This was a very weird game that never really achieve greatness. Basically I only enjoyed the middle of the game, when the combat gameplay starts to get interesting with different powers and options, but before it becomes an endless repetition of the same enemies and strategies in the dragging dungeons of the end of the game.
Apart from the combat, nothing is above average. The story is somewhat interesting but flood by long and uninteresting dialogue, while suffering almost obnoxiously of the "power of friendship", especially towards the end. Some characters are interesting and at least all of them are well developed.
Environments are beautiful when inspired, but it's a rare thing. Most of the time it's just blend post apocalyptic city landscapes. Level design is basic and it all become very repetitive as you will see a lot of them twice or more due to how the game is delivered through two very different character paths.
I wanted to like this game but actually had to force myself to finish it. It doesn't stand the distance as the only true stand out is the combat system, but they don't have the bestiary to go with it.

This is the first Samurai Warriors I play, after having played a lot of Zelda and Dragon Quest Musou. This was an absolutely perfect way to play through the history of Oda Nobunaga, with quite accurate history telling. I'd say about 70% of the story of the game is actually history.

The game features 15 weapons that are vastly different from one another, and discovering each of them has been a blast. The characters themselves often share the same weapon and are only differentiated by one or two signature moves in the combo list, but their design is so great that they don't lack personality. Music and voice acting was also splendid.

The graphics themselves are nothing special but it allows for a smooth 60 FPS on Xbox Series X. I don't think most of the maps are very similar, and it's hard to remember more than a handful even though there are quite a lot in this game. That's for me the main weakness of the game.

Another weakness is the tower defense mode that is far less interesting than the main story mode. It's a good way to have a quick session with some characters you don't often play with, but nothing major.

At the end of the day, it is a Musou game. It does not change the formula in any way and it's still a mix of X and Y combos with big finishers against thousands of enemies. If that's something you like, then you'll probably enjoy this game as much as I did.

I really enjoyed my time with this game. I got very interested in the world and characters, as it had been a while a RPG of this scale and quality had been released. It's a very classic RPG, think PSX, PS2 era in nowadays graphics. A very linear game in its story, level design and character arc progression, which is what I enjoy with RPGs so that worked well for me.
It's also very much a Tales of game, with the usual anime story, reactions and scenes. Sakuraba's music is a bit hit and miss but when it hits (mostly the combat tracks) it's very good. Not his best work, but for Tales, I'd say he delivered compared to some of his past works on this series.

Most of the fun is during the combat, which flow extremely well and can be a lot of fun. There are a good number of systems and combo possibilities feel endless. Each character plays quite differently too so it's easy to keep the fun on by switching characters.
Unfortunately, the AI is not good enough to really allow this combat system to shine and it brings a lot of frustration. Some of the decisions made are truly frustrating, such as not being able to make your party members assist target on you.
The boss fights also feel like a different game all together that I did not enjoy at all. It turned into some Monster Hunter lite at times, where again, the AI could not follow leading to tedious and difficult fights with little fun.

Other negative points would be the limited bestiary that gets really tiring by the end and also way too many dialogues that are not necessary and just break the pace of the game.

For all the charm that comes from the Final Fantasy and Chocobo universe, through its characters and the music, the lack of tracks and the awful driving cannot save this game.

The few positive aspects of the game are the story, goofy and fun, and the characters with their different skills, though a lot of similar skills just reskinned.

All the kart racing aspect of the game is terrible. The tracks are extremely small and we have 3 to 4 variations of the same tracks, limiting the different environments to a very small number.
The driving itself lacks precision and weight, but the worse part are the items. They are totally unbalanced and have way too much impact on the race. The stun if you get hit will make you go down in place by a lot and since the races are so short you can't really recover.
At the end of the day the racing depends a lot on your luck, and that's not the way I enjoy racing games.

Finally, the multiplayer tuned exclusively toward GP mode, means that you will always play with randoms, and even if you find some people who are a good competition, you will not see them again. No point at all in the multiplayer, except to max out an unrewarding Battle Pass.

Really hard to recommend this game for anything more than 10$. The story and characters are good enough for that price.

This game is the definition of acquired taste. At first, the graphics would probably put anyone off, but the more you play, the more you start to see what they were going for and the aesthetic behind it. When I completed the main story, I was no longer bothered by the graphics, and appreciated what they tried to do. However, they failed and while the graphics do not impede my enjoyment of the game, I certainly can't say they are good.

Now, the core of the game is really the gameplay. It's quite simple, if you like A-RPG looter games, right now you pretty much have this or Marvel's Avenger to play. The gameplay here is good and enjoyable. Each weapon plays very differently and the builds you can make are varied. You have different modes for each weapons that impact gameplay, giving you interesting choices.
It doesn't do anything new, and to some extent, this is pretty much Nier Automata combat gameplay in a GaaS. The balance of the missions is not always good however, resulting in brainless button mashing is a lot of them due to how easy things are.

The campaign was interesting to follow and the music shines throughout the game.
The post game is less interesting with the same environments and missions structures repeated over and over, but that is expected of a looter game.

This first season has been rich in updates and I was happy to go back to the game every few weeks to check things out and finish the Battle Pass which is included with the game for this first season.
This is probably the easiest to complete and most generous battle pass I have seen in a while.

Now, I won't be paying for Season 2 though and I'm happy to let this game go after well over 50hrs. I had a lot of fun with it and I believe if people looked beyond the graphics, they would have a lot of fun. If coop A-RPG looter gameplay is your thing, you should absolutely give the demo a go and make your own opinion.

If you are aware that this is not a RPG, that this is very lightly related to the previous Valkyrie Profile games and that it is on all front pretty average, you will probably have a fun time on this 20-hour journey.

The main, and to some extent, only shining point of the game is the gameplay. This is a traditional Action combat game, made mostly by the staff of Onimusha and Ninja Gaiden games. For an action combat game, the combat is quite slow, which can be hard to adapt to as first, but makes for a much easier experience in terms of pulling combo, using magic and so on than a Devil May Cry for example.
The gameplay progression is really well paced with a flow of new weapons, mechanics and magics through the 20h that the game will take you. By the end of the game, the gameplay has evolved to a point that is truly satisfying and fun.

Unfortunately, it feels like the dev team was very aware that only the gameplay worth investing the little budget they had, as all the rest is terribly average. Level design, graphics and enemy diversity are nothing worth writing about.
The story, even considering again that this is not a RPG, is very slim, with the main story being pretty much all packed in the final mission. Which leads to the several endings, a feature still fun and interesting, and not frustrating this time around as it is very easy to unlock and see all of them.
I will also note that the Einherjar back story, while only told through audio drama, are really good and fun to discover. Two of them in particular were quite audacious for a Japanese developer with themes such as gender and discrimination well touched upon.
Finally, I'll note that the music is on the good side of Sakuraba's works. It is not as memorable as Valkyrie Profile work, but it is definitely a step up from his recent soundtracks. I appreciated the restrain in a lot of tracks.

It's definitely a game I recommend to fan of the genre if you are even remotely interested in Valkyrie universe. For the others, wait for a sale but if you give the demo a try and enjoy it, go for it, it's a fun game and it knows when to take its exit before gameplay becomes stale.