Tales of Symphonia.... well, Fire Emblem

[A Black Falcon]

I haven't explained it enough yet? It's tough... hard to explain, especially without spoilers. And if there's one thing I don't want to do with this game it's spoil much of anything.

But it's a focused story. In some ways closer to how a console RPG does things -- you have a set main character, and the game focuses on a detailed story about him, your party, and the world around them. Of course it's got more text than most any console RPG, but that kind of is a decent comparison... well, except for how, in standard PC RPG fashion, the story won't just come to you. At least not most of it. You have to seek it out, and you have to have character stats good enough to get that information from people.

As for good and evil, as I've said, it changes things a little, but not as much as other games. Though there's only so much I can say, given how I only played it through once and was a good character... I never play as evil characters in RPGs... but as far as I could tell while you certainly could be mean to people and they probably would react to your alignment -- I'm sure it has some impact on conversations, especially with the various factions --, the grand course of the game won't be hugely affected by it and neither will where you go in the game. But I'm sure it'd make the play experience different... though as for how much people would react or that stuff (for evil in particular) I'm not sure.