$10 on today's steam sale. I remember wanting it back when it was still announced for PS3 before they cancelled that version. I also remember hearing the PC version fixed a lot of the problems the 360 version had.
tl;dr version. IMO, it's a very solid game. Buy for $10. If you see concerns below, try the demo first.
Similar games: - FFXIII. Limited options in combat. Sorta as if you controlled 4-5 FFXIII parties at once and could give each a different paradigm every turn. - SaGa series. Uncontrolled bonuses after battle, uncontrolled learning of new techniques in combat, no "level" stat. (BR gives a decent indication, though) Scaled encounters. Wide open questing. - Overall, however, it's quite unique. Try it.
Problems: - Extreme Guide Dang It for getting the materials you need to upgrade weapons - Basically no equipment control. You get to control your own, pretty much. No turning that glass cannon character into a tank. - Limited command control. It is INCREDIBLY infuriating to get into a battle and have your only option be SUICIDE CHARGE when you want that unit to disengage and healbot everyone else. Fortunately, it's also fairly unlikely. If you hate FFXIII's battle system, you'll probably really hate TLR's, so try the demo first. - On a related note, "stand by, but fight back if you're deadlocked" should be the standard "wait, don't engage" option instead of "sit there and get your ass kicked" (it does come up later as an option for certain classes) - Revival skills come a lot later than you'd expect. They're also extremely risky for the most part. - Linear Fighters, Quadratic Mages. Like, David and your mages will just be wiping battlefields with Gae Bolg and Synergies later. - Speaking of synergies, Guide Dang It
It really is a hit or miss title. There's a lot of things they could have done better with it, but the strategy involved is satisfying once you actually get into it.
It's also one of the few games that punishes you for grinding and/or fighting every battle you see. Though you won't realize it until too late.
-- "I can already feel my Dumey Lust kicking in."-MistBiomeZ
It's also one of the few games that punishes you for grinding and/or fighting every battle you see
Specifically, you essentially have two different levels: your battle rank (traditional level, basically), and your actual stats. The more battles you fight, the higher your battle rank gets, but the worse your stat gains become. And battle rank levels up quicker than stats do. So essentially you'd end up fighting high ranking monsters with low stats, hindering your ability to win battles later on.
To avoid this, you have to avoid as many enemy encounters as possible, and do your stat grinding with Rush alone against super weak enemies. Do that for a while and your stats will have gotten to the point where you don't need to worry about the battle rank discrepancy anymore.
The PC version is indeed superior to the 360 version (though since my laptop can barely run the likes of the Strong Bad games, I had to use the latter), but installing the game to the 360 hard drive fixes most of the technical issues. The soundtrack is awesome, and your primary party members are all experienced military veterans instead of rookie teenagers. For a list of differences between the two versions, look here: