The most echlecthic game of our era.
First of all, game play is fairly one of the most innovative seen lately, if not the most of all. Relations between skills and weapons leaves the feeling of characters that actually get to "learn" special abilities. At the end of the game, development of you characters should be more than satisfying.
Then you have the maps where actions develops. At first it might seem awkward to see a system that combines turn based action with limited points, but then you'll get used to it and feeling the true strategy behind every decision that you make. This, relates with the results of battles (showed by different gradings) and delivers a sensation of integrity among the entire game. It is just flawless.
Graphics are anime styled, pretty much similar to the ones in Yggdra Union; stylized, nicely colored and esthetically nice to watch. Also, the use of different reactions in the characters tends to exploit the potential of the beautiful design of the game, not only during the sequences, which by the way are filled with excitement and funny facts, but the entire time.
Story and characters fuse nicely and in a very intriguing way. Besides, it's always a smart move to put a single guy and a bunch of girls in the same house... It gives the feeling that something might "happen" anytime with some of those beautiful, young, lovely... ehem...
The inclusion of real voices in some parts is a great and detailed addition that many of us didn't even expect to see in tha GBA ever. It was supposed to be a privilege of the big consoles, but Riviera proved all of us wrong with this incredible use of sound and music, delivering a complete sense of epic adventure. Just stunning.
One of the negative aspects about this game is the monotony between scenarios. They work pretty much like large dungeons, but from one "block" to another differences aren't much regarding design. Sometimes it will cause the player to get lost; thanks god for the self explanatory map that never leaves your sight.
Battles are ambiguous, sometimes they are so easy it doesn't seems to be a real challenge at all, and sometimes they just seem impossible to get trough, specially bosses. The training option is a good way to "flat" this upsides down, but it can severely kill the fun in the game. After a few battles you'll want to turn the power off.
So, a 9.0 because of it surprising innovative battle and action system, its amazing music and sound, the inclusion of real voices, lovely support characters, nice and well designed playing environment and a catchy story. It It isn't a 10 only because naked girl's pictures aren't as easy to get as they should. He he, only kidding. It sometimes boring and labyrinthic maps and the constant-tiring battles are the big let down about this game, but they are nothing compared to all it good spots.
If you like RPG's and you haven't played this yet, you just haven't played RPG's. A must.