A big budget RPG that could of been more!
The graphics are some of the best the PS2 has produced so that's not the problem. Level 5 seems to have pushed the system to it's limits with a vibrant color palette and lush cell-shaded characters. There's no slowdowns at all as well... which is great!
The sound is executed very well. The voice acting is extremely well done. The sound effects are great and some of the music is hit or miss. Some tunes are awesome.. some of them gets dull real quick.
The gameplay is almost exactly like the Kingdom Hearts series. You travel a 3d world and fight in real-time. The fights are somewhat more organized than the KH series but they are not as safisfying for reasons i can't seem to grasp. The AI of your allies is not that great but at least they ask you if they can use a spell or certain items. You can create weapons by combining 2 of them when they reach a certain level (yes the more you use a weapon... the better it becomes.). There's a pokemon type mini-game but i have never touched it. You can almost build rare items thru a factory mini-game but i haven't touched that as well. The content that this game offers is amazing! Completist will log in countless hours in this game. Too bad some of the rewards to complete certain aspects of the game suck (a new dress for Kisala for 30hrs of work!?? DOH!)
The things that brings the game down is the somewhat cliched story and the linear & dull dungeons. The difficulty varies a lot... if you take the time to level your characters and create weapons and maximized them... you'll have no problems at all.
This game is worth checking out if action RPGs is your thing. It's nowhere near Dragon Quest 8 but it's still a very good game!