Tried to play it a few times as a kid but the encounter rate filtered me, so I watched a play through of it on youtube recently because I didn't feel like playing it. The story was pretty solid, I'm very glad I know that there's a second game because otherwise I'd feel kind of weird about it. On its own I'd dock points for the ending probably lol... that said, I don't wanna give it a 4/5 or a 3.5, maybe something in between?

I like it. I think I would've been obsessed with this game if I managed to beat it as a kid, it's pretty cool. I felt like it started coming into its own more mainly near the end? Though I didn't like how some characters were totally handled and was let down by that. Otherwise, it had a fun gimmick and I like the main cast, I think it's really cute the way they come to care for each other a lot. I like how expressive the character's portraits and movement sprites are, and Eikichi and Yukino were my favorites, though I also liked Maya.