The first two missions are amazingly design for a handheld shooter. The combat system is designed around the controls of the PSP to make a fluid, fast-paced cover shooter where you are constantly changing your weapons and vantage point to flank enemies with yourself. The boss battles are straightforward and do an excellent job of showing off the strengths of the combat system and how you should think about encounters. The game basically uses Z-targeting from Metroid Prime, which means you don't have to manually aim, but still feel in control and can run and dodge easily while firing.

And then the third mission introduces the sniper rifle, which you have to manually aim. Using PSP controls. And they expect you to quick scope flying insects which are outside of your FOV. It's miserable to control because obviously this is a huge weakness of the PSP's controls.

In addition, this is an RPG where the only option to grind/practice is to replay story missions that you have already completed. No side quests of any kind as far as I could tell.

This game is made by a lot of Square's heavy hitters and it starts out so strong, so I was extremely disappointed when it then quickly becomes just... very bad.

Reviewed on Mar 31, 2022


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