However, that dosent mean there arent some things in the game thats really bugging me, Figured id point them out here and see if anybody else feels the same way?

Well for starters, During the dialogue scenes, All the characters speech is through pop up-speech bubbles, Kinda comic book style. However there is also a gigantic brown box that pops up and covers 1/3rd of the artwork on the screen. The speech bubbles always pop up on top of that brown box as well, Couldnt the fine folks that devolped this game have either went with the speech bubbles OR a big box at the bottom that they could shove the character portraits and the text in? I know that dosent seem like a huge thing, especially if the core game is still fun, but it still dosent belong there and when your trying to design a game that people are going to go spend 40 dollars on, Dont you want it to look more professional than something out of one of the RPG maker (games).

^ Seriously, Whats the point of covering half the already mediocre visuals, With a giant ugly box? Especially when you already have your text bubble. It dosent make any sense to me^

Its a Ps2 game, and a Nippon Icchi game at that...I understand Nippon Icchi is a small company and probably dosent have alot of money to shove around. But..this game would be low budget in the ps1 days.  The battle sequences range from serviceable to fantastic in terms of sprite design and animation, but the out of battle stuff. From the world map design, with a constant flood of poorly drawn sprites running across the screen with no reason at all to be there. Some sprites are nice and clean, others are blocky and fuzzy. The map textures while journying back and forth are also muddied and the map design in general is boring and uninspired.

Now, as I've said, Ive put about 10 hours into this game so far today, and im going to continue with it..despite these problems and many more, this game has a certain charm to it. NiS is very much a hardcore RpG company, and I love them for it, but their last couple outings Mana Khemia, Disgaea 3, Cross Edge..just seem like they are cutting corners. Are they just shooting a couple blanks and will recover, come back guns blazing and kick my ass for typing this post. Or are they a company thats reached the end of their creative ropes? Or am I just crazy and making all this up in my head?

Any thought from any hardcore fans of these franchises would be great! Just no fanboy rage.