I went into this game looking for a strategy game that offered different gameplay as opposed to something like a more tactical-style game like Fire Emblem would. What I got was a kind of run-of-the-mill story with decent gameplay, that was frustratingly difficult at times but not impossible.

The gameplay itself is interesting enough - strategically moving units around a 3D space, dodging enemies and hiding behind cover to avoid getting hit, and aiming yourself rather than relying on hit% or a dice roll. I appreciated the way the maps used verticality a lot, and line of sight as well. The leveling system was a little weird - having levels tied to classes meant that none of your units necessarily fell behind, but it did make me feel more disconnected to the playable characters moreso than something like Fire Emblem or a Pokemon nuzlocke would. The upgrade trees for weapons was a nice touch, and although it was interesting that you could pick up enemy weapons off certain corpses, I never found the enemy's weapons useful enough to use practically.

The story, as alluded to before, is very run-of-the-mill; but that's not necessarily a bad thing. It does do a good job exploring the various natures of the gravity and seriousness of war - but it can be hard to take the story seriously when it seems like the characters, outside of Welkin and Alicia, don't? If that makes sense? The Valkyrur and their connections with the Darcsen tribe give a sense of intrigue, but I feel like these sort of themes explored better in something like Fire Emblem's Tellius duology.

Other things: the music was not necessarily a favorite, and even became annoying at parts (especially the book mode music), but the cel-shaded style mixed with storybook style art were gorgeous to look at and kept me going.

Overall not a bad time, but I feel like I could have spent my time a little better.

there's some maybe interesting thoughts here but they're held back by an exhaustingly large dungeon and dice rolls upon dice rolls upon dice rolls

admittedly didn't get suuuuuuper far but the slog's gone on long enough i can't see it getting any better, especially with my significant issues with its systems (the large amount of highly random damage, floors being big and uninteresting, heavily encouraging skipping around and thus just... not engaging with the actual gameplay). overall 0/10, play Etrian Odyssey instead

A beautiful game. You can feel the heart put into it. Won't spoil anything here, I want the tips below to be read by newcomers, and the game says what it needs to way better than I can. Though as someone who has trouble interpreting nonlinear stories, I got a lot more out of it when I read online discussions after the fact. My problem, not the game's, and I suggest you do the same if you also had trouble.

The game doesn't onboard you to its systems very well, and the UX isn't great. I know for a fact they must've thought of this mechanic and rejected it, but it really could've used a memory log. It took like 5 hours of gameplay for me to really get into the rhythm of navigating to the memories I wanted to review in a timely fashion.

Some general tips for new players:
- Make use of the few shortcuts and time-saving tools the game gives you. Bookmarks are your friend. There's a keybind for the table of contents in the journal; find that keybind and use it judiciously.
- If some detail seems like it could be used to identify a character, then it can be. There are very few extraneous details.
- Play with friends. It's a delightful and unique experience.