My first JRPG and I dont regret it.
Graphics: Exceptional. Nice cell shaded cartoon look. I felt like I was watching a well made cartoon.
Camera: The static camera worked well and I had no issues with it but boy I wish I had control over it like I did in Overlord. I really would have liked to get a 360 look at the graphics or focus ahead of me sometimes.
Sound (music) was also Exceptional. I felt the classic music was well done and fitting to the environments that were presented.
Sound (environmental) I thought these too were exceptional in some locations, I really felt like I was outside at night. The atmosphere was well presented.
Sound (voice): Weaker then the other sound categories but not as bad as I thought I would be with children voices and all. They weren't too squeaky but a few were overplayed. Some of the acting was good, some not so much but none really horrible (English soundtrack was what I had it on)
Gameplay: The game is quite linear, but that's fine, it's the type of game it is, follow the path. The few times they had "puzzles" actually got a bit annoying because of respawning enemies. For the most part I liked how they did the turn base combat here, even though I expected not to like turn base at all. However it did wear on me after a time of running into the same creatures over and over (on a level) and by the halfway mark I was ready to be done with it.
That being said there is actually a good variety of enemies, it's just on a level you run into the same ones over and over until you move onto the next level. Also most enemies have different forms depending on if they are in light or shadow and this added an interesting strategic option to this game. I liked pretty much all my characters and had a hard time picking which ones I wanted to use (you can use 3 at a time) and you can equip them with lots of different stuff. So as I said there were a lot of options in combat. I think if there had not been respawning enemies or some of the spaces were more open so I could run past them easier and avoid some of the fights, I would not have gotten a bit bored with it.
Cut scenes: This game has them. This game has lots of them. This game has lots of LOOOONNNGGGG ones, you know, the kinds that end up pausing in the middle because your controller fell asleep. For the most part I didn't mind this. I quite enjoyed them and was engaged in the story. As I said it was like watching a good cartoon. I did have a problem with one cut scene....it was a death scene....the person wouldn't die, they just kept talking and talking. I also was a bit bored by the end cut scene. It went on for a long long long time and the game really didn't end up where I had hoped and seemed to go off track a bit. Still good though. Heck I even liked the still picture, Chopin history lesson stuff.
So all in all I give this game a thumbs up and am happy someone loaned it to me. I would recommend a purchase at full price and am considering buying it myself (as I had never played a JRPG I borrowed it from someone). However, even though I liked it and it was a nice long game, it's that very length that may preclude me from playing it again so it's hard to justify the purchase in that case. I do say this is a must play game for the 360 though if you even think you may like this type of game. (Though maybe true JRPG fans will disagree, I don't know, I found it fun).