While certain aspects hamper the game from become truely amazing, the bulk of it was certainly an enjoyable experience.
The game play is extremely repeatative. However, the fact that it has over thirty weapons, each diffrent and each with its own magical attack, adds depth to the game. Along with weapons you recieve allies that you may use for a limited period of time. Each ally is very unique and extremly powerful. In contrast to the grueling ground missions, there are flying missions very similar to that of Panzer Dragoon. Your dragon gradually levels up, so the attacks get more advanced and varied.
The game plays best though in its tangent mode, or when have access to both your dragon and ground combat. While this is fun to decimate soldiers with your dragons and then finish them off with hand to hand combat, it is abnoxious how your dragon will fly off if hit by projectiles. Instead of having some kind of health meter for the dragon, it simply retreats when attacked. This can interupt the game flow and certainly detract from the experience.
The story is very odd, but undoubltly a good one. It has a dark tone to it and gives varied emotions. It also has five diffrent endings, which gives a reason to go back and play through it again and again. The game is told in chapters and will often times have hidden or branch off segments, allowing for story diffrence. There are a few camera issues, but the majority of them are minor and do not truly hamper the experience.
The maps are massive, and the main characters and particle effects all look great, but the overall look is very bland. While certain places shouldn'y have vibrancy to them, some places seem dull and muddy. There are many, many cut scenes, all very well done and on par with the rest of square enix's work. Its a shame more detail couldn't have been added to the enviorments and the enimies, because it greatly detracts from the feel.
The score in this game is superb, and has a great deal of depth and variety to it. It also does a wonderful job of setting the tone and mood in certain parts, and provides the neccisary amibance for the twisted and demented scenes.
Finishing it up, the first run through the game should take you about10 or 11 hours. However, playing through to get all of the ending should bring you up to around 20-23 hours, and doing everything will have you finishing the game around the 35 hour mark. While this is good for people who enjoy taking a game apart, this really only leaves about 18-20 hours of play for the broad majority of its audience. There is no multiplayer, which is a real let down since it would be a lot of fun to play against your friend with your own armies and dragons.
Overall, this is a very enjoyable, if not addicting game. While this game can't honestly be recomended to those aren't at least interested in action games, it certainly is a respectable choice for those who enjoy this genre. What's more, the game's excelent execution of the story along with its wonderful score and its multiple game play times makes this a, while not unique, fairly original and certainly entertaining.