I had the game for a year before I played it, I finally did and I'm glad I trucked through it.
(I'm still in that rut to some extent today even) so I decided to play through it. It wasn't the most memorable game ever, but it did have things going for it.
Game play: The game play was pretty unique to most RPG's I think as far as the combat system goes, it was an action battle system, you move as the enemies do, which sounds like an action RPG, but at the same time, rather than see monsters on the field, you get random encounters, which is rather annoying. Aside from combat, things are pretty generic aside from two things. You actually own (or run) a manufacturing company. So you can produce your own goods, and even one of the games legendary weapons. You have to find blueprints throughout the world, but some are definitely worth it. Another thing you can do which was my favorite, was combine two weapons to make a new one. I don't recall a time when I had a lousy weapon, because I was ALWAYS able to make a new one if I needed to.
On a side note, this game can be either easy, or VERY hard. There is one thing that determines this. Money, if you have enough money, you can stay maxed out on potions and healing items. (Believe me, the game is hard enough to where you will actually need to be spamming at least 1-2 potions every fight or so if you're not over-leveled for the area). If you can keep up with funding to stay stocked up on potions, you will do just fine.
Graphics: The graphics for this game were very good in my opinion. They used cell-shaded graphics for the characters and maybe some of the scenery (I'm no expert). If you equip a different weapon, you will notice, because in battle your weapons appearance will change as well. Another cool thing was that you could find different outfits to change your characters appearance throughout the game, which was a nice touch. plus, the game had some CGI scenes that were very nice, and really complimented the scene/story at the time and the game overall.
Sound: The sound was pretty good. Sound effects for attacking etc all seemed to be in order, menus and the like. The music in the game was ok. I say this because there were very few memorable songs for me. If I were to think back to an area with music I really liked, I could probably only name 2-3. Not to say the music was bad, it just wasn't enough to make me says "I wish more games had music like that". Though, the memorable ones really did catch my attention.
Value: Once you beat the game, If you're the kind of person that likes to play through again you get a sort of "plus" mode. You keep your decked out character and go through again, getting a few new items here and there. For me, once I beat an RPG, I really can't replay it immediately, I need to wait about 2-3 years and forget most of the events that happened so that it isn't terribly tedious to replay. Overall, this was a fun game, it isn't the best RPG of all time, it may not be revolutionary (though it does bring some very cool features you don't see much to the table), it is still a great RPG. You can feel for the characters in most situations, especially one, who has a darker past then most of the cast.
Though I'll save the spoilers for a post where people have already played the game; So, to wrap things up, if you haven't played it, and you like RPGs. Stop sitting around and go buy it or rent it (only took me about 27 hours to beat, and I grinded a lot to keep my characters maxed), it really is worth your while to give it a shot.