Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

40 to 100 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Underappreciated"

Namco really surprised me with this one. I have never felt as engaged in story as I was while playing this game. The story is absolutely fantastic. It's the tale of a group of friends who grow up together and abolish the forces that try to destroy their friendship, all in the midst of a war. The way the heroes interract with each other is really special and every scene is very emotionally driven. Very rarely do we see a game that puts such an emphasis on the importance of friendship. It's the combat, however, that keeps you coming back for more. They took an approach similar to SquareEnix's Star Ocean: Last Hope International, but really expanded on it in a big way. A great thing about this game is the significance of defense and the parry. Not only is it vital to your survival, but in order to attack you have to charge your AP through the use of defense. The difficulty in this game is perfect. It's certainly not easy, but you won't go crazy trying to beat it. There's enough challenge here to keep combat fun and engaging. Including the future arc, which is an awesome addition, the game will take about 40 hours to beat. The only minor flaw that the game carries is that it doesnt have an on screen map but its still pretty hard to get lost so it's not a big deal. Otherwise, I can't say a bad thing about this game. It's one of my favorites and I recommend it to all PS3 owners.