I ended up enjoying this game was more than I was expecting to! Excellent pacing and sense of progression, a plot with a surprising amount of heavy-hitting moments (admittedly I watched the Netflix adaptation first a couple years prior but had forgotten pretty much everything by the time I actually played the game, probably for the best!), and really fun gameplay aided by the amount of customization you had over your party.

Not every idea introduced nails the landing perfectly. Monster recruitment being up to luck can be frustrating and add a lot of grind to a game that otherwise has none. It's also pretty unfortunate that integral characters like the marriage candidates and children don't get too much individual time to shine, making certain moments lack the impact it felt they should have. Still, what this game accomplishes is really impressive and the way it organizes its structure around the central ideas of family and progression through life is done on a level I've rarely seen in other games.