Foul yet fun fighting game, a nice change of pace from what I usually play but I could never in my life play this game seriously.

Sinister system mechanics like 66l the plus on block combo starting forward moving normal or bravery points making you or the opponent just explode in a second stop me from playing with 110% serious integrity but it's a fun game with friends with how easy it feels to pick up and start playing.

Gameplay aside the artstyle, visuals and music are all top notch, partner mechanic is very fun too and should be in more games, weapon and character skins in an arcsys game is very cool to see and all the character interactions add a ton of flair and personality into the game.

Very solid game, just not a serious game to me.

sad to say i'm not enjoying this as much as base vs... i dunno about playing a 2-touch game (where the good characters' touches are skewed very much towards the reward side of the risk-reward paradigm, partially owing to the game's simplicity) with tons of plus buttons and no burst or similar mechanic. maybe i need some more time to digest it but this feels like the logical extension of the modern fighting game design pattern and has veered too far to the side of explosiveness for my tastes so far

This is the highest 4.5/5 rating I can possibly give a game. As much as I absolutely adore this game to death, I cannot justify giving it a 5/5 because there are certain flaws that shouldn't be ignored.

First, the good. This might be my favorite story ever told in a video game. It's at least up there in my top 5. Benedict, Frederica, and Roland are phenomenal characters and they perfectly evolve alongside the growing politics of Norzelia. Decision-making in this game is incredible. The combat, while weird at first for someone more used to games like Fire Emblem, is very engaging. I especially like how each character is given a specific niche so that it's worth bringing in a more gimmicky character for a particularly tough chapter.

Tragically, though, this game has some missteps that made me reconsider giving this game a perfect score. Some voice performances are far from stellar. Even Serenoa, the main character and one you will hear talking constantly, has several very stilted lines. Serenoa is actually written very well, but it's harder to see that when he sounds so...wrong at times.

I played this game on hard mode, which was a very fair and fun challenge for about 70% of the game. For the remaining 30%, I wondered if those chapters were even playtested on hard mode. They genuinely seemed impossible - maybe hard mode is meant for a new game plus playthrough, but on a standard new game it was a fairly uneven and frustrating experience.

Still, solely for the phenomenal story, characters, and decision-making, this game is a masterpiece. I can't wait to do another playthrough once 2022 stops bombarding me with other masterpieces.