This game is a great game all around, I can't say better than WA3 or the rest but it's still good nonetheless.
All in all this game is really good. It is very fast paced in terms of the story. You find out whose your enimes and whose your friends. Really it only takes you 30-60 minutes for you to get all 4 party members (Raquels the best). There are a few twists to the story that will make your jaw drop, and nothing else is hidden. One bad thing about this game is that it is short. Just like some of the other Wild arms. But there is a huge epilogue at the end which again I am not going to spoil.
Graphic wise, the game is all right though it is sort of out-dated. Also when you talk to people it's anime style. Another thing that is bad is that you have to read to much, usually in games now they speak instead of reading, here you have to read because they speak every so often.
Now Story and graphics aside the gameplay is amazing. The fighting system was well thought out it's hard to explain but i'll try my best.
When a battle begins, 7 hexagons are placed on the field – 4 non-elemental and 3 of varying elements. Your characters will start out in random hexes, sometimes together, sometimes apart. This is where strategy comes into play. Your spells, strengths and weaknesses all are reliant on what HEX you are standing on. If you have characters on a fire HEX and they are hit with a water spell, they will take more damage. Likewise, if they are hit with a fire spell, less damage will be taken. It's confusing but once you start playing you'll get the hang of it.
I read some people complaining about the platforming element in this game. I rather have it part platforming then just keep running back and forth or like in some final fantasies (i am not comparing i am just setting an example.) you fly in an aircraft or boat or some wierd thing like that. Anyway the game has puzzles that are easy to find out,a bit to easy. It's enjoyable but sometimes gets annoying that you can find out how to do the puzzle in less than a minute.
Remember the force ability 'Accelerator' that many of you are familiar with? Well it is no longer a force ability. Instead, you can use accelerator in dungeons. Accelerator allows you to speed up Jude, which in turn slows down all the items surrounding him. This allows you to get past puzzles where bridges may fall too fast, where platforms may rise and fall too fast, or generally where you see things moving at hyper speed. Though in dungeons sometimes there are hidden gella. And as you collected this gella, it would chain, meaning it would increasing the amount of every successive gella that you obtained while in accelerator mode.
Also some people were complaining about the voices I have a few things to say about that. One is that people were complaining about Jude's voice. One he is not supposed to have a manly voice, come on the kid is 13 his voice fit him perfectly. Also about the main bad guy sounding like a surfer, I don't get what your talking about the voice seems pretty good to me. One last thing about the voices, don't wreck on it anyway, this is the first WA to put voices in thier games.
Anyway all in all I say it's a Great game. Now for renting if you want be my guest it's not my life its yours. Now for the price I say that it is worth buying.
P.S. If I sounded to proffesional or proffesional at all sorry I just wanted to get my point across and explain as much as I can.