Absolutely one of my favorite games of all times.
The characters? Top-notch. I'm not sure how to elaborate without it sounding weird, but... they feel like people, I guess. The protagonist, Neku, grows throughout the game by expanding his world, meeting with people with different ideals and having them clash. And they actually FEEL like people with ideals, y'know? Not just a cardboard cutout with the week's message taped on them. I just... adore them to bits. Even one of the guys who doesn't actually get a proper name!
Mind you, I wouldn't say it's one of my favorite games ever if I didn't like how it played - and I absolutely do. The battle system is really intuitive and there's just something about, say, making a slashing motion and having chains sprout up, pressing an enemy and having flames billow up, or scratching the screen to cause an earthquake that feels super-intuitive and pleasing to do. Of course, with all the touch commands some of them overlap and it's not perfect as a result (a frequent frustration is nothing happening when I press the screen because the enemy is too close to Neku) but it works enough and it's satisfying when it does so so I can't take off points for that.
The partner system from the DS version has been revamped and I think that's to the game's favor - it makes the game slightly easier for a variety of reasons but it also makes it more accessible, since you don't have to split your attention.
I think the only system I wouldn't quite be a fan of is Shutdown PP. Basically, whenever you don't play a game you get experience points (PP) to the skills you have equipped. It's great in concept, but here's the thing: you need Shutdown PP to evolve certain skills. Not all of them! But some of them. Which ones aren't elaborated on by the game. The problem arises with skills that don't evolve with shutdown PP, since they'll still grow because of it but can be screwed out of actually evolving because shutdown PP counts more than the PP you gain from battle. It's annoying to have to juggle and make sure you aren't accidentally screwing yourself over when you put the game aside (to, say, sleep).
There ARE a ton of other weird systems too, some of which work better than others, and others which are kind of... weird. But again - in general it's an amazing experience, in both gameplay and story, and I'd recommend it to anyone.
The characters? Top-notch. I'm not sure how to elaborate without it sounding weird, but... they feel like people, I guess. The protagonist, Neku, grows throughout the game by expanding his world, meeting with people with different ideals and having them clash. And they actually FEEL like people with ideals, y'know? Not just a cardboard cutout with the week's message taped on them. I just... adore them to bits. Even one of the guys who doesn't actually get a proper name!
Mind you, I wouldn't say it's one of my favorite games ever if I didn't like how it played - and I absolutely do. The battle system is really intuitive and there's just something about, say, making a slashing motion and having chains sprout up, pressing an enemy and having flames billow up, or scratching the screen to cause an earthquake that feels super-intuitive and pleasing to do. Of course, with all the touch commands some of them overlap and it's not perfect as a result (a frequent frustration is nothing happening when I press the screen because the enemy is too close to Neku) but it works enough and it's satisfying when it does so so I can't take off points for that.
The partner system from the DS version has been revamped and I think that's to the game's favor - it makes the game slightly easier for a variety of reasons but it also makes it more accessible, since you don't have to split your attention.
I think the only system I wouldn't quite be a fan of is Shutdown PP. Basically, whenever you don't play a game you get experience points (PP) to the skills you have equipped. It's great in concept, but here's the thing: you need Shutdown PP to evolve certain skills. Not all of them! But some of them. Which ones aren't elaborated on by the game. The problem arises with skills that don't evolve with shutdown PP, since they'll still grow because of it but can be screwed out of actually evolving because shutdown PP counts more than the PP you gain from battle. It's annoying to have to juggle and make sure you aren't accidentally screwing yourself over when you put the game aside (to, say, sleep).
There ARE a ton of other weird systems too, some of which work better than others, and others which are kind of... weird. But again - in general it's an amazing experience, in both gameplay and story, and I'd recommend it to anyone.