Here's the thing. Mimana Iyar Chronicle is a game that gets half marks for a good story, characters, writing, and having good animated cutscenes, as infrequent as they are. Why it's only getting a 5 from me is for the gameplay. It is genuinely not fun to play, with very tedious fights (think old school Tales gameplay, but not as fun), terrible partner AI, and very weird difficulty spikes. There are also very long load times, and the game is visually dated.

Mimana Iyar Chronicle is a fun game with interesting characters and a fun battle system. I enjoyed the soundtrack and story a lot. It feels like a less polished Tales game, is a bit short, and the random battles can get obnoxious along with the loading times, but I enjoyed the experience a lot in the end. Side note, the voice acting is well done.

Mimana Iyar Chronicle is a rather good game. The graphics aren't top notch, but they aren't horrible either. The voice acting has many memorable voice actors from other JRPGs, so it's sort of an all-star cast. The plot does take some time to start up, but once it gets going you get a sort of invested feeling (some time around the third dungeon). The characters may seem rather flat and one dimensional, but as with most JRPGs there is an underlying subtlety to their interactions with the main character. The battles are fun, but the loading times are a pain (usually takes 40-45 seconds to load a fight). Over all it's a good JRPG if you're willing to stick with it, and actually ENJOY the JRPG genre. (Better than Final fantasy, more original than Tales of)