wew.
first thing i want to point out is that god damn does this game overstay its welcome. everything from its menuing, traversal, combat and even the script feel like they've been designed, intentionally or not, to stretch out as much time as possible. without delving too much into detail, it's especially noticeable in the dream world sections, where the party gets into wacky subplots that ultimately lead nowhere and add barely anything other than some scarce lore about a background item in the real world. some might argue that all that padding out is for character development's sake, but that's not it either. the main characters barely advance or change as the game goes on. their personalities are set in stone as early as the picnic scene in the forest playground on your first day. i'd excuse such padding if at least the inbetweens had some fun moments but no, this game's attempt at humor is the equivalent of a 2014 tumblr post that ends in keysmash.
combat is a chore, and i say this as someone who enjoys turn based combat. not only menuing in combat feels clunky with its four main cracters strewn across each corner of the game's window (seriously guys, simple is best. JRPGs solved this more than 25 years ago), fights themselves aren't rewarding most of the time. the game's reliance on emotions as a "rock-paper-scissors" type mechanic is very interesting... as long as you can apply it. most mob enemies die to regular attacks in a single turn, and spending juice or items to set the enemies' moods feels wasteful outside of boss encounters, especially when those same mobs can change their own emotions anyway.
i don't even want to talk about the plot. some might really like the narrative it (tries to) build interluding its dream and real segments, but to me that final twist legit felt like dropping the entire narrative down a flight of stairs for the sake of a punchy, serious tone. i'd expect it from a short RPG maker title, but for a game that's longer than earthbound with extra levity on top, it completely undoes whatever character advancements it tried to make during its almost 20 hour runtime. graceless doesn't even begin to describe it.
honestly, either play a short-form RPG maker horror game like yume nikki or a JRPG with actual decent combat and plot instead of going for this tepid inbetween.
first thing i want to point out is that god damn does this game overstay its welcome. everything from its menuing, traversal, combat and even the script feel like they've been designed, intentionally or not, to stretch out as much time as possible. without delving too much into detail, it's especially noticeable in the dream world sections, where the party gets into wacky subplots that ultimately lead nowhere and add barely anything other than some scarce lore about a background item in the real world. some might argue that all that padding out is for character development's sake, but that's not it either. the main characters barely advance or change as the game goes on. their personalities are set in stone as early as the picnic scene in the forest playground on your first day. i'd excuse such padding if at least the inbetweens had some fun moments but no, this game's attempt at humor is the equivalent of a 2014 tumblr post that ends in keysmash.
combat is a chore, and i say this as someone who enjoys turn based combat. not only menuing in combat feels clunky with its four main cracters strewn across each corner of the game's window (seriously guys, simple is best. JRPGs solved this more than 25 years ago), fights themselves aren't rewarding most of the time. the game's reliance on emotions as a "rock-paper-scissors" type mechanic is very interesting... as long as you can apply it. most mob enemies die to regular attacks in a single turn, and spending juice or items to set the enemies' moods feels wasteful outside of boss encounters, especially when those same mobs can change their own emotions anyway.
i don't even want to talk about the plot. some might really like the narrative it (tries to) build interluding its dream and real segments, but to me that final twist legit felt like dropping the entire narrative down a flight of stairs for the sake of a punchy, serious tone. i'd expect it from a short RPG maker title, but for a game that's longer than earthbound with extra levity on top, it completely undoes whatever character advancements it tried to make during its almost 20 hour runtime. graceless doesn't even begin to describe it.
honestly, either play a short-form RPG maker horror game like yume nikki or a JRPG with actual decent combat and plot instead of going for this tepid inbetween.