Eat Me!!
The game can be pretty difficult to get used to. There are all these different attacks and they are all based on "elements". Every monster and every character usually have a weakness to an "element". If a monster or character hits something with its weakness that side gets an extra turn. If a monster or character blocks an "element" that the other side tries to use then you take away two of their turns.
The end result is if you dont use the right attacks and dont defend against your enemies strengths you might end up letting the enemy beat on you for 6 turns in a row and then you only getting 1 turn, which would most likely crush you.
Theres no overworld map or anything you just go from one location to the next(although you eventually get to choose). Each location always features new monsters and attacks to adapt to. Sometimes you will have to adapt midway through a location.
Characters level up but they also get atma which is "skill xp". You get a tiny amount of atma just by killing enemies but in order to gain alot of you have to use hunt skills or eat your enemies. The tricky/frustrating/strategic part of this is that your characters can only equip so many skills. You unlock more slots as you level up but it caps early on and you have to juggle which skills to take and which ones to leave out. Some of them are very necessary which cuts down on optional skills even more.
Something else cool about skills is that depending on who has what characters can combine their moves into combo's. For example if one guy has fire and another guy has like lightning they can use two turns at once and cast a group fire spell. It works for some of the physical attacks to.
You can also find these things called "Cells". They usually have a name in front of them like Theory Cell or Logic Cell. Most of them are found in rare treasure chests and from boss battles but eventually they start dropping on the enemies you fight to. You turn them in for lots of money which is what you use to buy "Mantra's" or a skill package. But besides getting money for them once you turn in enough of a certain kind you unlock new stuff to buy from the item selling machine. Whats cool is some of the things reproduce item effects or skills and are reusable, meaning you dont have to use those skills. The spyglass for example is something you get early on and it allows you to use the analyze skill without having to take up one of your skillslots with that skill. You just use it like an item. Some of things sound better than they actually are. You dont really want to waste turns in battle using stupid reusable items. But others are very useful!
Most of the characters you get automatically distribute their attributes every time they level up. The main character Serph you get total control over, so you can be a fighter or a mage or whatever. Also scattered throughout the game and sometimes on select monsters there are items you can get that directly boost your HP/MP/ and attributes. You can hog them all for your main guy or spread them out and try to average everyone out.
I would love to talk about the story but its just way to deep and complex and I dont want to spoil any of it for you. This game is kinda slow paced as you would expect from a classic rpg. I have only racked up 45-50 hours in 20 days and I love the game.
I hated this game the first time I rented it. But now that I understand the mechanics(thanx to persona3:fez) I have to call this game a MUST OWN. I wish it would have had some minigames like FF, and that some of the unlockables items would have been more useful but overall this game rocks.