A great RPG that even people who hate card games should try, and I should know because I hate card games too.
Well, there is a girl named Tara Grimface who was abandoned as a child, and Victor found her in Kadishu and raised her as a bandit. She didn't like it, but she did anyway. One day, when her mission was to capture many Kendarian runestones in the Kendarian Mines, and over there, she met Leod, who apparently wants Tara's runestone to give him power, and shortly after, she has to fight a god that Leod summoned. From there, you find out about Tara's childhood, about her sister, about how Sol is doing, about Kendaria, about the God of Harmony and many other things. Overall a great story.
Graphics: 9/10
The graphics are good. If you look at the images here, they don't look too good, but they look fantastic in motion. Also, the card animations are hi-res and beautiful to look at. The spell affects are great too, and the characters and monsters run smoothly. There are also CGI sequences, which are very great and detailed. My only problem is that some character faces are absolutely horrendous. But its not too much of a problem.
Gameplay:10/10
Gameplay is great here. Basically, you have 30 cards in each mission that you can customize. You can summon a card with A, B, Y, and X. There are many types of cards: weapon, summon, transform ( which you can control yourself), helper, and a normal card which when you summon, it attacks until its card gauge is completley burned. It may not sound fun, but it is. You can also go to a shop and buy cards, sell cards, duplicate cards, upgrade cards, and transform cards. Also, after a mission when it is completed, it gives you a score out of 3, and then, for example, if you got 1/3, you get to choose 1 card, but they are faced down. If you get 2, its 2 cards, and 3, 3 cards. Also, in this installment, there are no random battles, and you can roam freely. There are about 230 cards to collect which doesn't sound like alot, but man, it is. If you plan do get all 230, it will take you a LONG time to do so, and overall, a 10/10/
Sound: Music: 10/10 Voices: 7/10
MUSIC: The music is great and fits each area perfectly. For example, in the Rainy Ruldo Forest, its very gloomy and sad music is playing. In the Kendarie Mines, since there are blood-sucking souls running about in the cramped area, there is a music playing like you are doomed. Its very good and alot of times, exciting. You will not have any problems with the music.
SOUND EFFECTS AND VOICES: Ummm.... its like a mixed bag here. There are many voice-overs that are dreadful, for example, Victor sounds like he is about to die. There are some actors that are terrific, though. The sound affects in this game are great, like the sound of Tara's steps and the sand in the desert, and the treasure chests and things like that. Overall, good sound.
REPLAY VALUE AND EXTRAS: 10/10
Extras: Wow, there are SO many extras. There is: Fairy Collecting, about 7 sidequests, many side missions, many cards to collect, many Isumat Urbur cultists, secret areas in places where only certain monsters can reach, MANY extra bosses, there are 2 long collesieums, a battle with Thalnos, Katia, and Helena, a secret FMV, card collecting, getting perfect rates in missions, and another ending. Alot isn't it? And the game takes about 15 hours without sidequests, and with MOST of them, it took me alittle more than 40 hours, and I didn't do the fairy collecting, the secret ending, the colesseums, the sidequests, the Isumat Urber thing and the card collecting. Wow, huh? So this game WILL keep you busy for a while if you are planning to do all the sidequests. Oh! I almost forgot. There is also a secret level after you beat the game, and it is VERY hard and VERY long. And I mean VEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERY. Overall, if you do all the sidequests, it should take you about 70-80 hours. Also, if you beat Helena, Thalnos, and Katia in the Colessium, you can transfer ALL your cards in your Lost Kingdoms 1 file.
REPLAY VALUE: 10/10
Well, not much but it will take long. There is: about 8 or 9 Isumat Urber Cultists waiting to fight you in hard to find areas in several places, and you have to do ALL of this before you go to Kendarie castle ( the castle, not the mine or the last location, its when you are going to Kendarie Castle with Sol, and you have to have ALL by then) then, you have to talk to some people to unlock a location called the Isumat Urber Cultist Hideout which is very hard and scary, BTW, and once you have all 8 or 9 books from the cultists, you place them on this statue, and you will receive a stone and then place it in the statue, and you have just secured the Good Ending. There are afew secret cutscenes like alittle more than 10, like 14 or something like that, and there is also a secret FMV and ending, and there's your replay value.
OVERALL: 9.9/10
Just go buy this game, NOW.