I’m conflicted with this game. While I did end up enjoying my time with it, I had a lot of things throughout the game that just didn’t really meet expectations. To start off with the good, the visuals for the game are very solid. I love the way the enemies look and move, and it is a very nice game to look at on PS5. Another thing that I liked was the combat. Once everything starts to click, and you gain more abilities, the combat becomes more and more fun as you find different ways to deal with enemies. Finally, I ended up enjoying the cast of the game. A lot of them do fall into the typical tropes of anime characters, but I find most of them to be endearing. To move on to the stuff that I didn’t like as much, I’ll start with the story. I believe that the story had a lot of potential that just wasn’t fully fleshed out. Plot points revolving around the New Himuka and Seiran conflicts felt rushed, and when the crew all comes back together it really doesn’t feel all that satisfying. I also felt as though the story was very convoluted at points, with major info dumps that break the pace and left me confused in all honesty. None of the deaths or any moments that were supposed to make me feel emotional, really hit as hard as they should’ve, and I think that all comes down to the pacing. This game felt directionless at points and I just wish it could’ve fleshed itself out a little better. Another part of the game that I felt was left hanging was the potential horror aspects. The concept of others could’ve created really interesting and scary narratives and scenes, yet I felt like they gave us the most barebones version of it. Finally, I wish there were more cutscenes instead of the storybook way that they portray the narrative. This game reminds of an anime with 12 episodes that never got a second season. It was a good time, but nothing that’ll really stick with me.

Let me start by saying that if you love mechs and the genre as a whole, you’re gonna find a lot of fun with this game. I was never really into the mech genre before this, so this was my introduction into not only the series, but the genre as a whole. My game programming professor showed a trailer of it and it intrigued me enough to get it. To start off, the visuals of this game are fantastic, I love how expansive the set pieces felt and how climatic each boss felt based on scale. Another positive I found was the sheer amount of customization that’s in this game. So many different play styles for different kinds of play which helps to add into the replay value significantly. Speaking for replay values, there are split endings in this game, which (hot take) I’m typically not the biggest fan of, however if you were really into this game when you played it I could see you being ecstatic to find out what happens in the different ending. Combat was solid and the game felt far; I never felt cheated when I died, and I never felt like there were any bugs or mishaps that kept me from a win. There is a nice challenge with this game and is sure to cause frustration which is not a surprise from Fromsoft, however for the ending I chose (Rubiconian) I ended up feeling like the final boss was a little bit anticlimactic. I beat it on the first try, but with the bosses before this I felt like they gave me a way harder challenge. That would be one of my major gripes with the game, as well as not feeling majorly engrossed by the story as a whole. The story was serviceable but I more so cared to get back into the combat. Other than that the combat was amazing, the customization was great, and the visuals blew me away at points. I found that for this type of game that’s all I really need. This was a good introduction into mechs for me and I’m now more willing to explore the genre as a whole.