Honestly a little bit of a letdown. The wait for this really got my hopes up, but I ended up just wanting it to be over way too early into the game.

It’s a really cool idea that, in hindsight, might have been a better fit for a smaller project, as the mini-games get extremely tedious by the end of the game. Luckily, this game isn’t a grind fest, so you can get away with avoiding a handful of fights.

This game clearly pulls a lot from Earthbound but fails to capture the positive weirdness of that game, instead going for something different that works in some areas, but doesn’t really do a lot in most. Also, it brings over my absolute least favourite thing from Earthbound, the inventory system. Why is everything in one menu with 8 slots? Once you get to Chapter 6, this is less of an issue, but for 50% of the game, you have max 16 inventory slots shared with key items and weapons. So so so stupid and does nothing to improve the experience.

Also, the story just isn't really that interesting. It does a lot at the start to make you think, "oh the story is just a background device to let weird shit happen, don't worry too much", but then the latter half of this game is purely story-based. It feels more like a slap in the face than an earned progression into something more serious.

But yeah, I wish this game was better, but it isn't bad! Just think there are better, more fun RPGs out there, and the main gimmick only distracts from that for so long. I might be being a little harsh here, but playing Sea of Stars so recently, which was such a crowning achievement, made this feel more like a wet fart than a long-awaited payoff.