Is it a FUN RPG? That's what it comes down to. The short answer is YES, and here's why (good and bad)....
On the positive side, there are five playable character types, all of which can be male or female. Each type has innate abilities that increase in power as experience is gained--and you control the allocation of these abilities. They say amusing things throughout the game-play. You get cool stuff that is customizable to some extent (adding fire/disease/cold to a weapon or protection to poison to your armor). The storyline is pretty good and flows together well. The game takes about 20-25 hours to get through once, but there are three difficulty levels (the second gets unlocked after the first, the third after the second). Playing off-line single player gets you to learn the strengths and weaknesses of each character type. Playing with a group off-line using a multi-tap is where this game shines, too. It has the capability for online play, although I haven't used it as of yet. Also, there is a good amount of on-line guides, walk-throughs, exploits, gear lists, etc. that can be explored as well, adding enjoyment to the game-play.
CONCLUSION:
At the end of the review, you have to ask yourself "Is it FUN?" Can you get lost in playing it for hours or more? The answer for me and my 8 and 10 year old kids has certainly been YES. I've probably been through the Adventurous difficulty 6-7 times now (off-line single and multi-player), the Courageous difficulty twice (off-line single player), and the Champion difficulty twice (off-line single player). My kids always ask me to play with them so we can advance through the story in our multi-player games. And it's fun to try out the different character types and play them with different nuances (weapons/armor, innate abilities, attack/defense strategies). There is a good reason it has the "Greatest Hits" emblem on the outside of the box. You can get it new for $20 and used for about $15-17. I recommend new because the disk is sensitive to scratches. Although I sent our first one back to Sony and they replaced it when it started to hang a lot. I've run the following characters: Wood Elf / Bowman up through level 25 Dark Elf ShadowKnight up through level 50, and again up through level 12 Wizard up through level 16 Barbarian up through level 10 (and one insta-level 50...WOW) Cleric up through level 12