More than anything else I respect that Gust tried something new and interesting with the series after the somewhat unadventurous Mysterious trilogy. It seems to have paid dividends too, as Ryza 1 not only helped to expand the series' audience, but its interesting ideas allowed its direct followup to fulfill its ambition in a much fuller-feeling manner.

That said, when I look at this game on its own, I think it feels emptier and more barebones than most entries in the series while the standout elements like the super interesting battle system and tweaked gathering, while enough to give the game interesting flavor, are fairly clunky and unpolished. I think the dev cycle they're giving these games isn't near enough, especially with ideas like these... hopefully one day they can be given the time they need to deliver something truly marvelous.