Difficult, often frustrating, and riddled with a trite plot. However, it is highly enjoyable.
Story: The game story begins with a young (about 15 year old) windsome youth named Yuuki. The boy has dreams of flying across the ocean in the same fashion as his idol, but is often grounded by his mother miranda (who was presumably 18 months old when she gave birth to yuuki). Through a series of events he comes across a young girl being chased by an army, and he takes it upon himself to defend her at all costs. Eventually, the young girl (alfina), he, and a gaggle of other ragtag adventurers set out to gather the powers of four guardian spirits in order to stop the maniacle plans of an evil warrior being controlled by a similar, but still evil spirit. The game, and its characters, are rather trite, and you get a sense of rpg deja vu because you know in the back of your mind you've seen it all before.
Graphics: Graphically the game is decent. It isn't lighting the world on fire, nor does it look as though it was constructed by an 11 year old. The visual spell effects are fun to watch and often enjoyably over the top.
Gameplay: This game shines in this department. The battle system is similar to past entries in the series (active time battle with free roaming characters and enemies) with added nuances. The most major addition is the arial strike/cancel system. One major gripe with the combat is the emphasis on magic over physical strikes. The magic user Dhana (though low on speed and health) is the most vital character to combat, and many times the player feels it necessary to use the other three to act as her defense and support. Another gripe is the almost overly difficult boss battles in the latter half of the game. I understand to add a twist to avoid stale gameplay, the developers threw in resource exhausting bosses. I do not feel, however, it should take players more than 5 tries to defeat a boss when at an adequate level.
Sound: The sound is passable. sound effects fit rather well and voice acting is solid. However, the music is only just okay. There really aren't any memorable tracks other than the introductory music.
Overall: Great battle system, solid voice acting, and a quaintly farmiliar story. Bogged down by overly difficult bosses, cliches, and unmemorable music.