Clumsy and frustrating. For Veterans only.
Primarily the camera angles are awkward and make it hard to traverse the landscapes quickly or easily. In addition, other controls such as the using items buttons, are multi-tasked, so half the time you end up using key items instead of sheathing your weapon. Granted on a system like a PSP there are precious few buttons to use and the in game item using is intended to sustain entertainment, but it is annoying to use your rations continually instead of putting away your weapon.
Another major problem I found was the heavy and clumsy fighting mechanism. A button once pushed is hard to rectify, so if a target is missed the combo continues, resulting in you being easily attacked from behind. This makes the gameplay extremely hard to control and at some times, downright frustrating when battling agile foes. Coupled with the bad controls and camera angles, this leaves a major part of the game dwindling behind the hype.
This may be personal preference, but I find the lack of any leveling up process annoying. In my opinion this dismisses any sense of achievement as you watch you character grow and instead you stay with the same level of health and attack (if the weapon is kept the same) leaving it so enemies are as hard to kill at the beginning of the game as at the end, and fighting relies entirely on technical skill which many people may lack or simply do not know how to build on (much like me).
The game not being such a hit in the UK as it has been in Japan means that it is rare to have a friend playing the game as well. this means the multiplayer section of the game is entirely defunct. Because I have never used this feature, I do not know whether some of them problems ease or seem important in this type of gameplay, so for those of you that are only buying to play with your friends then I cannot be sure in a rating. But if you are like me and are only going to be playing on your own then the game is completely lacking.
Overall this game has several major problems with the basic gameplay that leave it a lot lacking, and unless you are a die hard veteran of the series and have the patience to put up with the shenanigans of a childhood favorite, this game will leave you frustrated and begging for your money back.