Beat on loan from my coworker. I found the main premise of the game distasteful; how the 2 protagonist are half breeds between a human woman and one of the beast races (which I think are ancient bio weapons created through genetic engineering). A lot like Terra from FF6. As such rather than rooting for them I would have rather seen them be put down like the abominations they are. Gameplay wise I slightly preferred Kharg and his good guy team. Maru was the most powerful with his bow but I disliked his character concept; too young and annoying, I kept wanting to punch him in the face. The big solder guy is more my type of character. Paulina was good as a healer and with her lesser range attack while scientist woman was not the most useful in combat.

Darc's party was more difficult, especially early on given that he is more of a battle mage and orc girl is more of a rogue; no healer or tank until later. But the personalities and bickering made these characters far more interesting. Wolf guy is a badass and I loved using Bebedora's mind control. I sided with Kharg during the battle between the 2 parties. At the end I am pretty sure my party for the final boss was: Kharg, Darc, Maru, wolf, Paulina and Bebedora. I did most if not all content and I think I got both optional characters.

I liked the tactical combat system, which was far more engaging than typical menu based Jrpg combat. However I did find that certain characters would hog xp by being great warriors and getting most of the kills, causing them to become disproportionately more powerful and thus getting more kills and xp, while weaker characters lagged behind. I also liked having 2 separate parties and the many differences between them. Most important is how the party size is 6 and each has 5 members + 1 optional. So no one has to sit out of combat until near the end of the game. Would buy and play again; 8.0/10.