Ring of Fates is terrible. Magic requires picking up/buying magic orbs on top of MP. Dungeons are long, tedious, and bland. The bosses aren't all that interesting. You're limited in the kind of weapons you can use depending on race.
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Echoes of Time on the other hand is pretty good, especially multiplayer, and addresses pretty much all my complaints.
The areas start off pretty basic and short (short being a good thing since they start off so straightforward), but they get pretty interesting later on with new elements being presented every other dungeon or so.
Bosses are, admittedly, pretty easy...as long as you know where it's weak point is (Usually an orange crystal like area...usually) or what the boss "gimmick" is. The first time around it's pretty amusing and you'll have a few "That was pretty neat" moments.
Quests help break up the game if you want to take a short break from advancing the plot. There are CO-OP and VS quests.
CO-OP quests range from the obvious "Kill X monster using Y magic" and boss rush types to the somewhat more interesting "Escort the cow to the end of the area" and "Save the cows from the UFOs".
VS quests range from simple "Collect more X item than everyone" to Smash Bros style arenas, soccer games, and other interesting ones.
I was a fan of the VS quests.
Equipment is pretty open. Pretty much anyone can use anything for the most part, but different races learn different weapon skills. (A Selphie never learns spear skills, so although they can use spears they'll never get better than single stabs) All equipment can level up to level 3 as a minimum. Some can go higher. This lets you keep equipment you like the look of longer and helps with your spending. All equipment have one gem slot or more. You can use gems to add abilities to your equipment, one type being increasing the level cap on that piece of equipment.
Everyone has access to all basic level magic. You cast higher level magic by combining targeting rings. (When you cast magic you get a targeting ring. At first you can only lock one ring in place/on a monster and cast a second ring on top of it to cast higher level magic.) Two "Fire" rings will cast "Fira" the level 2 fire spell. If you feel like experimenting you can get other spells. "Heal" and "Raise" make "Holy" which is really strong and pretty much nothing has resistance against it. If you have some coordination you can combine rings with your partners to get access to the stronger spells earlier on.
There's platforming involved. If someone sucks at platforming it's not too bad. You can jump on or lift other players so you can platform while they're on your head. You can even jump on top of eachother to reach areas earlier than intended. Some areas have chests that can only be reached this way.
The puzzles were pretty simple to me for the most part. There were a few times where I had to run around a bit before going "OH! That's how..."
Monsters are relatively varied. At least in attack pattern types. You won't always be able to just attack head on unless you like seeing GUARD pop up often. You'll have to flank, jump on top of, hang on to from below, or use magic on occassion.
Overall, I think Echoes of Time is your best bet for 4 player playing. There's lots of things to keep it varied and plenty of opportunities for funny situations to occur. Lots of "Oh goooooooooooooood" when someone misjudges a jump and falls into a pit.
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Soma Bringer...think Diablo II in a JRPG Fantasy setting.
In terms of exploring it's pretty linear. There's no platforming and no real worry of going the wrong way most of the time.
The areas are loooooooooooooong. The backgrounds are nice to look at for a few moments, but you'll quickly get tired of seeing the same patterns/tiles used since the areas are so long. Luckily, there are warp points scattered around fairly frequently. The same as Diablo II. You can warp back to town, sell/store stuff, and save. (On a related note, you can put items into storage anyway by pressing I think Y with the item highlighted. Very handy.)
Combat is pretty dull in my opinion too. There's no chaining with basic attacks or skills. There's skill "chaining" but it's just using skills in succession to apply an element to the final attack most of the time. Elemental advantage damage is quite large, but most of the time you're better off just spamming one skill.
You can put up to 20 points in any skill of your rank. Rank increases every 10 levels and you get I think 3 skill points per level. The good thing is the game allows you to experiment with skills. You can reassign your skill points at any time. Almost all classes have a rank 1 skill that does a huge amount of damage for a low SP cost. You'll eventually reach a point where you have enough SP regen (Through passive skills or equipment) that you can just spam that one strong skill instead of using your basic attack.
Most of the monsters can be killed in one or two hits early on if you just focus all your skill points in one skill. Later on it might take 4 or 5 hits for the tougher monsters. (That is, if you put all your stat points into STR as a melee class...and you can afford to do so easily.) Normally this would be bad, but the areas are so long that I was thankful for this.
Bosses can, for the most part, just be ganged up on spamming your main skill. The only thinking you have to do is running away to use a healing potion.
The secret bosses are significantly harder than the normal bosses from the same zone. They're also only useful (loot wise) if you kill them when you can first encounter them. They're loot is quickly dated a few areas into the next zone. I only found the first secret boss to be hard but managable. For the rest of the secret bosses I was pretty overpowered with gear and my focus on my attacking stat. Same with the person playing with me. If the remaining secret bosses were EASY then I was in for some dull times ahead.
Loot is dropped in the form of a chest that is unique to everyone. If you want to share anything you'll have to do it via trade in town. If you were playing with strangers this would be great as there'd be no disputes. If you're playing with friends and you'd share your loot this is annoying since trading is a cumbersome process. The equipment in stores is quite useless compared to the stuff you find from monsters. This means money is only good for potions...but you find a LOT of potions while fighting so money is useless until you can by buffing potions...but you can only hotkey one buffing potion at any time. (Can't hotkey a speed potion and attack potion at the same time) This is why you can afford to ignore any defensive stat for the most part. You have essentially an unlimited supply of potions on hand. If you decide to continue the game after you beat it onto a higher difficulty you might want to start adding some stat points into DEX or something...if you feel like playing through it again anyway.
Overall...this is a good time waster. If you like these types of games then you might like it. I played with only 1 other person and found it dull and fairly easy. I imagine with a third person it'd be even easier since the chance of getting good loot is higher with more players.
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With Soma Bringer I found myself (and my sister) playing just so I could finish it and be done with it.
With Echoes of Time I found myself (and my sister) playing because I had fun with it. The Graveyard dungeon sealed the game for me.
Both games have New Game+.
Soma Bringer has I think 4 bonus areas when you complete the game. You can start a new game in Hard mode and then Very Hard mode once you beat it a second time.
Echoes of Time has 1 bonus area that I've noticed (Haven't beaten it yet, the boss one shotted both of us because we didn't expect it). You can start a new game in Hard mode and then Very Hard mode once you beat it a second time...it then has 10 (Might have been 25...) tiers of Very Hard mode for those who want a challenge.
Soma Bringer in a single playthrough is much, much, MUCH longer than Echoes of Time; however, this is mostly due to long and monotonous zones.
Echoes of Time is shorter in playtime, but each area is different due to their being platforming and new elements being added constantly.
Of course, these are just my opinions. It seems my opinion differs from the majority here, but I can assure you that I gave each game a fair chance and completed both.
With that said, I'm actually willing to start a Hard playthrough of Echoes of Time...once I beat that optional dungeon.
