As if my growing pile of DS Atlus RPG's hadn't bloated my backlog enough, I decided to go ahead and purchase this before it got very hard to find.
The game basically plays like a 16 bit RPG. Bad for some, excellent for people like me who feel like FF VI and Chrono Trigger have not been surpassed. Two major things with the game:
1) The battle system. It is arranged on a 3x3 grid and characters develop skills to essentially knock enemies together in one square of that grid. Then, when that grid is attacked every enemy that resides there takes damage. You can also swap turns with enemies and allies alike to set up combos. I haven't done a ton with the battle system yet as I've barely made it out of the prologue, but it's fun and engaging.
2) Time Travel. Ok, not time travel in the sense that you can go back to periods in history. There are numerous points during the game that can go one way or another depending on your actions. Some lead directly to death, some just alter your path. If you make a bad decision you use a book called the White Chronicle to turn back time to that pivotal point and change your actions. It's a neat concept that again I haven't been able to fully explore yet.
The graphics aren't terrible. They aren't the best either. The animations are pretty subpar though. The main character has three frames for running. It sticks out like a sore thumb. But so far though the story has held my interest. Looks like one of the last great games in the DS' life. Probably not a large print, so if you are remotely interested I'd go ahead and grab it. It comes with a soundtrack CD that contains 5 piano renditions of various tracks in the game.
