the central concept behind this, as in a world where rumors start becoming reality is a pretty cool idea for a setting and the game definitely delivers on it, there's a good amount of "oh shit" moments in this and combined with the cast where I genuinely cared about every single member made for an exciting story where I always wanted to see what would happen next, and upon starting this I fully expected the gameplay to be the barrier that stands between me and my enjoyment of the story (and sometimes it was) but surprisingly enough I didn't mind and even liked it at many points, the negotiation system is fun and seeing the relationship of these characters change (a factor which would sometimes even depend on my choices) and bring about different interactions and reactions from various demons was a neat way to tie story progression into gameplay, there were a lot of bosses in this game where I felt genuinely smart for figuring out the way to beat them and found only a few of them to be frustrating, though I won't deny that I skipped my fair share of normal encounters (through running away and some modern conveniences), the frequency of which was undeniably the worst part about the combat, still, the fact that I basically never had to grind and enjoyed most of what the gameplay had to offer is commendable even if I was getting a little tired of it by the end
the rumor system is neat even if it is a simple way to encourage a bit of exploration to get better shop deals, the soundtrack was pretty nice and the fact that I'm still not tired of the normal and boss battle themes by now is insane, and the ending is somewhat strange as it obviously isn't the definitive ending considering eternal punishment exists but I think I can buy the fact that it's not all neatly conclusive sunshine and rainbows considering the overall vibe of the latter part of the game and how much we still don't know even after such a long journey
can't wait to see what the sequel has in store