Good game, but I've played similar games half-to-death by now
Graphics: Okay, I want to start with this games strong point. This game does have some amazing graphics, beautiful cell shading that is very inspired by various anime's. It has decent lighting and most of the story progresses through real-time engine, but it does have some pretty cool CG Movies in it that seamlessly flow together with the real-time movies. I personally thought the CG movies took away from the experience.
Story: Game spot hit the nail on the head, think of Star Wars meet Japan. Like all of these Sci-Fi JRPG, you start out as a teenager with dreams of going into space and exploring and eventually saving the galaxy and then in that same day a totally over the top event happens and your fate is turned and your destiny begins to unravel. Heard it before? I sure a HELL have! As you progress on it does start to get pretty decent when it goes into the background of all the characters and such but then (LIKE ALL JRPG's) a VERY STUPID and uncharacterist event happens towards the end of the game that makes everything just uninspired and just well.....dumb! On the good side all the characters are beaming with personality, you have your teenage female with a secret past she is on a quest to find, A midget Irishman names Simon, your Indian woman warrior, A VERY USELESS and STUPID LIZARDMAN SCIENTIST! Teenage hero with a powerful hidden power, Cocky, sarcastic, greedy swordsman (my favorite). A Bulldog man(seriously) with a gun hand and wields a gigantic axe, and...........get ready for it.........A GAY ROBOT! YES A GAY ROBOT! Story does it's job but is more just an excuse to traverse really really long dungeons which is fun at first but doesn't hold it's own for long. Gameplay: It does excel here...for awhile. It is all Real-Time. It is a mixer of some of the better RPG's for past and present RPG's however it just doesn't do what all the ones it borrows from nearly as well as they do. It has elements of battle like Kingdom hearts and Darkcloud. You have your melee attack and then you can switch up to a long range projectile, think devil may cry with a RPG, not that amazing though. It has a ability system much like the classic FFX sphere system but instead of gaining AP you can get new skills and such by collecting certain items and putting them all together I did enjoy this aspect. All your partners you are not using do level up along with you, so that is a plus. As you use your weapons you will gain experience with them and once it is "maxed" you can combine two maxed weapons and make a new weapon all together. The gameplay starts out very strong and you can get pretty into it but as you play it, you will feel like you are doing the same thing OVER AND OVER AND OVER! It doesn't ever mix up the game with mini-games or really any sidequest, there are little hunts like in FF12 but they were all very simple no brainers. Also after awhile you will be playing in one dungeon for about....6 hours....It gets very boring seeing the same monsters over and over and over. Also the game is very generous with money and items which can heal both your magic power and health you shouldn't ever really feel at a threat of a game over. It has character combo attacks similar to that of Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross but they are pretty useless, there is a couple characters that have attacks you can get early on in the game that wipes out everybody on the screen in a second, it's your choice to use it though. Boss Fights are cool but very easy as well, there are one or two that will some what challenge you through the course of the game but that is about it. The game wants to be epic in it's battle but frankly....you PROBABLY WON'T CARE! BY THE LATER COUPLE CHAPTERS YOU WILL JUST WANT TO BE DONE WITH THE DAMN GAME! Sound: It has some beautiful music on it! One of my favorite parts of the game! The attack sounds are same old "SLASH" and "BOOM" you hear from every game with swords and explosives. It takes about 30 seconds to realize this game has a great orchestral score on it, and it continues from the start to finish. I really enjoyed it. Difficulty: It is difficult until you figure out the controls and the battle system once you realize you have a block and attack button...you should really die after that. Plain and simple. SIMPLE EASY RPG! Replay Value: I won't be playing it again, I only half-way enjoyed it the first time through, and I think I beat it at 40 Hours on the dot, and I did mostly everything I thought of.
Summary: Good enough game, does it's job and has it's place in the PS2 but not in my heart. Good game, but same been there done that 20 times before. Sorry Mr. Rogue, you were on the swan song for the PS2 RPGs.