I love the combat in this game, it has a lot going for it that avoids it falling into the cycle a lot of turn based RPG's go, where you only pick the strongest/super effective move every time. Not that some battles can't turn in to that, but generally I had to think a little more about the best option for each turn.

I did find that the starting magatsuhi skill is basically the best one. Guaranteeing crits every single turn means you're getting a guaranteed 8 action turn with boosted damage. I almost never used any of the other skills I unlocked from completing side quests and whatnot.

Unfortunately the game failed to sell me on anything except the combat. All the environments are insanely barren and boring. And I know that there's an in-game reason for that, but like...if you're designing a 50 hour RPG, maybe don't make an in-universe reason for all the environments to be boring as fuck?

The story feels like it had a bunch of other JRPG stories fed to a computer and this was the result from machine learning. It's just so boring. It's also paced horribly, trying to shove long story info between jarring halts in the otherwise unbroken gameplay sections.

I know comparing this with a certain other monster RPG whose name starts with P is always too easy and an obvious go-to, but this really does feel like Pokémon without the heart.