Worst one of the series, most dungeons have convoluted leveldesign while being not that various in terms of secrets compared to Ys VI (2003, this game is 2005 btw), retarded placement of enemies and checkpoints, also dumb platformer sections that even some bossfights have.
Hard difficulty will rape your ass, there's differences in bossfights too because of it.
Grindy shit overall, can't say anything good about it.
Abandoned right at the last bossfight