This is the pinnacle of handheld game design to me: story content is separated from side missions, which are mostly just combat in dungeons, and you can switch from one to the other at any save point. This means that I can do a bunch of missions while doing something else or when I can't listen to the sound, and I can do the story content when I can fully pay attention to it. Also, it means that if you are getting rocked by the story content, you can do side missions to level up instead of fighting trash in your current dungeon.

I think the combat is good. I think the DMW is an interesting idea and adds to Zack's character and the emotional content of some of the set pieces. I don't think the main story is particularly good, but Zack is a fun character and that carried it for me.