Old school style => loved it
Really great game, it kept me busy some hours.
I really liked the skill learning and using mechanics, it reminds me the FF9 skill learning system (the best in the FFstory imo). Moreover the storyline keeps the basics of a RPG (good guys killing bad guys for the world's sake ) but still in a very refreshing way, I mean I just loved the talking about "Are we really the good guys as we kill people?" and the other good guys team it was hilarious to fight them, I even don't mention all the funny references like the women noticing there is only one bed in a house with 4 people etc (there are millions of these and they are all great if you are a RPG-fan). I also liked the extra content, and the fact exploration and wise choises are always well rewarded, in many RPG when you do an extra quest you often get a useless item, well not in this one. I could write pages about how good is that game but I'll let people point it out themselves. I don't want to spoil it.
*SPOILER ALERT*
*THE FOLLOWING LINES MAY SPOIL A PART OF THE GAME EXPERIENCE TO YOU*
Concerning the bugs I had the smite 1 bug and the dead-standing-creature bug mentionned previously (you can avoid it by using phoenix down on the dead creature and kill it again) but not only with the coelacanthe. I also add a bug on the vit+2 ring you find in a chest, it was showing Vhern's stats instead of the ring ones. Lukely it disapeared after I reloaded the game.
It migth be expected this way but I didn't hire the mercenary in the first place because I was low on money and Vern was quite good for the main quest at this point but when I wanted to do the trilobite + arena quest (so just before entering moric's ship) I could'nt hire him cuz the Inn door is closed. So I had to deal with this "I'm lame against not-undead-creature" pally. It would be good to be able to hire him in the zombie-proof cave at this point imo.
Also you should maybe find a way to avoid combats in certain cases. For exemple when I was exploring a old zone to find the last chests I forgot, I had to deal with some low level bees which are often by 4 and as we don't have any all-foes power I had to flee not to loose a lot of time. Same thing while doing the whole way througth the sewers and catacombs to go to social fox's tomb. BTW a bit of storyline in this place would be good too as social fox is supposed to be the hero which inspired mardek and his friend, find his tomb and defead the zombie dragon should move them.
Another great feature to add would be to allow character to change weapon during combat, it's no bid deal against minions but if you engage a boss without the good weapons it can be desastrous, especially concerning Emelya which is the best damage dealer till Uengan gets the burial sword (and even there she compets with him) and she really rely on her staff to do some great damages (also I had to do the whole arena with the earth staff which is the worst to have).
Eventualy even if it's pretty obvious a guide to stats and how it affects skills power and characters would be great just like the element balance guide (if it already exist sorry but I didn't find it).
Anyway those things are minors compared to the rest of the game but I guess it's by noticing those minor things that a great game becomes a major hit.
To conclude : Terrific work, keep it up.
P.S : I'm french so I must have made some writting mistakes in my review, sorry about that, I'm working on it.