Although the original game was released for Playstation in July 2000 and was a tactical rpg, the DS remake in 2008 switches the combat to be a more standard turn based jrpg. Some content was also taken out from the post game. It is very much a beginner jrpg, with a hint of where to go next in the status screen so even if you take an extended break you won't be totally lost of where you left off. Not that many breaks are needed, the game itself is fairly short even when you complete the side stories to recruit more puppets. Speaking the side stories, it is possible to miss out on some of them if you advance the story too far before completeing the side quests which is always a disappointment for me. The story is cute and an inversion of the more standard fantasy rpg story. The combat system is decent enough if a little basic, and although there's a fairly high encounter rate you can enable auto battle to sweep through the low difficulty mobs and enter manual commnds for bosses or as needed.