Horrendous loading times/10
Before I say anything else about the loading times, I feel this is the most important downside of it all. The loading times put stress on the PSP battery. My PSP lasts 8 hours with sound on full blast with other games, but with this one it lasts approximately 4 with absolutely no sound on, thanks to the loading times. Do not expect to take this game on the go without a car charger.
The game has a loading wait of about 15-20 seconds between each screen transition, about 4 seconds to load each and every attack, about 6 seconds to load a new portrait when people are talking, 2-3 seconds to load up the moving grid, etc. Add on top of that the game's tendency to slow down really badly. The game is virtually unplayable and as Game Informer said, it really does take the patience of a saint to make it through. I have discovered a way to get the battles to move very quickly, but it makes this visually unimpressive game even less impressive as it involves turning off battle animations and movement. No more loading times during battle, yay! (unfortunately you still have loading times for screen transitions and portraits being loaded, but the main focus of the game is combat so that shouldn't be a problem for people with nominal patience). Lots of fans of the game are really trying to downplay the loading times as no big deal, and in most games when people say "terrible loading times" it isn't a big deal. But with Spectral Souls for the PSP, this is simply not the case and the loading times really are that much of a hinderance. This is the only game I have ever thought bad of for loading times, and I've played PS1 launch titles like Discworld and Blazing Dragons which both have long loading times (absolutely nothing compared to this game though.) In all honesty it is a shame, because this game is good and has a good story, and I would recommend it with a much higher score had we seen a PS2 version or something without the ridiculous loading times.
That being said, those of us who are saintly can expect to find these things in the game:
I had mixed feelings about the graphics in this game. While the landscapes are beautifully detailed, everything else is... bleh. The sprites are 2D and the world map is ugly. The character portraits aren't really anything special that I haven't seen in a hundred other anime styled RPG's that decided to go with portraits over cinemas. Yeah, no cinemas either... even the opening "cinema" shows no animation, it just moves character portraits across the screen. In addition to that, the attacks, while most look pretty cool, do not always load. The spell Purify, in particular, tends to not load the animation, which should be a pillar of white light coming down on the target. Not very good at all considering the PSP's power and the power of the PS2 which is what this title originally came from.
The sound in this game is rather irritating. The opening theme to the game is pretty good, but the rest of the music is not really fitting for the atmosphere and very very repetive. There's about 5 different sound effects that get reused for weapons and no sound effects for most spells and items. Sure, there's a little voice acting in combat, the standard "YA!" when they swing a sword and of course each character says something when they level up, but there's no voiced over dialogue which is a let down. Why hire voice actors and not do any voice overs? I prefer to play this game with the sound off to save on the battery (and that's a rarity for me as I am one who believes that music makes the game).
The game is not very hard. Many a battle that I got slaughtered in on my first try, I simply changed my line up or my strategy (or both) and was able to over come it. I have yet to need to go to the open dungeons to level up my characters. This is a very positive aspect as I despise strategy rpg's that throw out situations where if its too tough the only solution is to level up and come back and try again. The battle system is simplistic, but interesting and unique at the same time, and impressed me. Your character moves and performs all actions using AP. Characters tend to have around 15-20 total and actions tend to take 3-6 AP and movement 6. With this system, Magic Points used in most other RPG's do not exist, which makes your mage type characters a bit more useful even at lower levels than mage types in other games. Items also use AP in this way, but as with other games, they are limited by how many you are carrying. To attack you have 2 options: Skills and Charge. If you use Skills, you will instantly act. If you use Charge, you will hold your action and go after the next ally uses the Skills command on your target. A Charge attack will be interrupted if the target moves or if the user is hit. Whether you choose to use Skills or Charge, you can execute a Hold attack if you have a lot of AP remaining. When you use a Hold attack you chain together multiple attacks, possibly creating stronger attacks in the process. Using Hold in conjunction with Charge can create high chains and increase the EXP gained exponentially.
The story in this game is also another gem. Its a deep story that can be altered by using different armies to clear the Historical Moments that appear. The Historical Moments are the only points that actually change the story and how it changes depends on which of the three armies you clear it with. While not affecting the storyline, you can affect what events appear by using different armies at different times. For instance, the Simba army could have the option to attack a fort, but instead you do events for the Neverland army, that option to attack the fort could very well disappear for the Simba army.
The story of this game is that of Neverland. In the opening, the land is ruled over by the Neverland Empire, the demon empire. The humans are not content with this and they rebel against the Neverland Army and reform the Simba Empire of ages past in the name of humans. As if the conflict between two established nations isn't enough to create an interesting game, the reappearance of the deceased Overlord's daughter and her search for a certain sword caused the Simba Army to seek out this sword first to protect it, but the sword's bearer could not stand for this. She could not allow it to fall into the hands of demons for what they would do with it, but she does not trust the Simba Army either because they started the war and the sword would not even be sought after if they hadn't. Thus, the Rozess Army is created, in the name of creating a peaceful world for both humans and demons. How it all resolves depends on what you choose to do.
This game has an extremely fun battle system, but mediocre graphics and sound and extremely and ridiculously long loading times that can be reduced significantly only by reducing the visual quality of the game. If you don't care how a game looks, or you have the patience of a saint, and want a fun strategy rpg, then this game is for you. If not, stay the hell away from this title.