It seems nearly everywhere I go I see it gets so much hate, that I personally don't think it deserves. For one, it has the most developed story I've ever seen in a video game, with a very good battle system that breaks away from the standard "Attack attack attack" that most JRPGs seem to use. The music is outstanding for the most part. (It's a shame that the non cutscene music in Episode 2 blows) It's a shame they sold so poorly. I really wish we could have seen the last three games. /:
I'm extremely disappointed, and so is everyone else, because we were all expecting it to tie in with Xenogears. We were originally told that there were actually going to be upwards of 5 or 6 games, and that, possibly, episode 5 would be a remake of Xenogears. Maybe it was all rumors, but having the main character be an Uzuki didn't help matters. People WANTED it to tie in with Xenogears so bad, but it didn't.
By itself, it was pretty good. The story was well developed and interesting, and all that stuff. Though it kinda sucked how each game looked and felt like it was a completely different game, visually and gameplay wise. But like I said, hardly anybody looks at it as a new series, they look at it as if it's connected to Xenogears, and in that respect, it fails miserably.
That's the impression I get, anyway.