Death From Above, Even More Death Below...
First off, I'm not gonna compare this to Dynasty Warriors or Panzer Dragoon because in order to give something new a chance, you have to wipe the slate clean, unless it's just a blatant rip-off. You might argue that this IS just a blatant rip-off, but have you played a game before that combined gameplay elements from DW and PD? With that said, I must admit that it doesn't bring anything revolutionary to the table, but for what it has, it's good for a complete run through. The learning curve for the controls takes a few hours, but by day 2 I was thoroughly used to it.
The action is comprised of ground missions, air missions, and a combination of the two. In the strictly ground missions, you're basically either hacking, slashing, and blasting down hundreds of enemies to kill specific targets or to get to a destination. Combat is slightly dumbed down to sequential button mashing and occassionally blocking. In the course of a boss battle, you may have to jump and hide behind something to avoid projectiles. The combo missions are pretty much the same with the exception of the dragon covering ground knots faster than Caim can, and killing things faster.
It's safe to say that the air missions have their fair share of hits and misses. Unless you get air sickness, everybody digs flight simulators. The mechanics of gravity, air flow, and velocity are in their proper places here, making for a decent simulation, but as far as combat goes, I wasn't terribly impressed. It sure looks good, but fighting enemies later became more like chores than exciting battles. For what little strategy it takes to kill stronger enemies, there are so many, you find yourself just wishing for them to die quicker. The boss battles are definitely a highlight, ranging from fairly intense to fairly annoying. Lock-on becomes an issue, having limited time(like 5 seconds) to get a good shot at them, doing very little damage, then having to evade the oncoming attack. Wash, rinse, repeat. It doesn't get much more complicated than that, unless you have a hard time maneuvering the dragon fast enough, which makes for very aggravating combat. That's all there is to the flight portion, blow crap out of the sky and hope you're smooth enough to dodge the more elaborate attacks.
During all of this, the game keeps track of your kills and you, along with whatever weapons you used long enough in battle, level up. You gain more HP while your weapons become stronger. A nice touch added is that not only do the weapons change into stronger, more visually impressive forms(as well as the magic attacks attached to them), there are histories behind each weapon, and with each level(4 levels to each weapon), more of the story is revealed, which makes for further incentive to mow down another thousand enemies. Some stories are more interesting than others, but some are so cool they could make for their own game. Or movie, whichever.
The graphics are typical Square fare, the best stuff you've ever seen for the time being. The art direction and character designs are su-freaking-perb. Its particular style is subtle for a medieval game. The landscaping in-game though is very... well, flat. It doesn't have any outstanding platforming elements, I'm not sure why they bothered to have a jump button. Except for certain attacks to dodge, they could've done without it. But some of the environments are vast and would take well over 3 minutes of running without fighting to get from on side of the map to the other. Whether that's a pro or a con depends on the gamer. In-game animation runs fluidly and feels organic. Some of the stronger magic attacks look straight up awesome, if a bit hard to pull off accurately. The CG portrays the character acting very well. It's obvious the movies weren't made to sync with American voice dubbing, but it doesn't hamper the viewing experience at all. If I can't remember anything really wrong offhand, then the editor did a damn good job.
They don't hold back in the voice acting, this time that's a good thing. It's actually some of the best voicing I've ever heard in a video game. The dialogue never becomes ridiculous or cartoony, nor does the voicing. Everybody is taking stuff seriously, but in a turn for the darker you might say, the seriousness hardly ever lets up. It's just traumatic event after traumatic event, a snowball of ominousness rolling downhill, and the hill is the size of a skyscraper. The story and subplots seemed to be treated with care and a respect for a more cynical audience. With the exception of one out of place, the rest of the endings go out on a sullen note, some weirder than others. This is pure originality at its most dismal(the good kind of dismal).
All in all, it's a good effort, but its shine gets dimmed down with repetetiveness and irriating sky bosses. Definitely rent first to see if it is your kind of game.