This is a beautiful game and I recommend any fan of the RPG genre to give it a try.
Music 5/5
I have heard otherwise from some, but Nobuo did a fantastic job with the music for this game. I even listen to the soundtrack while working from time to time. Some game areas have minimalistic background music (Ipsilon Mountains for example) with very few instruments and simple melodies. Having too many tracks that are over the top ruins the mood and causes tracks that really should be extravagant to no longer seem so. On that note, some areas (the Windswept Sea, outside Gongora's Mansion, Old Numara) simply have ambiance.
The battle music is fitting and never felt stale or repetitive and the same goes for the victory fanfare. The boss themes are invigorating and do the job of making the battles feel important very well. The final battle music is especially intense. It features electric guitar and a fast paced beat. It has Latin sounding vocals reminiscent of Playstation era Final Fantasy tracks (Liberi Fatali, One Winged Angel) as well as some fast spoken Japanese. It is indeed one of the best final boss themes I've heard.
The vocal themes (What You Are, Eclipse of Time) are decent, though What You Are almost feels silly. It only really belongs in one or two spots in the game. Eclipse of Time is much more fitting.
The English voice acting is great. Kaim usually keeps a very serious tone, whereas Jansen tends to lack seriousness altogether, both of which are perfectly fitting. Cooke can be a little over the top at times but other than that, I have no complaints.
Graphics 5/5
While not incredibly advanced in terms of graphics tech, this game does see a high level of detail. The outfits of the character designs are well done and dynamic (individual parts of the outfits seem to move on their own, such as swaying in the wind). Some of the monster designs are very creative and have a style I cant say I've seen before (Grilgan, the Rough Queen, Dinozaoro are good examples). The rest are still detailed and unique/varying enough to not get old.
The environments are also highly detailed, you can tell things weren't rushed. Some of Uhran streets have garbage floating along in the breeze, small animals like birds or rats occur in some areas, garbage and bits of cart track litter the outside of the Ipsilon mines, etc. There are even decent weather effects and ambient magic energy in places. Architecture is unique to the region in which its found: Numara has lots of white stone and curvature, while Gohtza has metal structures with beams and trusses going every which way. You won't find parts of scenery get pasted down over and over like in some games.
The game does make use of full motion video scenes as has been customary of RPGs for some time now. They are sparsely distributed through the game, which could be a blessing or curse depending on how much you need quality graphics cut-scenes. The most notable of them is the opening movie I mention in the Story section.
A final note about the graphics in this game is the use of split-screen in many of the cut-scenes. Oftentimes the screen will be divided into multiple segments, each focusing on a different character's face or on a different aspect of the environment such as a monster. This is another thing this game did that I haven't seen done before and I'd like to see it used more often. It makes the whole game feel more like a movie in that it sometimes shows how different characters are reacting to the situation at present.
Story 5/5
The story, while somewhat cliché, is still involving. The opening scene, which depicts a clash between 2 nations, is action packed and sucks you into the game world right away. A very early semi-scripted "boss battle" gets you used to the battle system. It truly feels like you're playing as an immortal with how confident Kaim appears in battle.
At the start, Kaim seems like your typical silent hero with a cold, edgy personality. As the plot progresses however, you will find he has more depth than at first glance. Also to his credit, he doesn't have spiky hair, and is more masculine than many JRPG leads.
The other characters have varying levels of personality. Jansen, probably my favorite character, provides comic relief without being too over the top. He casually quips or complains at random points in the game, making him feel very real while lightening the mood and in-formalizing the dialogue. Seth is somewhat of a typical character. She fills the role of the free-spirit who takes orders from no one, so its fitting that she has a history as a pirate. She diverges from the norm a bit in that she has a good deal of empathy. Cooke and Mack are strangely reminiscent of Palom and Porom from Final Fantasy IV, but do carry more depth and feel a bit more like kids than their SNES counterparts. Its just a bit disquieting how similar the two sets of characters are. The game also almost comically contains a character named Sed. If you've played multiple Final Fantasy titles, you'll know "Cid" is a recurring character name, usually associated with an older fellow.
The story involves a group of Immortals who find themselves in a world lacking others like themselves. They are devoid of their memories beyond 30 years prior, so have no recollection of why they're immortal or why they exist at all. The world they are placed in has been going through what is called the Magic Industrial Revolution which is exactly how it sounds: an industrial revolution just like the one in our own history, however involving Magic Energy as the power source for the machines and devices.
There are various nations struggling through this time. Uhra, which has recently changed from a monarchy to a republic, has some of the most advanced magic energy research, headed by Gongora who is in charge of constructing the Grand Staff, which is said to provide the nation with limitless magic energy. This nation is situated in a temperate climate. Gohtza is a monarchy led by a wise but proud king who has traveled the world and has seen much in his lifetime. This nation focuses on military might and has a strict class system consisting of Low Towners, Middle Towners and the Nobles. They also have advanced well into the magic industrial revolution, but with a focus on weaponry. Gohtza is located in the northern mountains where it is cold and snowy. Numara is a coastal, peace-loving nation led by the Thousand Year Queen. Her rule focuses on isolation and co-existence. The final major nation is Khent, which is inhabited by dog-headed beast-men. They are a strong and proud race, unaffected by cold and choosing to not focus much on magic energy. Their focus is on military strength and have somewhat of an alliance with Gohtza. There is also the now-extinct Eastern Tribe who were masters of Spirit Magic as well as various smaller towns and villages throughout the world. As you play through the game, you gradually solve the mysteries of the immortals: why they exist, how they lost their memories and what lies within those memories. You also unravel the secrets of magic energy and the sources of the current struggles between the nations of the world.
What keeps this game afloat at a perfect score in the story department for me is the 1000 Years of Dreams aspect of the game. This is story-telling at its prime. Its made up of text-based short stories you read with music/ambiance and sound effects, that provide character background (primarily of Kaim) in the form of dreams (unlocked memories). These dreams are unlocked by completing certain story elements, tasks, or by talking to certain NPCs. If you can muster the patience, I strongly recommend reading these stories, they're very moving.
Game Play 4/5
The game play is very typical JRPG style. You can run around cities, towns, fields and dungeons. You can speak to NPCs and some creatures or interact with parts of the environment by kicking, probing or ramming certain objects. There are treasure chests scattered throughout waiting to be opened and occasional items laying on the ground, marked by shining spots. There are treasure quests that require treasure hunting items and NPC hints to locate. Random battles ensue in all the non-city areas. It may all be typical, but its still enjoyable and well done.
The battle system is similar to classic Final Fantasy titles of the Super Nintendo/Famicom era. The battles are turn-based, with turn order determined by the speed of the acting character and the type of action they are taking. Item use usually takes place at the start of a turn, followed by attacks, then by skills or magic. The magic used in the game include the typical Black and White varieties, as well as Spirit and Composite. Spirit magic is the unique flavor some games try to include and is a mixture of healing, attacking and buff spells. Composite magic combines learned Black, White and Spirit spells into more powerful spells, such as casting a fire attack spell on all enemies, or curing poison for an entire row of allies. The characters have separate speed stats for magic and physical attacks, and the magic spells vary in how long they take to cast (some span multiple turns).
There is also a ring system involving equipped rings that can be switched out on the fly in battle that give your attacks various effects such as elemental damage or status ailment inflicting potential. These create more involving battles by making use of the classic timed-hit system (Final Fantasy 8, Super Mario RPG, etc). Two circles appear on the screen before an attack: one small, one large. As the player runs toward the desired enemy, the larger circle condenses. You must release the held R-Trigger as close to the two circles being on top of each other as you can in order to get the maximum effect of the ring. These rings can be found laying around or can be constructed from components dropped/stolen in battle.
Your party as well as the enemy party can be arranged in two lines, a front line and back. The back line is defended by the front line and takes less damage. Unlike other examples of this battle aspect, this game manages to quantify it with the inclusion of a "Wall" parameter consisting of the total front-line HP. The amount of remaining front-line HP determines how well-protected the back line is from attack. If the wall falls to zero, its as if there is no wall. The situation is further complicated by the fact that healing the front line doesn't heal the wall. The wall value is only determined at the start of battle and can only be increased by certain abilities outside of regular healing.
Battles include status ailments just like most RPGs do. Typical ones like Sleep, Paralyze and Poison exist, but also unique ones like Formation Paralysis, Frostbite and Signs of Petrification are present. Frostbite turns to Frozen after being hit by an ice based attack, Signs of Petrification turns to Petrified after a few turns, and Formation Paralysis causes your team to be unable to move between front and back rows. There are also variations of common ailments: Kelolon and Dizziness. Dizziness is similar to a typical Confused status, but is more generous in that attacks only hit enemies and healing only hits allies. Kelolon is similar to Pig or Toad/Frog in that your attack drops to nil, but is different in that your critical hit goes up.
The battles are made unique by the presence of immortals. They can only learn skills and magic from equippable accessories or from mortals currently in the party while those mortals learn skills and magic per the usual: at certain levels. The immortals gain skills by partaking in battle while equipping accessories or while the desired mortal is in the party. Once they learn a skill though, they can be swapped into and out of the available skill slots (sort of like choosing attacks in Pokemon, but with a lot more freedom) without the need of the mortal or accessory. Additionally, since they are immortal, they only remain KO'ed in battle for a few turns, after which they will auto-revive with some of their HP. This doesn't make the game trivial though, since if all your party is KO'ed or petrified at the same time, its Game Over.
The side quests add a medium range of added game play with respect to other games in the genre. They include various optional bosses, dungeons and item collection. All in all though they don't take very long to do and none of the optional dungeons are very long.
I dock a point here from game play because of the sometimes repetitive battles and the lack of any real mini-games. Some may feel that the inclusion of mini-games to an RPG are just a pointless diversion from the main quest, but I disagree. I think they are necessary to mix things up and the addition of things like the Golden Saucer (Final Fantasy VII) or Blitzball (Final Fantasy X) are benefits to their respective games. The battle system never bored me, but did get on the repetitive side in some cases.
Personal Tilt 5/5
This is personally one of my favorite games in the RPG genre. The high level of detail, excellent soundtrack, involving story, and believable characters lead me to this decision. Almost every single one of the 1000 Years of Dreams events invokes strong feelings and make Kaim feel much more human. Many criticize the battle system of this game for not bringing enough new to the table and as I explained above, they're absolutely right. However, this isn't necessarily a problem. I could go back to the common phrase, "if its not broke, don't fix it." The classic JRPG battle system still has a place in the gaming market and this game is a superb example of that in current-gen gaming.
Achievements
This game's achievements are unbalanced, though this may have been the intent and may even be how most RPG achievements are approached on the 360. Half of the 1,000 points you can get without DLC are attained simply by clearing the 4 disks. While this is fine, I think it makes a lot more sense to award players for going above and beyond rather than performing the baseline. More points should be awarded for clearing side-quests or accomplishing feats not required in the normal run of the game. The achievements are, on the whole, easy to medium in difficulty. Outside of a few of the bosses, the game is on the easy to medium side of difficulty itself, so the achievements fit in that respect. The one achievement that stands out as difficult is the Treasure Trove achievement, which requires you to not miss a single treasure box item in the game. The auction house, which will sell you items from locations no longer accessible, makes this feat more attainable and makes the game less cruel than it could be (Blue Dragon). This is the one achievement I haven't myself obtained, even after playing through the game twice, though I intend to re-cover my tracks and get it in the near future.
Glitches
There are a few glitches plaguing the game that I've encountered. The worst of which happened when my game froze in an infinite loop at the start of a random battle. The screen kept scrolling across parts of the battlefield as it usually does, but wouldn't stop doing this, even after a half hour, never actually reaching the battle. This unfortunately required a reset and loss of some progress. The rest of the glitches have been minor, such as some sound effects simply not getting played, such as during attacks in battle. Occasionally the frame rate would lag behind, though this may have just been the console. I also noticed some shading issues in battle, where the shading of the party would look very choppy where it was once smooth. Fortunately, these problems were few and far between and not consistent, so didn't really hinder the experience.
At the end of the day, this is a great game, so let us hope Hironobu blesses us with more gems like this in the future!