Likable characters, nice graphics and an engaging story.
First time I played the game, I was totally disappointed with the weak voice-acting, so disappointed that I didn't continue playing. I decided to find another RPG I haven't played and give that a try instead. Needless to say, I failed to find one. So, I decided to try the game once again.
Surprisingly, I managed to get along with the poor voice acting and enjoy the game the way it is and now I'm happy I didn't dump this game for good.
When I play an RPG, the first thing I'm looking for is a good deep story and I've found it in this game so far. I'm rarely satisfied with games' stories these days but ToE's story has kept me engaged so far. I don't wanna spoil anything so I don't explain more.
Character design is pretty well-done in the game as well. You find all the characters near to reality and easy to communicate with. There are some strange super-cool characters as well which only make everything much better.
Another great aspect of ToE is its fast-paced real-time combat system. I never thought I'd enjoy any combat system beside the old-school turn-based one and at first I didn't like ToE's battles either but as I progressed through the game and with unlocking new cool skills, I learned to enjoy it.
The whole feel of game is pretty familiar. There's world map with random encounters, cities where you can shop, meet NPS, etc, dungeon with puzzles and a boss at the end. There are save point at several points in the dungeons and camp sites as well where you can recover from battles.
The game is fairly easy imo. The toughest boss I have met so far (I'm like 22 hours into the game) easily went down at 4th try. With a good positioning and smart use of items you'll be fine.
Graphics are beautiful and easy on eyes. Developers could do a much better design work though, especially with clothes and textures. Graphics are the last thing I care about when I play games anyway, so it didn't bother me at all.
All in all, Tales of Eternia is one of the rare good RPGs on PSP and I recommend it to the genre fans.