I realy don't like this game...
I don't know much about the games story because I only got to level three because its so hard.
The boss fights are infuriatingly difficult and you'll spend hours trying to beat them. The combat is clumsy and you don't damage the enemies very much, but they can tear you apart with four moves. The blocking is useless when you fight more that one enemy (and you always do fight more than one). You have a little team of characters when you do a level and you can switch between them whenever you like. You unlock more characters as you progress through the story. When you finish a level you return to Maia's palace, but there's nothing to do there except start new levels, talk to people or train with another character (But this is so hard its not fun). This game is so difficult its maddening, even on the first level its insanely difficult.
The graphics are good for a 2002 game, there's blood when you manage to slice someone and the shadows look alright but everything else looks very basic but that's 2002 for you.
The A.I isn't smart its just strong, they can hack you up easily with sheer strength.
The sound track is alright but the swords sound a bit over the stop and the clash sound when you block an attack sounds over the top too.
Overall this is a poor game and should be avoided, at most rent it first.