An amazingly fun, beautiful, funny, clever game. Easily the most fun I've had with a game this year, and for only $30!
Visually, the art looks like Samurai Jack. Simple designs, I'm guessing a low pixel count, but beautiful colors expertly done. It's far simpler or less complex/busy than Final Fantasy, but it's equally beautiful.
The game mechanics are similar. Sure, you could just play one of the characters and mash the attack button for most of the game if you want, but you could also shoot your way through Splinter Cell. However, doing so would take away from the depth of the experience you could have had. You can skip the hunts for magic spells if you want. You don't NEED them, but they provide useful tools to solve the different situations you find yourself in. You could also skip the herbalism. You don't NEED the potions you can make from it, but they can come in handy, especially if you focus more on combat. You could also completely ignore stealth and kill every bad guy in the game, but you could also avoid nearly all the fights and instead try to be very stealthy and sneak through most of the situations. This flexibility is a fantastic thing because, if you don't want a complex game, fine, you can play it in a very straightforward manner. But if you want a more complex, clever game, it's got the ability to be that too.
There's no blood, no cursing, nothing I wouldn't want little kids to see. I don't have any yet, but when I do, I wouldn't mind at all if they played this game. At the same time, I'm 30 and I loved it. Thus, at least for me, this game is accessible to kids and adults.
I just finished my first play through. I had only read the Videogamer review, which was the only one available before I bought it. They gave it a 7/10. They talked about it as a short, uncomplicated game with no multiplayer that cost the full $50. If you blitz your way through I guess it could be over quick, but I played kinda sneaky, but still killed every bad guy I could find, and it took me 10-20 hours on normal difficulty. A co-op mode could add even more depth to the game, but I didn't really miss it, and I was able to find the game for $30 on several websites as well as Steam. This game is absolutely worth $30, especially when I consider how disappointing other games I've bought this year at full price have been (I'm looking at your DOW2...).
I'm done typing I think. I may take a bit of a break, but I'm looking forward to my second play through. I'll increase the difficulty and try to find some websites that better explain the advantages of each of the ninjas.