The most tragic victim of CyberConnect 2's ever-endearing tendency to craft an extremely ambitious concept but ultimately stops short of being an engaging game to play. In spite of this, I was still enthralled from beginning to end.

I feel dirty giving this game a 5/5 because I adore everything about this game except the game itself. It's by far the most technically impressive game on the DS I've played; the characters are all charming; the story is whimsical like every shonen anime you loved as a kid; the amount of work that went into the worldbuilding alone is nothing short of astounding, the lore was carefully crafted from the remnants of Tail Concerto's for a decade and it shows. I just wish the game didn't feel the need to hold your hand so firmly by solving every puzzle in the game before you've even entered the room. I wish the combat weren't so simplistic. I wish the game weren't so easy. I wish I could say that the game were more fun to play. It's not.

But there's a kind of magic to it. It's inexplicable. CyberConnect 2 poured their heart and soul into this project, and in spite of its shortcomings, its charm overcame anything that might get on my nerves. I suppose, emotionally speaking, that's quite a feat.

Salut.