The game is fun and was groundbreaking for things like the use it gives to the Quick Time Events, but it is clearly intended as the introduction to a saga and therefore feels incomplete, especially on a narrative level, because (without going into spoilers) it ends in a giant "To be continued." All of the above makes it difficult to recommend if you are only interested in playing this game for the milestone it was at the time and are not interested in the entire saga.
Also, the camera and balance segments are garbage haha.

I'm actually surprised of the divisive this expansion turns to be, some things are fair, like the amount of reinforcements and the way they appear in some maps, that definitely can use some adjustment, but things like Nil being useless seems weird to me, after all, that's the idea, you have to protect him, and even so, there are plenty of ways of use him, personally I put him the Micaiah emblem and I used him as support, so the only time I lost for his dead was my fault.

The map design in general is more forgiving than people seems to give credit to, I played in hard and granted, it is, but, for example, chapter 5, the one which most hate seems to being receiving isn't so bad, in this map, you have to take care of 2 units, your avatar and Nel, the first one starts being attacked by a mage cannoneer which isn't very precise, giving you more than enough time to reach and heal them, then appears a dragon, if you have Lyn's Astra, is dead and that issue is resolve, if not, it's a 50/50 hit that gives you 2-3 turns to heal if it always hit, virtually taking away only one unit for you to heal him, after all, reinforcements doesn't appear from behind, making that healer safe. Nel is even less problematic, she's is principally being attacked by one enemy and even without rings (And you have access to them), it's not like she can really be one shotted, and she has more than enough elixirs to live until someone reach her, as a matter of fact, she can even take the reinforcements in the room if you know how to move (I sure did), if anything, is the amount of summons Fogado do to the end of the map what is unfair, because you have very little time to respond and it's a lot. I actually think the big offender of the flaws in the map design is the final one, it has a very specific way of being played and if you don't follow that way, it punishes you extremely hard, this map actually was the only time I lost and had to reset in the entire Xenologe. I completed the rest of the maps in the first try, and I don't think I am specially good at the game.

I really enjoy this fixed challenges, makes easier to mess with different strategies, even if some quality of life improvements would be appreciated, like the possibility of change the inventory of the new units in the preparations or that the inventory doesn't reset between maps

Therefore, the gameplay is not as good as the main game, but not as bad as some people seem to believe. As for the story, I find it more compelling and interesting than the main one, even if it needs the other to be appreciated, at least most people seem to agree on that.

In short, aged like milk. The controls are stiff, some mechanics lacks balance and some decisions are weird, like the infinite and separated pool of items for the NPC's, outside the fact that half of them are re-skins of the banana peel, some are waaaay too powerful (The star and specially the poison mushroom), But in the flip side, it's the first game of the series, so mistakes are to expect and for the time of release, this game was impressive and one of the best to play with friends. Still not worth playing nowadays but an important title nonetheless

You have 2 ways of playing this game, 1. You play without thinking in the flowers or the red coins: Great experience, a lot of variety in the levels and bosses that are fun, not hard by any means, but fun. 2. You try to get all the items in a level: An extremely annoying experience, the game doesn't save anything after the checkpoints, so if you lose a live, you have to do a lot again, plus the fact that most times you are gonna died in one hit (Spikes, lava or voids) and you get a really discouraging experience.
Everything else is excellent, even if a wish that it has more music.

You know, for years I've been hyped for this game, but the constant praise also made me worry that it wouldn't be as good as everyone says, but now that I finished it... I understand the love for this title, not for the visuals or the music (which are great), but because this game make me care for someone that I can't actually know, and the way it does is something you'd better experience for yourself, I know it's a cliché phrase when talking about this game, but I also know that anyone who has played it knows why is that.
PS: To the player who took the time to guide me to some secrets, thank you.

I'm actually surprised of the divisive this expansion turns to be, some things are fair, like the amount of reinforcements and the way they appear in some maps, that definitely can use some adjustment, but things like Nil being useless seems weird to me, after all, that's the idea, you have to protect him, and even so, there are plenty of ways of use him, personally I put him the Micaiah emblem and I used him as support, so the only time I lost for his dead was my fault. The map design in general is more forgiving than people seems to give credit to, I played in hard and granted, it is, but, for example, chapter 5, the one which most hate seems to being receiving isn't so bad, in this map, you have to take care of 2 units, your avatar and Nel, the first one starts being attacked by a mage cannoneer which isn't very precise, giving you more than enough time to reach and heal them, then appears a dragon, if you have Lyn's Astra, is dead and that issue is resolve, if not, it's a 50/50 hit that gives you 2-3 turns to heal if it always hit, virtually taking away only one unit for you to heal him, after all, reinforcements doesn't appear from behind, making that healer safe. Nel is even less problematic, she's is principally being attacked by one enemy and even without rings (And you have access to them), it's not like she can really be one shotted, and she has more than enough elixirs to live until someone reach her, as a matter of fact, she can even take the reinforcements in the room if you know how to move (I sure did), if anything, is the amount of summons Fogado do to the end of the map what is unfair, because you have very little time to respond and it's a lot. I actually think the big offender of the flaws in the map design is the final one, it has a very specific way of being played and if you don't follow that way, it punishes you extremely hard, this map actually was the only time I lost and had to reset in the entire Xenologe. I completed the rest of the maps in the first try, and I don't think I am specially good at the game.

I really enjoy this fixed challenges, makes easier to mess with different strategies, even if some quality of life improvements would be appreciated, like the possibility of change the inventory of the new units in the preparations or that the inventory doesn't reset between maps

Therefore, the gameplay is not as good as the main game,
but not as bad as some people seem to believe. As for the story, I find it more compelling and interesting than the main one, even if it needs the other to be appreciated, at least most people seem to agree on that.

The game is fun and a good test to your skills, because is hard, like really hard, but mostly fair and skill-base, with enough practice you'll be able to win any circuit, BUT the random elements (The cars that spawn in the middle of the race) are borderline unfair, sometimes you find that some turns are impossible to make without taking a hit and others you ended taking damage for a car outside your range of vision (Specially in both Dead Wind's), all of this, plus the fact that the other racers aren't even affected by the brown cars most of the time (And can't detonate the purple ones) make me feel that that most of the time I was losing not because of how I was playing but because I got bad luck