Another hot contender for the "goddamn I wish I liked it way more than I did" line of games. The gameplay is fine, and I liked the music and characters...but man, I honestly am not vibing with the story or characters. It probably would work better for me, if the main character wasn't so obnoxious. Chai is just unlikable, and yes, the other characters do keep telling him how much of a dunce he is, but since he keeps making dumb decisions, it starts to feel like the story is just doing it to be self-aware. Dumb characters like Luffy work because we see him actually get stuff done despite his room-temperature IQ, as well as other genuine good qualities, like his friendliness, creativity, and willingness to fight and defend his friends. Unlikable characters at the start of the game like Neku works because you can see their thought process and why they're like this, the situation they're in makes the harsher aspects of their personality understandable, and they still grow throughout the story. Yes, Chai does grow a bit from what I saw from what I played, and from looking ahead, I still find him more annoying than funny. I may come back to it, but I don't think the gameplay is that good to justify me being stuck with the most annoying video game protagonist ever...

I am so sorry, Alex Kidd fans. I just couldn't see just what you guys loved about this game. When it came for me to using Rock Paper Scissors to further story progression, I just had to throw in the towel. The terrible controls, cheap enemies, and horrid collision (yes, even with all the added new features turned on, like infinite lives. but considering how they were off from the story and how achievements were inaccessible to them on, it's clear they wanted to keep it in a way that preserves the original legacy of the game) all turned me off of this game. It's nice Sega is letting older IPs back into the spotlight, but damn...this wasn't it, man.

Played through the demo, so I'm definitely not that in-depth with it, but from what I experienced, it just didn't work for me. The parkour elements are nice, but when you have to use them to dodge and end up managing to fall off a bridge with them, it does feel a bit poorly thought out. Combat wise could be pretty interesting in the entire game when you get more spells and whatnot, but from what I saw, it was spam or holding down the fire button and the enemies die too easily. And of course, the dialogue...there isn't even any cutscenes here and I already hate Frey with how whiny and annoying she can be, constantly being bratty to the very bracelet that is helping her for no good reason during combat. Cuff, that bracelet that talks, isn't as bad, but he is still irritating at times as well. Obviously, if you enjoyed the gameplay and can put up with the critiques I have, by all means, have fun, but me, the demo was more than enough for me.