Yeah, it doesn't sound great, and it's mostly not. One the plus side, your wanderings lead you through a world that's one of the most attractive on the PSP. Somehow, the developers have packed in an intense level of detail into these 3D maps, more than most PSP games even attempt, and the tiny characters and enemies have a lot of colorful charm even if they're a bit too wee to see clearly. The screen-filling, appealing character artwork helps make up for that, too.
What lacks is the story. It's so exceedingly slow to build, and so been-there-done-that, that it's hard to get involved. Even if you're completely new to this swords-and-sorcery stuff, the translation from Japanese ranges from adequate to utterly terrible at times, which doesn't help things much. There are glimmers of charm - Chris and Jurio grew up together and trade believable banter - but the storytelling is simply clumsy all around.