Perfect, in every single way
The game has a great artistic style and looks absolutely gorgeous for a PS2 game. Whether it be lush plains with trees or even caves and dungeons. It has a very distinct art style and you'll learn to appreciate it more and more as you discover further locations in the story.
Possibly the best aspect of this game is the musical score. I loved it so much that I got the soundtrack for it about 3-4 years ago and still love it to date. Music ranges from slow, sad and graceful tunes to upbeat, slightly fast-paced ones, and they all capture the scenes brilliantly. All are great, but you'll learn to absolutely love some. The sound effects are also great and very well done. Really great stuff.
The story starts you of through playing as one of the guards for the king who's castle has been ruined by an evil magician called Dhoulmagus. The king himself has been transformed into a hideous creature, and you begin your journey by trying to find this Dhoulmagus. The plot twists and turns during some places and really keeps you interested, overall great delivery all the way to the end where everything gets blown up to a much bigger problem. The characters are all rich, developed and interesting and the game's humor is executed well.
The gameplay is superb. It bears a traditional turn based rpg typed play style where you command (eventually) all 4 of your characters on the battlefield and issue them orders such as attacks, skills, or item use. Strategy is involved and the player is ensured that he takes advantage of each character's strong points by the game's rather challenging difficulty starting from early-mid game. This does not end up frustrating but rather encourages the player to farm for better items and leveling up further to maximize their chance for victory. Boss fights are incredibly satisfying once you beat them, and enemies are very varied from region to region. Of course, the game gets better and better as you progress and level up through gaining additional skills, items and characters to use. You also get to mix and combine different items to form new ones through an 'Alchemy Pot' and this is certainly a great way to receive new weapons and armour if you're rather low on cash. Overall, extremelly well executed.
Simply put, this game is superb. Not only will you most likely replay this game because of its such strong qualities, but also because for each character you have a choice of 4 weapons styles (including fists) to pursue, meaning that more playthroughs are likely if you want to give other styles a try. Everything from graphics to music is exceptional about this game and it is definitely a must for any rpg fan.