@jtduckman Thanks for taking the time to respond. Glad to see this kind of maturity in gaming discussion. Equally, I don't hope to come off too harsh about what are ultimately your true feelings. I've just found it to be an uphill battle to get people to even try this one, compared to all my other favourite games

Since this rated the most helpful review here, and no other game has captured my heart quite like this one, I feel that I must say something. This game isn't for everyone, and the reviewer hits it on the head saying there's really no other game similar to it, but I will say that some of this isn't that bad or isn't quite true. As explained, citizens come back to you when out of view, but this also means that if they get "stuck" behind something then they'll return back to you a moment later regardless. As for not knowing what to expect and taking the wrong team, the game also has TONS of dialogue or writing to tell you ahead of time. Every Kingdom has a letter and a "how to fight this boss" memo; characters and citizens will talk about what's in upcoming places; there's even signs that say "you should take this citizen to this upcoming place". The citizen editing thing is the first option on the Podium's summoning menu, which is immediately in front of you when you start the game, and a character forces you into an explanation on what it does when you first buy it. I don't think the gameplay is that cryptic nor is the game hard to finish, and it feels like a disservice to label fans as simply being nostalgic for a game they never saw to the end. And as someone who also enjoys the two GC Pikmins, games where troops run slower than you so you can't just run in a straight line without stop-starting, and a game where retreating lacks responsiveness, not to mention tripping, it's not as cut and dry as just being a worse version of that - they're pretty mechanically dissimilar. It's better not to play it as a Pikmin game, but as a Little King's Story game. I only bother writing all this because it would be a shame if people missed out on a genuinely brilliant lightning in a bottle experience like this because of one misleading experience :)