I thought Parley was okay. Kind of really simple if you were able to think abstractly about where pieces would move after your turn was over. I didn't love it, but I didn't think it was awful. I did think it was downright silly that you could use it to pass main storyline quest battles, though. It kind of took away from the climactic feeling of killing things, even if they WERE easy to kill. I think that's why so many people remember it negatively... but, outside of that, it was pretty decent for a minigame.