This game failed commercially, much to the surprise of many RPG gamers out there who praised it heavily for it's aesthetic values. Excuse me, but this game failed simply because it wasn't fun to play.
Yes, the graphics were very good. Yes, the cinema scenes were awesome and extremely well done (The opening sequence in particular.) Yes, the character animations were extremely fluid and well done. And the music is amongst the best I've ever heard in a video game.
But the game ultimatley suffers from "Metal Gear Syndrome", wherein the process of watching the game was for focused on by producers than actual gameplay.
Okay, actually, that may not be a fair statement. Upon hearing the gameplay features, it sounds pretty spiffy: You run around in real-time throughout dungeons and so on, solve puzzles, but mostly battle enemies. When you fight an enemy, you activate a range-grid which details what enemies are in range of your weapon, and target specific body parts. In addition, you can perform timed moves which add to your repertoire, both defensively and offensively. And of course, there's magic spells, and customizable weapons. Sounds great on paper, right?
Oh, noooooo. While the programmers were adding all these bells and whistles, they forgot to make it actually FUN. Rather, the combat which engrosses 90% of actual gameplay is slow, tedious, and one of the most acute pains in the ass I've ever had. Basically, it's real-time button mashing without the fun and satisfaction of fast action and smashing s*** up, and menu combat with the annoying factor of having to button mash to make sure you get a move in before the enemy does. Oh, and also there's the plague of unnecissarily slow spell and item sequences that you just sit around for for about seven seconds each. And on top of it, the game makes you switch weapons and armor every damn time you encounter a new kind of enemy.
It's also ironic that a game which such great cinema scenes has such a bad camera system during gameplay. It's hard to see everything around you, and the first part of the game is too damn dark to see half the things you need to. Great way to start off.
So, use caution when approaching this game: love it for the cinema and music, hate for the crap gameplay, and question the fashion sense of hero Ashley and villain Sydney, who both dress like male prostitutes. In the end, I'm not going to suffer through crap gameplay just to see the next pretty cinema sequence.