I got Black Sigil: Blade of the Exiled for DS last week. I've got over 24 hours logged so far into my game and its been great. There are some annoyances I have, which seem to be shared with the people in the gamefaqs forum for this game. I've found some tips which may help better one's enjoyment of the game. They are either common sense or additional information the manual doesn't provide. Some aren't really tips either, just me saying stuff about the game, since the manual is not the best and a lack of tutorial. Either way, take these as you want. WARNING: some skill spoilers may be present.

1. Be prepared for high encounter rates. Your character's skill points (used for physical skills or magic) do recover a little (like a few points) each battle, so this can be a good thing.

2. Hold the B button to run. Very handy with the high encounter rate. Enemies will probably get a few hits in, but you should be fine.

3. Contrary to what the manual says, holding L during a character's turn allows you to move them around, while the R button lets you switch between characters.

4. Monster gauge on top screen indicates monsters 'appraised'. The skill 'Appraise' scans a creature for their hp and sp totals, and their weakness and strengths. Supposed to be permanent, but doesn't seem to be all the time. Glitch?

5. In the config screen, the battle speed is for the MONSTERS ONLY, not for you. In a way, its like a difficulty meter. I totally thought it was for your characters as well, but after getting pummeled a few times, I found it was not so.

6. When you change equipment on a character, the items you have equipped on them are automatically unequipped. Just keep that in mind for reference.

7. Most of the attack skills in the game are awesome. As far as I can tell, nearly all negative status inflicting skills also do good damage to the enemy.

8. See a random status on your main character at the beginning of battle a while in? Its not a glitch, its story related.

9. If you do not have enough money to stay the night at an inn, do not worry. You still can. You'll just have 0 money afterwards.

10. Be careful when saving. The load tab is right next to the save tab. I accidentally loaded my last game instead of saving at one point. Not fun.

11. To change characters in your party, you must be at a save point or on the world map.

Yeah, quite a few. But if you get past the annoying parts of the game and take the time to enjoy it, you will definitely be rewarded. The story is fantastic so far, the characters are very likable, and its very addicting. Reminds me of the time I read the Lord of the Rings books. Tough to get through all the detailed description of the setting at times, but was definitely worth it.

To sum things up for me, I enjoy playing through it much more than Legend of Dragoon, which has quite a few annoyances of its own.