story held a "never-ending" depth underneath its surface, which he said was highlighted by the variety of plot outcomes that arose from subtle decisions by the player, though he warned of the script's excessive moralizing. Metts agreed that the plot was standard, though he remarked that the set-up was "unusually blunt, in that you are told the implications of the quest right upfront". However, he proposed that the narrative could assuage GameCube owners desiring a traditional RPG, and described the ending sequence as "beautiful and powerful". Star Dingo compared the story's combination of "heart, warmth, humor, sadness and peril" to the works of Rumiko Takahashi, and proclaimed the writing to be some of the best among console RPGs, elaborating that "the tragedies really strike home, and the characters all have distinct voices, speaking their lines with a welcome sense of subtle irony and self-awareness about RPG clichés". While Fahry acknowledged that the premise was simple and cliché, he said that the plot twists were well-employed. Irwin was unengaged to the story, which she attributed to what she deemed a flawed localization; she explained that "The dialogue is often awkward and drawn out. Word choice ranges from overly formal to random slang -- the style is all over the linguistic map with little regard to who's speaking". The Nintendo Power reviewers and Metts were satisfied with the story's pace, while Turner remarked that the narrative meandered at times. The characters were said to be likable and well-developed. Metts compared the cast to that of The Lord of the Rings in that they "initially seem simple and stereotypical but almost feel like real people by the end of the story". Fahey singled out Lloyd's development and was thankful that the writers were "of the persuasion which says that dark revelations of the past are not a substitute for creating a proper personality for your characters". Bettenhausen and Massimilla acknowledged that the optional skits substantially contributed to the characters' depth, but faulted their slow pace. Sales and awards Over 100,000 copies were sold in the United States during the first two weeks after its release. In December 2007, Namco announced that the GameCube version had sold 953,000 copies worldwide, and the PlayStation 2 port had sold 486,000 copies in Japan. The bargain reissue for the PlayStation 2 in 2005 sold almost 50,000 copies in Japan by the end of 2006. Its total worldwide