I didn't find the kids very annoying, I thought they acted like kids should act, so I was fine with them > What got me was that there are too many cheezy cutscenes where everyone is like about to cry or is crying, everyone is a drama queen in this game. The acting in this game was way over the top from all characters. Too many moments where they try to make your heart flutter or something like that. I also didn't like that they developed the story by random occurences, unless of course you believe that their fates were pre-determined, then it makes perfect sense for so many coincedences. The combat system was pretty good, but random encounters got slow and annoying when you didn't want them to happen (wish there was a way to disable them sometimes). The 4-th disc is hard, unless you level up all your characters alot and then go for those sub-plot areas, some of which are great fun, you can take your giant boat to. I love that they had so many cutscenes though and that they had amazing effects and animation in them, regardless of acting and exagerated emotions. Great RPG, but mostly because my favourite rewards in video games is great cutscenes!!!