Overall score on pook's 100-point system (TM): 82 or just 8. A great introduction to the tactics genre, and a fun, though not very complex game in general that keeps you playing "just a few more turns".
-the breakdown-
Graphics (24/30, judged by era)- Pretty nice overall. Wide variety of allies and enemies with decent animation. Environments, while not terribly intricate in design, are well-drawn. Decent but not overly impressive spell effects, but very nicely drawn character portraits, which change expression and help a bit with story-telling.
Sound- FX/Voice (8/10) From spells to gunshots to slashes of weapons, the sounds are
nicely recorded, mostly useful as opposed to ambient.
Sound- Music (7/10) A nice RPG-style soundtrack mixing typical orchestral with traditional Japanese. A variety of tunes repeat during battles, but they cycle through pretty often. Other tracks accompany non-battle portions, and story sequences.
Gameplay- Length/Lastability/Replay (15/15) A good-length game. The base game can take a good 25 hours or so, provided you do a little of the Phantom Realm (non-required levels mainly for training characters). There isn't much replay value, so this is mainly worth experiencing once.
Gameplay- Story: (4/5) A game with a large and varied cast of ally characters, each of whom has a different personality, some of whom have interwoven stories with other characters. The story is basic at the core (evil guy wants ultimate power) but the characters come alive a bit through the dialog, and through each character's unique tie to the main story, set in a fictionalized historical Japan.
Gameplay- Game Design (24/30)- A well-crafted, if basic, tactical RPG. This is a fantastic game for introducing people to the genre. It doesn't feature in-between battle town sequences or much of anything. It basically goes battle-story-party selection-battle. The game isn't terribly deep in any respect, although the item creation and improving is nicely done, allowing you to make weapons, armor, and items from stones acquired by defeating enemies. Different type of stones combine to create these. In turn, the items can be powered-up by infusing them with "souls" also gathered by defeating foes. You're encouraged to vanquish all foes on a map (though some have specific-target objectives) because of this. The game is very lenient-characters who die revive after battle, and the worst that can happen is you lose and have to start the episode over. Spells can be cast as well and there are a decent number of them, many actually quite useful. Character classes are set, so this isn't something you need to worry about. The battles range from pretty easy to moderately-difficult. There are only a few that are pretty tough, and you may find yourself needing to visit the Phantom Realm a few times to level up a little (which is fun once or twice to do, and not needed much more than that). Thankfully, though the game is fairly straightforward as tactics games go, the battles move fast-15-20 minutes each, with a couple of minutes of party prep before each. You can save anytime as well, making this an excellent pick-up-and-play game that is so fast-moving you're tempted to play "just one more battle". With nearly 50 episodes and the Phantom Realm, there's a decent amount to do.
**Final Thoughts- This has roundly been called the least among the current crop of GBA tactics games, but I found it extremely enjoyable and somewhat addicting. I can see why it's been criticized, as some people really like the depth and complexity that most other tactics games offer. If you don't mind a more stripped-down tactics game, or haven't tried a tactics game before and don't know if you have the patience for one, I'd definitely recommend starting here.
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