A prime example of how NOT to innovate. EXTREAMLY overrated.
One word: pathetic. I can think of only two games offhand that have a worse story: Space Invaders and Doom. You travel through different countries in this world looking for these cards which, if united, would end the world. Sound like a cliché to you? It is. Adding insult to injury is the fact that there are no plot-twists up until the beginning of disk 2; I have no idea if there are any later as I have no wish to play any further. I have no idea why people have raved about the story because it is pathetic. {GAME-PLAY}
The bad story might have been acceptable if not for the battle system's flaws. Battles play out almost like war with a hand and a time limit. This time limit I speak of is the main thing wrong with the system; early on it is acceptable but once you get into the game it gets ridiculously short with the amount of time allowed for each turn. Don't even THINK about having a life with this game, you will not be able to react fast enough and will find yourself loosing all the time. The battles also revolve heavily around luck which is just not right. You will not be able to block a number of attacks simply because you have no defensive Magnus (cards), some attack phases will be spent cleaning out your hand of Magnus you cannot use, and if one of your characters gets low on health you are completly dependant on getting dealt food cards. A lot of the time enemy attacks come so fast you miss the first block as well. Finally the game is so element based; you will have to restart battles all the time to ensure you can actually win. {SAVING AND LEVELING}
This is my biggest problem with the game. You do have your save spots in game which you can save at, however some save spots warp you to this church where you actually level. You do not level up in the field and only some spots do this. Let's say you are stuck in an area where there is no reachable save spot which can take you to the church. At this point, you are unable to level and if you are not strong enough to finish the section, you have to load a different save spot in a different file. If you are only using one file, then you have to either get lucky or start from the beginning of the game! This is ridiculous and completely unacceptable {PRESENTATION}
The best part of the game. The backgrounds are all very well done and the sound track is mostly quite good. However the character models are sub-standard and the voice acting - well let's just say I muted my TV and you should too. {CHARACTERS}
Simply put I HATE them all. I know hate is a strong word which is why I used it. They all suck personality-wise and vocally. If the point of the game was to kill them, I would give this game a 10.0. What were the people at Namco thinking? {SUMMERY}
If you really want this game, you are either insane, very strange, or interested in seeing how to make innovating a bad thing. Only people interested in the later should even consider buying.