General Kaliero
F = ma, beeyotches.
The create-a-character stuff is fun if you're simply fooling around trying to make your characters look interesting, but when it comes to things like creating characters from other games, movies and such, it fails a bit on the specifics.
I like the return of full cutscenes, similar to the old game.
Chronicles, while fun in its own right, is a bit weak in gameplay, but that may be because the other tactics games I'm playing are Fire Emblem and Advance Wars. Compared to them, Chronicles is like a bastard child with a gimmick. The difficulty also ramps up insanely in a relatively short time (I've tried three different plans with Chapter 10, and been slaughtered every time).
The Soul Arena challenges are an interesting change of pace, the huge roster of character is great, the voice acting is surprisingly decent for a fighting game, and the story is as traditionally convoluted as a SC story should be. All in all, the game suffers from some minor but aggravating flaws, but is worth buying.