Just one of the best RPG's ever
Graphics 9/10
The graphics were pretty good for the time of it's release, not the best, but graphics never were the main core of fun for old-school type of games.
Sound 9/10
Sound effects are practically average, nothing special, but not frustrating either, you won't be paying much attention to them anyway. Although the music is really quite interesting, especially during combat, since tougher fights spam more menacing music tones. By the end of the game you know that a hard fight is coming just because you recognize the music tones. What really makes the sound a 9 out of 10 are your characters voices which are unique, hilarious in most cases and really manage to create a feelling for your character. By the end the game you will know just how every character in your party will feel for the upcoming fight and their quotes almost never get old.
Story 9/10
The story, although being somewhat clise, feels just about right. The are quite a few sidequest and a lot of the characters are interesting enough.The ultimate quest of the game, achieve godhood, is a superb idea, which is very satisfying for any gamer to achieve.
Gameplay 11/10
Seriously this is the breaking point for the game. You either grow to love it's combat more than anything, or dismiss it for not being good at all. The tagline is : The combat is old-school turn based. For people who love more actionlike gameplay, which is today considered to be better for these types of games and which is produced for the masses, this might not be the right type game. But for people who love to think strategically, who try to get the best results by combining a big (and I mean a really big) variety of skills, this is the best game they could dream of.
The combat starts easy, but quite soon you will be facing multiple opponents and their level increases rapidly. Most people crack at this point since combat can get ridiculously tedious when facing, lets say 20 enemies, and you need to hack and slash each one of them, but unfortunately the gameplay mechanics lets only one creature move at a time, so you will be sitting there till all 20 creatures, plus your 6 characters move, and that each turn. Now combat can easily get into lets say turn 20 or 30...meaning you'll spent 20 or so minutes for this one fight only. Then after a victory you will notice another 20 enemies around the corner and you might lose your temper! That is one way to go around combat and true the gameplay might feel tedious at this point, but if you are a skilled gamer and think about what skills you have to invest, what things you have to use and so on, you suddenly notice that instead of waiting for 20 turns you can dispatch the whole group in 3 turns by casting group spells. That is also the reason why you have 6 characters at your disposal. Without crowd control this game is probably not completable in a spam of less than 50 hours. Only once you master the gameplay schematics does the game unlock it's true potential, fights will get a lot quicker and a lot more satisfying as your power and skill grows, and this is basically the essence of a good rpg.
The learning curve for simple combat is very shallow, but to truly master it requires tens and tens of gameplay hours. And without mastering it, the fun of this game might not even start.
Replaybility 10/10
Not much to say here, just that once you master combat (not only characters skill use, but things like group positioning before combat or other crowd control techniques - which increase gameplay speed tenfold) you will have a blast to return to play the game with a new party. As there are enough races and profession for 3 gameplays with a 6 person party (or even more gameplays if you choose not to have a full roster) and the fights being solid fun once you master them, I would say this game has a great replay value, not as masterlike as lets say Diablo, but still up there in the top 5 percent of all games.
All in all a perfect 10 for any avid rpg fan. Still this game is not that good for masses, and if you are looking for action based short fun (as most people today are) I would strongly propose that you don't play it, otherwise you might spoil this gem with bad reviews.