Like old school RPG grinding? This game may be for you.
If you played any of the Wizardry games then you have an advantage, for Elminage is Wizardry in all but name. In fact, it's an eclectic mix of concepts from the series, taking some of the ideas that appeared in the newer titles and throwing them back to the dungeon crawling roots of the original. The races, classes, and mechanics are very similar.
You'll make a party with familiar characters like an Elf Bishop, Halfling Thief and Dragonewt Fighter and hack through rows of enemies displayed like targets lined up at the shooting range. Roll high enough at character creation or level up a while and soon you'll be fielding the game's more advanced classes, such as Samurais, Ninjas and Lords. There are also two new classes in the mix, the Servant and the Shaman, both bringing a breath of fresh air to party dynamics.
After the joys of party creation, however, you're left more than a little wanting by the barebones introduction and general lack of direction. You have two choices - pursue quests and grind for money, experience and treasure. The latter is where the meat of the game is in my opinion, but you can't truly sink your teeth into it until you make it past the tutorial dungeon. After that, the game opens up all the other dungeons at once, daring you to see what you can achieve and how long you can survive.
Grinding in the dungeons is pure pleasure. Levels come quickly, the monster art is striking and the random loot tables are varied and full of enough special gear to keep you going for hours just to see what drops. You will definitely feel your party gradually become more powerful and be able to relish it... in fact, if you so choose, you can easily overlevel the final encounter and blow it to pieces. After that, there is a weighty end game with might monster and ridiculously powerful secret bosses as well.
What's not to like? A lot, actually. The game invested all of its time making neat items and monsters (every one of them has its own profile) and none of it guiding you through the game. The translation is clunky, the quests can be vague and/or annoying (although you don't have to do many of them to win) and very little vital information is explained (class descriptions, class special abilities and mastery levels, most game mechanics, etc.). You'll spend a lot of time on Google, message boards and translated Japanese fan sites trying to answer basic questions.
Despite those shortcomings, I chose to give the game an 8 because it was the most played game on my PSP. I've played over 100 hours of killing mobs, taking their stuff, and seeing how great I could become. My struggles in the beginning are a distant memory compared to the fun I had forging my party of 6 adventurers into a mighty band of heroes.