Vivid cutscenes, and smooh gameplay. Advanced maneuvers are easy to perform which makes for an overall fun game to play.
For starters, this game is very easy to get into, because anyone can just pick up the controller and press any button to achieve seemingly masterful techniques, and not to mention a very unique and beautiful fighting style. I was most impressed with the automatic countering feature. the rule goes, that as long as you are hit from the front, you will automatically counter several hits, depending on how many petals you have on your "Flower". I've found that counter moves in other games are found at the apex of player control difficulty, and is rarely ever properly utilized.
Another innovative feature is the "Counter Magic" technique. This means that any enemy (including bosses) that attacks you with an energy based firing attack is allowed the opportunity to be countered. Not only is this achivement rediculously simple, but it's also very powerful, and I'll explain why. When you see that an energy wave is heading your way (whether several seconds before, or sometime after your character "Lao" automatically counters it,) you will be required to repeatedly press the square button. By doing this, your energy gauge will flip over to symbolize "counter energy" then it will start to fill up with the energy of your enemy's attack. After this gague fills up, you simply press the circle button to fire it back at him with multiplied force. Very effective against the reoccuring Lion boss you should encounter at least 3 times if I remember correctly.
The cutscenes are really nothing short of brilliant for the PS2. After completing the game you will have access to all of the cutscenes in the game, and you may want to re-visit them again and again. They use a very precise motion capture, and you will notice that all of the characters motions aren't captured by the same actor as I've experienced in previous games like Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance. You will definitely want to call SOMEONE into the room during these scenes. Even if it's your very uninterested wife who cannot stress enough that she simply doesn't care.
I wouldn't feel like this was a proper review unless I delved into the disappointments of this game. First, I have to mention that Lao in every possible way looks like a woman. You will be surprized when you learn that Lao is actually a man. I personally just pretend that Lao is a really a woman and it makes my life easier. Andgrogeny is not as cool as hair metal bands made it out to be, especially when you imagine that this game made it through at least a couple years of testing and tweaking before Lao's design was miraculously approved. I feel like the subject must have been on everyones mind, but no-one wanted to offend the creators. I guess.
Next, is the unbelievably short game itself. I beat the thing on easy for the first time (without knowing where everything is) in about 6 hours without dying once. However, Hard mode really IS hard. Especially the boss battles, and the last level where you are to jump up 5 walls diagonally. As you make the game harder, these walls get significantly smaller. I have to be honest and tell you that I have not yet beaten this level on Hard mode, and it's only because after I spend my usual hour getting up this aparatus, I find that the floating gongs that you need to "fly" accross the sky to the last door don't spawn into view as they should. My guess is that I need to defeat every enemy in the level up to this point. The difficulty in this is that you have to make sure that the enemies don't fall of the level due to their own stupidity. Which then I recommend you start the level over. Lastly, the gameplay graphics are not as superb as the cutscenes which is understandable, but they remind me on N64's Hybrid Heaven. I say this because the enemies are nowhere near as great looking as Lao. In fact, they look like they were meant for a lesser game. This should make it easier to kick the crap out of them for being so incredibly lame.
In closing. If you are looking for a game that is simply fun, colorful, easy to play, a little comical, and with reasonable replay value that you cannot take seriously because Lao looks like a woman (pink and all), then this is the game for you, or maybe for your kids because it's not very difficult to play, and is a good ego booster when you're stuck on a frustratingly difficult game and need to blow off steam. Overall, it's worth spending the $5.99 or so I spent on a used copy at Gamestop. I give this game an 8.0.