I'm just not a JRPG guy. The game is enjoyable enough for me to have wanted to keep playing, but by the end it was just too much. I liked the characters a lot but that's really the only thing. You hear them talk so damn much it would be an embarrassment if they weren't somewhat likable by the end. The story is only serviceable and the game is basically a hallway. The end of the game blasts you with cutscenes (somehow more so than the rest of the game) then places you in the most insufferable final dungeon. I'd say the ending soured me but in retrospect nothing in the entire game really wowed me. Combat and mechanics exceeded my preferred complexity which meant I spent 99% of the game playing Alphen and using the same few moves. Probably not a problem for existing fans. My driving force was that I wanted the two main characters to kiss and It ended up being DISAPPOINTING.

This is apparently the most accessible Tales game so it's not likely I will be playing any more in the series. I will appreciate them from afar.