Quite possibly the most addictive game I've ever played and one of the PSP's finest.
When you choose to start a new game, you get to choose from one of 3 scenarios. The Lower World, which boasts a futuristic setting with machines and special armored battle units. The Surface World, containing everything you've come to expect from the meaning of fantasy, pirates, elves, devils, dragons, wyverns, kings, queens and great wars sweep the land and features a simple MASSIVE amount of playable characters. And finally, the Divine World, a floating island in the sky split into good and evil, light and darkness, heaven and hell where angels and demons wage eternal war over the holy grail. Every scenario has it's own basic story and unique characters and enemies but every one of them eventually comes full circle, blending into the final battle with the ressurrected Demon King, Mugen.
The Lower World is the one recommended to beginners because it's the only scenario with a tutorial and you're definately going to need it. The main meat of the game is it's extreme depth in customization and not so much in combat. You're basically given about 3 captains at the beginning of each scenario and your captains each have units assigned to them. 10 at the start but send your captain into battle often enough and their numbers can grow to a max of 30. There's dozens of different soldier types available as well for each corresponding element with the captain. Each captain can also be assigned another captain to serve as a partner. If the 2 captains know eachother in the storyline, they may be able to use union skills which can devestate entire armies at a time which brings us to combat. The game is played in what seems to be a tactital perspective until 2 opposing captains come into contact with eachother on the playing field. When the battle starts, the 2 armies will be pitted against eachother in an RTS style fashion. If you have more than one captain on that square or in the base, you'll have to send in your captains in the order you wish them to defend, same goes for your opponent if you attack a square occupied by more than one enemy captain. The only downside to this is that you can only attack with one captain at a time while they can defend with up to four.
Once the armies are set and the defenders are chosen, field attributes are put into play which directly affect every aspect of the battle's outcome. The field type, if it matches your commanders elemental attribute, will increase every one of your soldiers max health by a certain percentage based on how many adjacent squares are also the same element up to 50%. The time of day will only affect soldiers at high noon and midnight battles and not dawn or dusk battles. These times affect your soldiers attack, defense, intelligence, psyche and speed. once everything is factored in, you issue a battle formation for your troops which also affects all team-mate attributes. After all that you can, for the most part, sit back and watch your armies go at it. Your screen will display army morale, overall team health and the captains health and skill points. In the corners, you'll see the number of troops left on either side. Everything has to be carefully monitored by you and if you see anything is not going your way you can stop the battle and issue different orders like moving to different places, using items, activating special weapon abilities and using the captains skills. Use these to better stack the odds in your favour. There are even spells and items which can directly change the time of day and the attribute of the playing field. When the battle is over, you'll gain experience and move on. The object isn't to kill the army, but to kill the captain.
On the main game map, there are building littering the area. Some of these buildings can be rebuilt into others like hospitals, graveyards, recruitment buildings, power and magic pyramids and circles, holy grounds and even altars and windmills, all directly affect the battlefield and captains who pass by them. There's litterally dozens of things to keep in mind while simply moving about the area.
One thing that really bothers me though is that when you've got 62+ characters on the screen at one time coupled with damage numbers, flying arrows and magic attack volleys and the occasonal special skill effect, the psp can suffer from some lag but not alot. Not until you use a special skill does it really slow down and when certain characters have to go through a monologue before using a special move, the lag makes them wait 10 seconds before saying their next line and therefore slowing things down even more. Thankfully though, this issue doesn't really affect the speed of the battle because after a special move is ordered, most enemies die instantly anyway so the fight ends that much faster.
Voices are surprisingly good overall. Some characters make you wanna kill the person who cast these "talents" like the woman who does Lululala's voice and yes thats the characters name. Anyone who watched Digimon when they were kids will notice the voice of Quinn is done by the same guy who voiced Izzy on the show and what you think of that voice is up to you. Alot of the voices though overall are exceptionally well done. The blend of not-too-hard rock and piano pieces blend together nicely but there are a few tracks that make you wanna turn off the sound, especially the overworld music which causes severe headaches when listened to over and over while trying to plot out partners and equipment.
So overall, the depthy gameplay, lengthy storylines, great voice work and a plethora of hidden characters, events, character classes, landscape alterations and a ton of other goodies makes Aedis Eclipse: Generation of Chaos another lost, underappreciated gem overlooked by people who abide by Gamespots ratings like lambs to slaughter. It's a shame because it really is an amazing game aside from the slowdowns. I recommend it wholeheartedly.