consistency there either way.
Walking round town it seems that the prophecy from the intro is common knowledge in the area. I sort of love the conceit of the 4 of us just appearing in the town and everyone just goes "Yep, that's them". It's a lot of expectation for 4 random level 1 'Warriors' to shoulder. There's also a mention of a town called Pravoka in the east that's been taken over by Pirates. Again some nice world building, I guess you could easily not speak to them and to be honest not really miss anything, but it's nice that it's there.
It also seems that there's stores with some cheap basics for some of my party. I'm able to upgrade Rukus and Kaili more so with some cheap weaponry and armour, but I'm also able to get some spells for Clair and Glitz.
I'm going to make myself remember those names...