Sure it has a bugbear...a massive terrifying bugbear, but that doesn't stop this game from being a lot of fun to play.
There are four clans: Clavat, Yuke, Selkie and Lilty. Put roughly in MMORPG terms: All-rounder, Mage, Ranger (sort of, in that they have the best mobility) and Warrior. This is nice because it gives you a choice of what kind of character you want to play. All clans can use every weapon but you can tell that the Selkie (for example) are meant for Paddles and Bows because they learn abilities for Paddles and Bows. Also you can pick a gender (just thought I should mention that). After picking a clan you begin the storyline.
You are a sixteen year old kid who is about to undergo his or her coming of age ceremony, so there's no prizes for originality there. Basically, complete this then you are given a crystal which causes one of the children in the village to fall mysteriously ill. Despite a law banning it, you leave the village and go to a town.
Now, you'd hope this would be the first of many but sadly it isn't. This is the ONLY town in the entire game...which sucks a bit. Here you can buy new weapons and armor from a shop which updates its wares as you defeat more dungeons. You can also craft items using monster drops as well as recruit new team members, or hire expensive mercenaries. New members are free but Level 1, whereas mercenaries are a pain to recruit but tend to be pretty powerful. On a side note, you can conduct side quests from Town, as well as change your hair color daily.
Now you're in town, the story begins in full. As you progress through the dungeons, which get steadily harder, the games bugbear emerges: puzzles, or as you'll come to know them bloody pieces of $*1£! Yes, unfortunately this game consistently plonks annoying puzzles in your path, as if to deliberately spoil your Hack'n'Slash fun.
Other annoying thing is the hateful AI settings, which sound cool (my personal favorite is 'Go Nuts with Magic!') but ultimately translate to your party rolling around like a load of helpless @!$%£! Best to keep the idiots on magic duty, while you selflessly charge into the battle and take one for the useless team.
A redeeming feature is that, away from the puzzles, the gameplay is a lot of fun. Sure, there's absolutely no depth to the combat, but after a couple of hours playing this you might begin to think that depth is a bit overrated. Also, this game has fantastic multiplayer features.
Anyway, I would recommend this game, because, despite it's irritating bugbear, it's still a lot of fun!