This is a fairy tale style RPG that will delight fans of the Old-school as well as frustrate them.
Popolocrois is played from the top down style much like a lot of other older RPG's. You run around from town to town, and a lot of other different locations on a variety of quests. You'll encounter monsters between these towns, build up XP, meet some new friends who will join your party and so on. Popolocrois doesn't break new ground, but it also doesn't tamper with a formula which may be old but certainly isn't broken.
The game looks cute and vibrant with a cel-shaded style look that does well to enhance the cartoony and child like atmosphere of the game. Though everything is some what cute, the story is epic and has moments of genuine emotion.
The battle system is interesting, you enounter enemies on the same map in which you're running. So for example, you don't encounter a random enemy and then "teleport" to the battle screen. The battlescreen takes place on the same ground you are on but it IS turn based. It's a pretty interesting system which is very easy to pick up. You have your choice of spells, special attacks and normal attacks. You use everything from items to potions and so on. You can even do tag-team style attacks with other people in your party but these are hard to discover as they aren't written or learned any where. An FAQ would be your best source for all of the tag attacks.
Sound is a mixed bag. There are some very annoying songs along your adventure but then there are some amazing tunes that will have you cranking the sound on your PSP. Battle sounds are okay nothing to write home about.
There are FMV sequences through out the game which are great to watch and look forward to. They are from an anime that was released in Japan but the ones in this game are dubbed with english voices. They sound and look great and add to the progressive story. If only there was voice over in game.
If there was one major drawback to this game it would be the loading. Everything here takes loading, it loads for a moment before you do a spell, while you browse the maps in game, when you enter and leave towns and so on. This IS annoying but easily forgivable because the game itself is great.
Popolocrois will take you about 20-30 hours to finish. I found that it took me 27 hours so there ya go! All in all, it really is a fun little RPG. If you are looking for some Japan style RPGs for your PSP then this is one that you should pick up and play though. It's worth the cash, the adventure is long and you'll have fun.