At times, it can be downright shoddy and poor. It's an exact port of the PlayStation version, including some control and gameplay weirdness that was meant for another machine. Not a heck of a lot. The series has only tenuous ties between each installment, and the story is too huge to mention in any coherent form. There are massive manga -inspired machines, spells, monsters, flying artillery, trains, rockets, space stations, boats, giant electric crabs, cuddly mascots, and so on.
Every character is over the top and over-dramatic.
Somehow, this is considered character development. The opening movie is comprised of a montage of major characters doing things in no real order. I watched it again just now. I can recognize the characters, but I still have trouble with what the heck's going on. But the first time I saw it, I was simply amazed at how darned good it looked.