Okay, I have to say this is an amazing game. It's 100% original, very brilliant, very unique...it's just amazing! BUUUUUT, it has some issues. For starters, it is EXTREMELY difficult. As you can set your own difficulty level at any time in the game, & change it at your will, this shouldn't be a tremendous problem, but it is. Here's why: though you can set the game to easy-peasy, you really will get no benefits for doing this. Item collection is essential throughout this game, & your chances of getting items from defeated enemies drops as the difficulty level does. Therefore, to get the best items you really should play it on the harder difficulty levels, but this makes the game darn near impossible, especially on the bosses. It is also extremely long, & if you're a gamer like me, & you want to complete every aspect of a game, this will take FOREVER. As for appropriateness, this is a pretty iffy game. The language is pretty brash, tons of uses of A**, h*ll, d*mn, & a couple uses of b*tch & godd***. The suggestive themes are very noticeable, which is unusual for a hand-held game; almost every girl in the game has mass cleavage. As far as violence goes though, it's pretty standard fantasy violence (e.g. heavy violence, but no blood). Overall I'd probably say 13+ like the ESRB said.