I went to this game with decent expectation, I expected it to be at least mid, I didn’t think it would be one of the worst game I’ve ever played. And it’s not the fun bad kind, it’s the dull and boring bad kind, which is the bottom of the barrel for me.

The game starts out okay. I was actually quite enjoying some of the aspects, but after I put a few hours into it, it became repetitive and a slog to play.

I will try my best to avoid spoilers, I don’t think I wrote any spoilers here, but if I do I’m sorry.

COMBAT
Combat is pretty great at first, it’s turn-based but you get a certain amount of Action Points (AP) you can use each turn, and AP can be used to cast skills. Skills have a few important properties, the main thing to consider is if skills can only hit an enemy on the ground or in the air and if it can knock down or launch enemies into the air. Certain skills will also be able to recover AP, Starting Skills will recover AP if used at the beginning of the turn, then there’s skills that will recover AP depending if the enemy is knocked down or airborne.

All these properties create a very fun combat, you can try mixing combos and get the feel of which combo you like the most. The problem is that, once you get a good combo, you’re gonna stick with it for a LONG time.
Why? Because there’s only 2 enemy types, one that can be launched in the air, and one that can’t. So all you need is just one combo that can launch enemies and comboing them in the air and one that doesn’t.

Another problem is that you gain EXP so slowly (Astrite they call it here), therefore, you gain new skills at literal snail pace. Normal encounters will only net you a measly amount of EXP, so much so that towards the end, I actively avoid enemies when I can.
(Pro tip: Go to the menu if an enemy is on to you, wait a few seconds, then continue, it will reset their aggro. Doesn’t always work, but it helps.)

Then there’s a parry and dodge mechanic, most if not all enemy attacks can either be dodged or parried. There will be a circle above the enemy head, if it’s orange then it can only be dodged, if it’s blue then parry, if no circle then just parry, dodge is useless.
Seems fine and fun? Yep, at first. Until you realize that no matter what the enemy does, all you need to do is watch the circle and the flash (you dodge/parry slightly after the flash) and you’re golden.
There also will be times where you have to have a godly reaction to be able to dodge/parry because the camera doesn’t move fast enough to show what the enemy will do. Though maybe it’s because I use Samsung FOLD and the screen is square instead of landscape.

One last thing, using items doesn’t cost a turn. You can use 999 items and it will still be your turn.

BOSSES
There are 3 major bosses in this game, a few minor ones. All 3 sucks, storywise and mechanic wise. All 3 are not so different from other normal enemies, in fact, every boss is the same as any other regular monster. The only difference is that they have a lot more health and they hit harder (if they can hit you).

Each major boss has more than one phase, two phases for the first 2, and three for the final boss. Again, there is no difference at all between each phase, you just get a cutscene in between phases, they heal their health back to full and the fight continues. There are no transformations, they are literally the same model just healed back to full, no noticeable difference in their attack.
The only exception is the final boss where she gets a slight palette swap and it’s last phase got rid of the circle above the head that signals if you should dodge or parry (which is stupid).

EXPLORATION
I will sound like a broken record here, at first, I find it interesting. I like the block puzzle, the “platforming”, and the environment. Until I realize that the only puzzle is the block puzzle, the platforming is ass, and there are only 3 types of environment (White, Orange, and Red).
The maps are confusing, there are no mini-map, there are NO MAP. If not for the constant objective marker, I will be lost in the convoluted dungeon design.

Special shout out to the 2nd city you visit because it’s a maze.

UI/UX
This one aspect isn’t so bad for me, mostly because I’m used to obtuse UX design from retro JRPG. Though the HP display in combat is stupid, because you can’t see your party HP you can only see if it’s green or red. I mean you can, but it’s stupidly placed behind the character so the only way to see it is if you squint.

STORY, or rather, WRITING
This is why I hate this game so much. The writing is so bad it’s offensive to me.

There are a lot of made up terms in this game. This by itself isn’t so bad if the game properly explains what each term means and gives you ample time to absorb them. But no, they bombard you with it, from beginning to end they will give you made up gibberish like Astrom, Astrite, Shadarrish, Allindos, Troglodyte, Storm, Nazara, Coxswain, and many more. Some of this will make sense later on by context, but most can only be understood if you read the archive section.
Again, it won’t be that bad, if the archive section’s UI/UX is great. Instead of the tried and true method of having each term have its own entry, this game opted for vertical scrolling. I don’t know how to explain it better, just know that it’s hard to find a specific entry quickly.

Then characters, all of your party members feel shallow. None of them feels like they earned their place in your party, not even Yan, the main character. Their motivation is hard to decipher, they seem to just join you on a whim (except for one character). And once in your party, they barely have a personality, even Yan.
This problem also applies to the antagonist, there are 3, all 3 are the major bosses. I got all their goals, but the writing made it really hard to understand (the 2nd one is the worst one). Not to mention that none of them feels threatening, sometimes they will just casually walk on you, initiate conversation and then walk away, poof, no tension, no fear, nothing.

Then once you actually fight them, I don’t feel anything at all.

I was planning on going in-depth in a video on this game, but this game really doesn't have a "story" or an angle you can go on about. It's ambitious, has great art direction and environmental design. It has great immersive features that helped me to self actualize in a way akin to Death Stranding.

Gameplay:
But ultimately the gameplay loop is unbelievably dull and poorly explained. It's a turn based RPG that has combo moves, like Indivisible or Valkyrie Profile and each action takes up an AP value. The issue is, that's all there is and each character is incredibly limited. For most of the game you'll be doing A into B into C, over and over and over without variation or intrigue.

Defensively, there's a timed dodge or parry, but it's wayyyyy too telegraphed with enemies showing the exact ideal timing with a flash of light. They often only attack once per turn too, and the variety of attacks is one or two total per enemy.

The exploration rewards you with a bunch of random craftables you won't care about, and the puzzles are a repetitive copy-pasted slog.

Story:
The story is a bunch of lore dumps and exposition heavy reading. The characters barely exist, and the ones that do exist are all stoic and unemotional, except for Vi. The actual "events" that take place are comparable to side quests, with the characters doing uninteresting chores or trying to overcome a setback.

Performance:

This is probably where things get the worst. The game has some pretty bad stuttering and loading issues, and beyond that the game has compatibility issues meaning that a lot of people can't emulate it or even run it. Most people don't have phones designed for gaming, and this game is certainly not optimized for the average person.

Conclusion:
I really wanted to love this game, and tout it as an ambitious consumer friendly entry to the mobile gaming space, but ultimately it's just a gimmick and there's very little to latch onto.