Before purchasing this game I had found that the general consensus on this title was that it was a solid play with quite a few glaring flaws. For some, these flaws break the entire experience, however I find that there's little detail about exactly what makes this fairly unique adventure almost unplayable for some. Now, you'll notice I've given this game 5 stars, and yet I'm simultaneously bashing it, and this is because I want to get all the bad out of the way first, so that I can move on to what about this game makes it the most fun I've had in a while!I hear a lot about the graphics being bad, but I would mostly disagree. The environments and backdrops are breathtakingly gorgeous, along with beautiful landscapes creating appropriate lighting to set the mood for each atmosphere presented. The monsters in this game offer a lot visually as well, borrowing creatures from the collective mythologies of both Greece and Western Europe, and reimagining each in a way that is both horrifying and eye-catching, and in battle they move with a lot of fluidity. The graphics only start to be laughably bad when it comes to the character animations outside of battle. NPC's are definitely varied, and aren't bad looking; however this all falls apart as soon as you talk to, or interact with one of them. Their movements are rigid and robotic, the lip-syncing is completely off for all of them, even in cut-scenes.The story that's presented also receives a lot of flak, and while I cannot comment too heavily on it, since I haven't finished the game yet, I will say that I do like the premise of chasing after a dragon who has literally stolen and eaten your still-beating heart. I will comment on the whole "silent protagonist" thing though: while I understand it has been done well in many games I've never been a big fan of it in RPGs. I like dialogue trees, especially ones that can effectively change your relationship with another character. The old Infinity games did this rather well, you could piss someone off so much that they would either ignore you, or even attack you. It's obvious the developers are going for an old-school feel with this game, so why not an old-school dialogue system? They could have at least had your character react appropriately to certain things: Hydra head falls to ground in front of protagonist, head hisses in their face loudly, protagonist doesn't react. Maybe this has something to do with the whole missing heart thing (Don't tell me if it does) but I'm more prone to believe it's because the story aspect of this game seems to be mostly neglected.Despite how humungous I've made these small nitpicks out to be, I still really am in love with this game. On one of my days off work I sat down at 7 A.M. to start playing and did not stand up to shut it off until about 10 that same night. The actual mechanics and RPG aspects of this game make it highly addictive. A lot of people compare it to the "Souls" series (Dark, Demon, etc.) maybe because it's very rare to have a game that doesn't do a lot of hand-holding in this day and age. However I think a more apt comparison would be with "Shadow of the Colossus" with a blend of the original "Diablo", an action RPG with that whole climbing/hacking mechanic from SotC. There's a great deal of strategy involved when it comes to taking down most boss monsters, and this is where the game truly comes alive. There's also no fast-travel in this game, which means if you're travelling across the map you have to plan your route, as well as stock up on supplies, and be prepared if you get stuck out in the wilderness at night. In the dark you won't be able to see very far in front of you so you'll need your lantern, also the enemies become stronger and more frequent the darker it gets.One of the core mechanics of this game is the "pawn" system. Pawns are these humanoid creatures from beyond the rift who assist the protagonist in battle, as well as with advice, and spells. The pawns are essentially in-party NPC's who offer spells, attacks, and special moves depending on their class. This is where the only multiplayer aspect of the game shows up. toward the beginning you're able to create and customize your own pawn, deciding their appearance, class, every detail of their personality. Now, you create your pawn, and can choose to release it to the online community to let other players recruit in their parties. Likewise you too can recruit other player's pawns (Up to 3 pawns total, including your created pawn). You cannot do too much with other player's pawns though, with the exception of giving them items, and giving basic commands in battle. Pawn A.I. is fairly good though, for the most part they can take care of most enemies without you issuing any commands, and can work together with you and each other to pull off some pretty stylish combos.This game is great fun for anyone who likes a good Hack 'n' Slash RPG every now and again. The challenge is solid, if you find yourself bored with the hand-holding of many modern RPGs, then you may want to give this one a try before any of the Souls games, it definitely makes for a good stepping-stone between those and other modern RPGs.*Note: Get the "Dark Arisen" expansion version if you do not own the game. It costs about the same as the vanilla game, and it includes that, along with the expansion.UPDATE: I have effectively finished the game (Not including Bitterblack Isle) and I would like to use this space to give some post-game criticisms/praises. I am extremely lazy however, so I'll be giving them in the form of bullet points:*The Story: This is the one that recieves the most flak, and I don't really think it's the story itself that's bad, but rather the way it's told. Some story elements require you to backtrack to a certain location in order to trigger them without any indication that this is what you have to do. You also have to deal with some lackluster characterization, leaving the characters that we're supposed to be interested in, not too interesting. This whole approach leaves a lot of really cool ideas that go to waste, as plot elements aren't fleshed out extensively.One thing that I admire about the story, is that the slaying of Gregori isn't made out to be too urgent, as his sole purpose seemed to be to seek out an "Arisen" to challenge. This means that if you want to take that quest that has you slaying a specific number of goblins, go ahead, there's no rush. It would seem the dragon's sole purpose in life is to face you whenever you're ready, this achieves a certain level of immersion that not even bad lip synching can destroy.*The Graphics: I remember saying that the game was visually beautiful, and it is assuming you don't look too closely. The in-game textures and semi-robotic character animations make it seem like this game could have been an early PS3 release. There are also some pop-ins here and there, and I have had the framerate drop on me more than once (Nothing too bad, but it's still worth mentioning). Despite all of this, the game is still very colorful, with beautiful lighting and no two characters look identical.*The Pawns: I still feel that the Pawn AI exceeds all expectations (I just read somewhere that they actually will adapt their actions to your play-style). However, I do wish they would just shut the hell up...I've got nothing else to say on that topic.*The Conclusion: Despite the flaws my feelings are still the same. This game is loads of fun, and when I turn it on I still find myself playing for hours at a time. The level of entertainment that this game provides is definitely what gives it a 5-star rating.