If you are looking for a good DS-rpg, look no further!
Story and Characters:
Not really much to say about it, it's a typical classic Final Fantasy storyline (very similar to FF1, hence the many references in this game to it): for some reason, some kids are chosen by the crystals to be the heroes of light, and you must travel the world to conquer all evil. Meaning: you travel from town to town to help the locals with their problems (mostly an evil character that you must defeat). Fans of Dragon Quest and the early FF's definetly know what I'm talking about!
The characters haven't got much background initially, but you get to know their personalities a little bit better when they get seperated and travel alone for a while.
Conclusion: not really fantastic, but the standard you'd expect from a classic RPG.
Gameplay:
The travelling part of the game is really classic: you have a world map screen where you can travel to towns or dungeons, and you randomly encounter enemies. In every town there are shops to buy items, weapons, equipment, magic.. or inn's if you want to restore your health, also nothing much new here.
No, what's really new is the battle system, the gem system and the crown system.
The battle system is called the ABPS (action battle point system), where every action you make in battle (or some in the field) consume battle points. Each character has 5 battle points to spend, and that is fixed for the entire game. As I said before, every action consumes battle points (for example: attacking 1, basic magic 2), which regenerate 1 by 1 each turn. You also have the option to boost: defend and regenerate 1 BP extra. This makes battles really interesting and challenging, because you really need to think forward and not just in your current turn: the game punishes you if you're without BP's to make smart decisions you could normally make by F.E. completely destroy you when you can't cure yourself. This combined to the fact that grinding don't make much difference (enemies level up with you!) makes this game a tough but delicious cookie, because you can't really overpower yourself. If you are already playing it: yeah I know that the solo-travel parts are REALLY hard..
The crown system and the gem system are somewhat related so I shall discuss them both at the same time. Crowns are, well uhm... crowns that you can equip and give you special powers (comparable with the job systems in f.e. FF3, FF5 or DQ9). There is a black mage crown, a thief crown, a paladin crown... wich all have different stat bonusses and abilities. You can change them whenever you like, so you can customise your party entirely anytime. Defeated enemies have the possibility to drop various gems who differ in value and functionality. With those gems, you can upgrade your weapons and your crowns, or you just can sell them for a decent amount of cash (wich I actually not really recommend because you WILL miss them if you upgrade weapons/crowns). This creates a freedom to what to spend your gems on, and not having the need to overuse a crown to upgrade it (like in FF5).
Overall, the gameplay feels really smooth, the menu looks kinda good but is sometimes a bit slow for the unpatient gamer but that don't spoil the gameplay-fun :).
Graphics:
The graphics are really nice, kinda 'old school meets 3D'-ish and are fun to look at. The towns are very original and all have their own theme, but the dungeons differ only in wall-layout (if that's a word).
Music:
The music isn't one of the strong parts of this game, it sounds like nes-music, only slightly enhanced, and is very repetetive. What I do like about it, is that the music changes whether you're in danger in battle or not, it gives an extra caution-boost.
In general, this game is really fun to play, but has his minor flaws. If you own a ds, you like challenges and you are an RPG fan, this game is really worth to buy!