The very first of many 3D nis games, as someone who has played a lot of their previous 2D games I can safely say that this is definitely on the lower end of quality and much less polished or enjoyable than its spiritual sucessor which is in my top 5. As in any nis game the characters and story are charming but not enough to keep the barebones grindy gameplay any more fun. All of the mechanics you unlock throughout are gained early on and never become any more in depth than they are from about the 4th chapter and even the story, which I found to be the most enjoyable part, takes a turn in the last three chapters of the game when at the end of the 11th chapter there's a surprise twist into a full chapter of just lore dumps which almost made me stop caring about finishing the game entirely. This doesn't even take into account how stupid the requirements to get the true ending are, with you needing to grind for hours to kill three optional bosess scattered throughout the game's areas only one of which is likely to be found during a normal playthrough due to how dissuaded you are from exploring because of the game's combat system. Add to all of this the frequent crashes of the ps3 edition and I quit actually playing the game before the conclusion of the 11th chapter, choosing to view the cutscenes on youtube instead. I cannot give this game more than two stars and if you value your sanity I recommend only playing a bit of the game yourself and viewing the rest online.