A year and a half late, but I finally acquired this for my birthday recently. Been interesting with a strange Lone Wolf and the Cub meets Onimusha vibe to it.

I oddly find the game goes back to the more defensive roots of the series. The deathblow mechanic is interesting though and I'm liking the characters I've met so far. A little disappointed the grappling hook only seems to be used for movement purposes, but I'm still way early in the game and have not unlocked all of the features yet. Will try to resist playing while I finish my FFX-2 replay but I can see this being the game that's going to get me through December.