A great action RPG. Whoever at GSpot gave it a 5.3 must have taken grumpy pills or sucks at playing it.
The game isn't overly hard but if you don't take the proper precautions you're going to get thrashed so hard your head will spin. This is not a game for mindless button pushers who think they can hack through everything. You have to take the time and care to customize your characters and develop them so you can face the armies and I do mean armies of baddies the game throws at you. Since it's an action RPG you are running and fighting in real time so you don't get to sit there and think about it when you encounter a big bruiser. As far as the combat goes there are tons of types and of creatures out there and many have very different abilities. So you have to make sure you have the right gear and abilities to face them or they will wallop you. It's also important to have the right party members with you and to have them setup with the right equipment which dictates their strategy. Such as will the use physical charging attacks or cast lightening magic or heal you and cast holy magic, etc... The list goes on and for each of the 8 party members of which you can have 2 join a main character each time they have like 6 or so options each giving you lots of chances to customize. The land is vast and you can't do everything the first time you pass through certain areas so you have to come back later when you have the right abilities or access to the right special equipment to deal with what you'll encounter. Your main characters can each be customized in many many ways from their equipment to their abilities which you can build up over time. Speaking of which. Mythril is way more valuable then gold so if an item has magical abilities you don't need dissolve it and take the mythril rather than selling it so you can enhance your abilities sooner. Everyone has their own play style but I have to say using the 2 handed weapons for Toma works much better as long as you max out your quick swing ability and infuse the weapon with a speed boosting secret art. I have found that particularly for the nastier baddies I've encountered so far the 2 handed weapons tend to be more effective particularly if you take the knockback and stun abilities and keep them high throughout the game. Even though a big enemy like say a cyclops or a demon of some kind can hit you really hard if you can stun and knock them back to keep them on their heels it's mucher harder for them to hit you with a brutal combo and kill you. The ability you have to watch for is a strong stun or petrification attack as that can be the kiss of death for your whole party. Whenever you encounter an enemy that can do that KILL THEM FIRST!
This is a longer game and I'm about 23hrs into it so far. You'll get your money's worth on this one and it's fun overall as long as you pace yourself and don't go running off into areas you shouldn't before you're ready as you will get killed pretty quickly. 2 last tips, first be sure to sacrifice the ancient sword behind the blacksmith at the shrine before you leave chapter 2 or you'll not be able to recruit a very powerful ally later in the game. Second, be sure to level up the training facility and the robot factory early one as they make fortress defense battles easier and give you access to better equipment sooner than the main story normally allows.