I actually got it as a Christmas present so $0 is what I paid.

That said, I'd say this game is worth about $30 to me at best.  At $20, I don't think you can go wrong.  

Just be forewarned that the worst part of the whole game (aside from the Temple of Lightning) is the first 2 chapters.  Once you hit Chapter 3, it finally feels like the game has started moving.

thanks

As another who just completed the game, I agree a lot with WoW but disagree on other things. I actually liked Emil. At the beginning of the game, he was AAAANNNNOOOOYING. I hated him, I thought he was REALLY emo, and whiny. But as you progress through the game, and as he gets stronger, his personality begins to change and he isn't as pathetic.

I was originally concerned with the story at first, but I actually feel the story is equal to the original. It's original, it fits in with the original story and it makes sense. The characters are IMMENSELY better for dialogue and the skits are amazing.

I was also concerned with the monsters and lack of map movement, but it all made sense too. How you obtain the monsters fits in with the story, and they are very helpful, sometimes more helpful than the ToS characters.

I agree with the part about Lloyd and also am disappointed you don't get to use him until later on in the game.

Another Pro is that you can play as any of the ToS characters when they're in your party, though they have set movesets so if you were expecting to use the higher tiered artes, you might be SOL.

What I didn't like about the game. No Kratos, minus his brief narration at the beginning. Colette was the only playable character whose voice actor carried over from the original. The battles did have that feeling WoW described. TOO easy, or TOO hard. I think that's about it. :)

The story is a hit or miss thing, I found it crappy but to each their own.

As for the characters vs monsters, the characters were utterly useless.  The monsters were flatout better.  They did more damage at every step of the game.  When a character is dealing 300-500 damage and the monster is swinging for 3000-4000 damage, it really kind of breaks any sense of balance between the two.  I mean, the monsters do more damage with a regular attack than most characters can do with their best arte and a combo.

B + A for 2-3 seconds ends cutscenes btw. :)

That would have been helpful like 2 months ago.  As it is that just means I complain about having to push 2 buttons instead of 1 button and a confirm message.

Presea does. After I finished the game, I read up on all the characters on wikipedia, voice actors etc, and she kept her original Voice Actor.

I've already started my 2nd playthrough. Will probably do 1 or 2 more after this one, just to see everything. :D

There is one reason that this entire game is stupid, Marta is the most powerful caster in any Tales game when she has all the right items and title since you can cast divine saber and prism sword spam with a cost of 1tp each with both being instant casts, on top of having a ridiculous ground combo when you spam A. way too retarded powerful. oh and her mystic arte heals everybody and does a crazy amount of damage too. I haven't seen any other caster in any Tales game being able to do what she does. Mania Mode is pussy mode when Marta is geared up.

Check this out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6a8sd04uyiw

it's titled: Marta is broken, he has a point... way to go tales team, lol

And without the internet, most ToS2 players would probably have never even noticed that combination.

Now I bet everyone is using it.