I'm madly in love with this game. The acting bounces from powerful to complete cheese like a radio drama, the aesthetic choices set such a unique and consistent tone, the characters are unlikable blowhards who grow a fair amount, and the CG cutscenes are out of this world.

The missing half a star is almost entirely due to the odd mechanical decisions i.e. slow combat, unspoken secrets being required to beat the game, the difficult to parse save mechanics. These quirks will chase a lot of players away, and I can't even blame them, but if you can look past them, the mystery, literary obsession, and well-written dialog within this RPG are beautifully suffocating for the perfectly short run time.