My 5 cents: IMHO, it has a style of its own, is fun to play, offers quite a challenge, makes you smile from time to time, explores new ideas and tries to avoid repetitivity by continuously introducing new gameplay elements. There's a dearth of good rpgs out there, so if there's a few coming out (and I count

among them), I'm a happy man. And while I haven't played the other ones, I do think it can stand the comparison with anything I've seen without blushing at all.
Lar