Don't listen to NeoCracker he has odd taste...

I actually really liked the game. Yes it was a radical departure but I never felt it was a bad departure. The BoF series was getting stale at the time and needed some shaking up, I just wish they had stuck to 2D sprites... (course I say this about many Capcom projects... Why MvC3! Why do you have to be like SFIV instead of CvsT? )

The restart system is not as aggravating as people make it out to be since you get to start over with Party XP you haven't used and all your equipment and skills meaning you can quickly get back to where you left off. You are effectively restarting in New Game+ Mode. The story is debatably (for me at least) one of the best in the series and truly took BoF into darker territory than previous titles, which is saying something since BoFIV was pretty heavy on the dark elements.

For those planning on replaying it, the game only has one ending but beating it under certain conditions lowers your D-Ratio giving you access to more areas and places to explore in later playthroughs. I also recommend keeping at least 15% of your D-Meter intact for easy wins against the final bosses cause they are cheating assholes who deserve a dragon stomping.