It's a mixed bag. The story, atmosphere and voice acting are excellent. The game is worth playing for those alone.

However, the game part is very clunky. Combat never really feels good. Boss fights are gimmicky which is okay since the combat is really not very good.
Level design is confusing and it's easy to lose your way.
Many, many, too many box puzzles. They even throw respawning enemies in box puzzle rooms which gets irritating.
I hope the sequel is better. I plan to play it eventually.

I consider this to be an okay game. Got a lot of flaws, like weird dialogue, (maybe the translation isn't that good). Repetitive music which is just ok, nothing amazing. I didn't find the story and especially the story telling engaging.

It's got good gameplay though.
It's an action game with some rpg elements. You are awarded stat point upgrades when you clear a room for the first time. Always felt rewarding. You also have a life system which I didn't really understand the point of. You're most likely to die at a boss, and the save points are always just before the boss so you can just reload your most recent save. I ended up with 9 lives until I reached the end of the game, and at the end when I used them all, my character would just revive at the most recent point anway.

Level design is adequate with some light puzzles thrown in. The pace is pretty good, you can finish this in around 13 hours. Doesn't overstay its welcome.

Not missing much by not playing this one. Maybe Terranigma is better? I haven't played that yet.

I consider this to be an okay game. Got a lot of flaws, like weird dialogue, (maybe the translation isn't that good). Repetitive music which is just ok, nothing amazing. I didn't find the story and especially the story telling engaging.

It's got good gameplay though.
It's an action game with some rpg elements. You are awarded stat point upgrades when you clear a room for the first time. Always felt rewarding. You also have a life system which I didn't really understand the point of. You're most likely to die at a boss, and the save points are always just before the boss so you can just reload your most recent save. I ended up with 9 lives until I reached the end of the game, and at the end when I used them all, my character would just revive at the most recent point anway.

Level design is adequate with some light puzzles thrown in. The pace is pretty good, you can finish this in around 13 hours. Doesn't overstay its welcome.

Not missing much by not playing this one. Maybe Terranigma is better? I haven't played that yet.