Old-School? Yes. Fun? Definitely!
GAMEPLAY - OK, so it is "old-school" combat. These are your basic turn-based battles where you decide to attack, defend, use magic, use item etc. then sit back and watch each side do their thing. Once they are done, you do it again until one side is victorious, just like in the old NES and SNES RPGs. To me this wasn't a problem. I can appreciate a game trying to give more depth to the battles by throwing in a lot of different factors and strategies, but there are times when I just enjoy an old fashioned slug fest. This is also the random battle style, where a battle will suddenly pop up during your travels. Weapons, items and armor can be obtained through stores and treasure chests, as you'd expect. A new twist is the alchemy pot, where you can combine items in order to create more powerful versions, and this was a lot of fun. Pretty much every dungeon also had a nearby chest that contained a map, which kept down the endless wanderings, and I appreciated that.
GRAPHICS - As I stated earlier, I did not care for the look of this game based on the screen shots i had seen. This was truly a situation where screenshots did not do the game justice. The graphics were beautiful and vibrant, and had a nice 3-D look. Your characters were also drawn and animated quite nicely. This is definitely the best looking cel-shaded game I have ever seen. The game never used any CGI scenes, but it was definitely not necessary as the in game engine worked quite nicely, and made me feel like I was watching a weel done anime movie.
SOUND - Another area this game excelled in. Although the protagonist doesn't speak, everyone else does and the voice work was outstanding. The music was also top notch, though as usual the battle theme can get a bit repetitive.
VALUE - This game took me about 94 hours to defeat the final boss, and that happens to be a new record for me, beating Suikoden 3 by about 20 hours! Granted there were times that i was running about simply to level up my characters or to create items in my alchemy pot, but I never felt it to be a chore, as the battles tended to go by quickly and smoothly. There is also a bonus adventure upon completion that will give some additional hours of fun gameplay. Most RPGs include mini games, and this was no exception. Fans of the old Dragon Warrior games will appreciate the casinos in this game. Another game is the Monster Arena, where you take your captured monsters and enter them into battles against other monsters to win valuable prizes. I feel this game gives you about the best value for your dollar that you could expect.
SUMMARY - I really can't find much to complain about in this game. The gameplay stays relatively simple but I did not find it to be boring or tedious. Graphics and sound were fantastic, and the game will take you a very long time to complete. I completely recommend this to any RPG fan, and it is straight forward enough to be a great introduction to anyone that wants to try out a RPG for the first time.