I wish I'd enjoyed this more. The soundtrack is just a constant stream of bops, the concept and the worldbuilding surrounding it are engaging and enjoyable, and I found myself investing in the characters, even the initially irritating Neku eventually; the writing has Big Teenage Angst energy and all the corniness that comes with that, but also comes across as sincere in its beliefs in a way that left me going along with it regardless.

The problem is I didn't really get on with the gameplay. The battle system was the biggest offender here, where it felt like the only way that button mashing for the top screen whilst focusing exclusively on the bottom screen wouldn't be the best way for me to approach things would be if I put in a huge amount of practice and became actively good at managing both screens at once; something I'm not sure I'm even capable of. Meanwhile the bottom screen gameplay grew repetitive a fair while before the end of the game to the point that I started to dread being forced into yet another fight.

Even beyond this the map is almost useless, and the city blends together enough that I didn't really have a good sense of my bearings until over halfway through the game. Some of the reaper gates descend into repetitive busywork that feels like it's just artificially padding out the game. The systems that exist in the game with myriad pins, clothes, food and a trends system associated with all this felt excessively lavish at points. Some boss battles were deeply frustrating mechanically. The difficulty curve feels more like a rollercoaster such that fights would oscillate between trivially easy and offputtingly difficult and then back again.

This comes across as more negative than I'd like to. I love the game's style, which it exudes at every moment, and likewise found a lot of enjoyment in the depth of its imagination. Gosh did I find it disengaging at points though, sadly.