If you managed to find something genuinely enjoyable in this game, without a hint of irony, then you are truly the hero of this story.

Personally, I like playing and watching things that aren't good but they know they aren't good. So, yeah, I had some fun with this game, sharing screenshots and videos of its most stupid moments. However, once I paused, took a deep breath, and reflected on it, I couldn't help but think, "Wow, this is pretty terrible."

It's an indie game, and that fact is screaming at your face every time. There are plenty of indie developers out there who, aware of their limitations, endeavor to create experiences that prevent you from either finding them or unfavorably comparing them to similar bigger titles. Crafting a game that clearly draws inspiration from Persona but only incorporates its worse aspects is a flawed approach.

The point I'm getting at here is that I've spent a considerable amount of time discussing this game, which honestly shouldn't be the case. Let's move on. We've already got a strong contender for the title of "Worst Game of the Year."

In my opinion, the best entry in the franchise, this game stands very high in my all-time favorites. Not nearly as world-expanding as the previous, not as mechanically satisfying as the next, but the goldilocks of the roleplaying and combat formula this series is known for. I still have so many vivid memories of the crew members both new and old, and this is the best example in the series of just killing time on the ship between missions, spending as long as you can exhausting dialogue trees in the hopes you find one new nugget of detail for these fully-fleshed-out characters. Hard to find a flaw, but I will say it is frustrating to have a cheap death in the very end if you didn't happen to know the right upgrades to buy or sequence of events to follow that can sour an otherwise perfect playthrough.

Sorry to be a hater but I did not mess with this. This game feels like 7 games combined together and none of them are fun. Any time the gameplay switches up to some experimental style, it feels underdeveloped and you just kinda want it to be over. This game feels significantly worse to play than 358 and I don't really know why or how that is but the feel is so off. Whoever decided that the worst-controlling KH game should be the most platforming-focused is a monster. The world variety is the worst in the series (tied with 358 but I love that game's worlds), I don't care for the story, and any well-done mechanic is done better in another KH game, all of which that I've played are better than this one. (Shoutouts to the cheat system on the stat matrix though, that's cute.) I feel like KH likes to save some of its best and most creative ideas for its spinoff games, this is a huge counter-example to that.