An enchanting RPG which is best described as a meshing of Wild Arms 4, Shadow Hearts, and standard JRPG for good measure
Graphics: The graphics in Enchanted Arms are simply wonderful, despite Gamespot's ludicrous score for that category. The art is pretty well drawn, and the bright, extremely shiny and detailed world will draw you in. A large variety in environments and some really pretty places may remind you of Wild Arms 4 The water is especially nice, but the swimming effects look quite dated. Your characters EX Skills (Essentially super attacks) are incredibly pleasing to look at. It's hard to be disappointed with the visuals in Enchanted Arms. The graphics seem like a next gen version of Shadow Hearts with a few more bright environments to me.9/10
Sound: This is where the game doesn't do too well. While unlike Gamespot claims, the music never actually stops, it is very soft at certain points, and the music that is there is just a short, repetitive tune being looped. Although, the intro and ending pieces are nice, and the music in the cities is pretty good. Sound effects in battle are satisfying and fitting. The voice acting is not nearly as bad as most people make it out to be. There is only one case where it is evident the recording of the voices was at different times and there is no emphasis on the word that should be emphasized. Some of the writing is a little stilted, which almost creates the illusion that the voice acting is low quality. Some of the low key music reminded me of Shadow Hearts. 7/10
Value: You'll get the 50 hours you're promised by the back cover out of the game, although the journey is an easily forgettable one. If you choose to do the huge optional dungeon, the Holy Beast Shrine, you'll have at least 60 hours on the game.
9/10
Story: At first the story feels like a sci-fi movie where robots revolt against humans, but it soon grows into a more full fledged and exciting story. Atsuma's stupidity and stubbornness may get irritating at times, but it's fairly good story aside from that. It features the expected loss of something important that we've all come to know and love in JRPGs, and does a good job of feeling epic. The pretty movies help. 8/10
Game play: As I said, it's like a cross between Shadow Hearts and Wild Arms, with a bit of generic JRPG thrown in for good measure. The Shadow Hearts bit comes from having a lot of people to talk to, and pretty entertaining dialog with the inhabitants of the towns and cities. The puzzles with moving platforms, the 3-4 word descriptions for strangers you talk to, and linearity of the game also resemble Shadow Hearts. The Wild Arms bit (I was reminded the most of 4)comes from the grappling hook, which while not requiring any timing, makes it feel like the developers wanted to incorporate some platforming elements in the game, a few of the puzzles, and the fact that when you enter a building, your presented with a background and a person. Just like Wild Arms, you cannot explore the insides of buildings or houses. The combat is also quite original. Both you and your enemies have a 3x4 grid, and each attack has a certain range and power, forcing you to manage what skills you should equip for a certain situation. The customization is great, too. After battles, you get skill points, which can be spent on increasing your parameters or learning new skills, which forces more management. You have your traditional elemental opposition in this game, for example, fire and ice will do double damage to each other while a fire attack will do half damage against an enemy with the fire attribute. Skill names can sound pretty cheesy, but each word has a specific attribute, so you can tell what a skill does from reading the name. For example, Mega Flare Rush would mean it's the 3rd level of the "Flare Rush" ability, and Flare indicates the Fire element, while Rush indicates it is one of Atsuma's abilities. There are also some nice touches to battles, such as when you are directly behind an ally on the grid and both of you are hit by an enemy attack, the one behind will take half damage. If there are three people, the third person will take 0 damage. This forces you to think during the harder battles. Also, there is an auto attack button and you can actually fast forward battles by holding the Y button. The fast forward option is wonderful for times when you don't want to watch animations over and over, or just don't want slow paced battles. On top of all of this, there's a Pokemon like golem system, so there are hundreds of golems to collect, all of which can be used on either Xbox Live or during regular battles. There's also a casino that offers Roulette, Slots, and Bingo. This is great for getting money when you don't want to fight.
9/10
Enchanted Arms is a terrible underrated and overlooked title, and I recommend you pick it up if you like JRPGs, or are looking for one to start with.