I did not think I'd like this game. It's about as classic as you can get, there's little in terms of story, and the soundtrack sucks. Despite this, I found myself greatly enjoying the game after some initial discomfort (it is not fun with anything but a full party), and before I knew it, I was finishing the game with almost all the side content complete. (Note: at the time of writing this, I still intend to go and do post-game, but have not yet.)

The character building in this game is really good. Managing equipment and skill trees is very engaging for me, and it really feels like all the decisions you make in regards to building characters matter. The combat is a lot more built around RNG than I thought it'd be, but there's enough room for strategy in there to make it feel like something to work around rather than something to be at the mercy of. Another huge point in the combat's favor is that status effects actually work on bosses. It's not every the time, but it's enough for it to feel like using characters or abilities that are based around status actually feels like something viable, which is more than I can say about a ton of other RPGs. One caveat is that I was playing with the Draconian Quests for Stronger Monsters and Reduced EXP from Easy Fights, and I think the game would've been significantly more boring without those. The game not letting you turn them on after the start is a mistake, I think, when there is no real reason to do so other than to prevent people from getting achievements more easily, I guess.

As for the story, it's barely there. Usually I play RPGs for the story elements but for this one I quickly decided I just wasn't gonna have any expectations for this game's, and I'm glad I didn't. The occasional impactful scene came as a pleasant surprise, where as the rest of the "adventure of the week" type plots stayed mildly entertaining instead of disappointing.

Overall, I think this game is a great JRPG that got me interested in a series that I've been writing off for the last several years.

UPDATE: I played the post game. Note that I do not say finished; combat loses some luster once you get into late game, imo. The plot is actually pretty interesting in the postgame, but the combat and specifically the character building starts devolving. Eventually you get to a point where it stops feeling like making big choices about your new abilities and more like just checking boxes off of the list. Similarly, combat starts getting homogenized down to one-size-fits-all strategies (Magic Burst spam). I don't really hold any of this against the game; after all, it's post game, and I feel bad for punishing the game for having too much content, because I imagine there are people out there who enjoyed having all of it, even if that person wasn't me.

Reviewed on May 27, 2023


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