Got the game today, could only put 2 hours into it due to work related stuff. Anyhow, picked Elf because I was interested in the more versatile melee/ranged combination and so far it's been good fun, even though I'm yet at the "try to air combo but in reality mash buttons and do stuff" phase, lol.
I really, really enjoy the presentation, though. It's not just the graphics themselves, which are gorgeous 2D as expected of Vanillaware, as much as every little detail that's been put into it. I was commenting with a friend on how even the character select screen was pretty funny, with all of the classes together having a good time and you could just hear different lines by them as you cycled through the guys, as if it was... well, if not a real "conversation" (or as close to one as you could have in a bar), at least trying to emulate such. And then the other artistic little tidbits such as the resurrection screens with the little angels and what not, it all blends really well to make for a fascinating experience.
Also, I saw a bunch of people a bit annoyed by the narrator, and while it's true that they could've made some of the objective lines a bit les repetitive, the idea itself is pretty great and adds a ton to the game. It really complements that D&D style-ish they were going for perfectly.
Another thing I'm enjoying, and I imagine this might make the game reaaaaaally long for me is the whole exploration aspect of it, with the hidden items and stuff. I reckon it might be a bit of a pain on the PS3, but with the Vita's touchscreen it's really fun to just search around places for hidden treasure. I find it pretty nice the way they did, seeing as it both rewards you wth items while, at the same time, making it so that you're always paying very close attention to all the breathtaking areas they came up with. So far, at least, I've yet to the feel the urge to just run through things til the next set of enemies, and that's pretty good.
Oh, and lol, I find it midly amusing that you can't actually hit the woman/kid in town (since they dodge) if you try to fight them, but you CAN hit the guy (and get arrested). It's something completely idiotic, but I find myself going to jail all the time because I can't control the urge to give him some good kicks. A shame that I can't make the kid drop that wine, he's too young for that kind of thing (lol).
Anyhow, I'll report back once I get enough time to unlock online. Might take a while, due to all the work I have piling up, but I'll get there. So far, for someone who isn't even all that into beat'em ups, this is a very pleasant surprise.
P.S: Man, posted this in the 'Raise the Flame Shield' thread instead of this one, originally, lol. Had to go and put some sort of remark there instead.
Amazon still claims it comes with an artbook. Not sure if they just forgot to delete that or not. Oh wow, its already in the shipping soon phase, lol.