OK, first the good stuff, this won't take long, so I'll get it out of the way now.
Being a Dragoon is pretty fun, and they look kinda neat in a blocky pixellated sort of way. Plus, they put a limit on how long you can stay as one, to make battles more challenging and balanced. Who wants to be in god mode the whole battle? (well I would if it would make these battles quicker-where's my Gameshark!??!?)

Second good thing: Rose rocks, pure and simple. For once Tetra and I agree on a favorite character from a game. Of course, the reason I like Rose so much is because she edges into a 3 dimensional character, whereas everyone else has as much personality as a pancake. Without Syrup.
So now that the good stuff is out of the way, let me tell you why you should avoid this game like the freeway during rush hour.

While the voice acting is certainly not the best, it's also nothing to write home about. (Except for Rose...but we already went over that)

The battle system is tedious and comprises of button smashing. This is worse than Vagrant Story, folks. The battle system comprises of "moves" that your character learns, and to deal a goodly amount of damage, you have to combo in a button combination at the exact moment neccessary, or else you just wasted an attack turn. Even in dragoon form, you have to time your attacks to deal full damage, although I found the spinning wheel to be at least DIFFERENT than anything else I ever played.

Now on to the characters.

Dart: Gee pointy hair, mercenary type with his own axe to grind and a childhood friend he vows to protect. Nope, that's not something you see in an RPG hero these days. Not at all.

Lavitz: Loyal general to a kindly king in semi exile. Nope, not part of the established genre of cliche characters at all. Although I will have to admit, I like his relationship with his mom.

Shana: Village peasant with some sort of "magical promise" Gets kidnapped and you have to go save her...only to find out that she has a bigger part in the game than you thought.

Rose: Rose is cool. Seriously. But then I like my females competent, mysterious and with enough power to kick your ass and send you packing.

Miranda: Eh.

Kongol: Help! It's Suikoden 2 Bolgan without the saving grace of wanting a better education! Save me from the less than intelligent gentle giant that speaks like a caveman!

Meru: Gee a bratty little girl that has a crush on the main charcter. That's original. Yep yep.

Albert: Hm, I would say this is Edgar from FF6, minus the womanizing, but I like FF6 too much to smear it that way. He's a king...with half a kingdom, trying to win back the other half. Oh, did I mention that he's Lavitz's king too? And that they're good friends as well? I guess I should be happy Lavitz does not turn out to be Alberts long lost brother...that was one cliche the game avoided. Umm yay?

Haschel: A generic fighter. He's looking for his daughter who ran away from home about 20 years ago. Hand me the tissues please.

Bottom Line: The plague is preferable, albeit less likely to hit you.

--Information coming as soon as I have less important things to do than devote time to this hated game...