i thought the first two BMZ games were pretty good, solid games but nothing incredible

but this right here? this is something incredible, gameplaywise i feel inti's finally perfected both the on-foot and tank combat, and storywise it's absolutely phenomenal. much like luminous avenger iX, the last section of the game is absolutely packed with twists, and is sure to keep you engaged if you liked the first two games

do note that, unlike the first two titles, it's a lot more linear a la metroid fusion. like fusion though, it's a phenomenal game despite that

SJR has one of the more peculiar battle systems in megaten, with it not really being recreated anywhere else, and that alone makes it worth playing

i also almost prefer the first-person dungeon traversal to the third-person style (though SMTV will probably change that for me), and this game has so much QoL compared to the original that after a while it really feels good to play

it also has easily the absolute BEST new game+ system in any megaten i've played, allowing a massive amount of customization on what you can bring over. definitely a breath of fresh air after the somewhat mediocre NG+ of IV and IVA, though there's not much content actually exclusive to SJR's NG+ besides some superbosses (which are very difficult except for the one from original SJ, by the way!)

i enjoyed this game well enough on my first playthrough, but IV's main issue is that it's basically impossible to go back to after playing IV apocalypse (believe me, i've tried)

IVA just has so many QoL changes and better gameplay in general that, despite IV having the better story, it's really not worth going back to when IVA is right there

i will give IV this though, it has way better replayability than IVA, with the three alignments all having their own exclusive challenge quests (including NG+ exclusive ones)