To preface this I quit around 11 hours so maybe it gets better but I doubt it

As I decide to drop this game forever
It is a page of my youth I am closing as well. And I cannot state how sad and disappointed I am

I grew up with the fan translation of the game and became obsessed with it for the sole reason of the class evolution system.
But it ended up being a mid-ish game with interesting things, that ended up being way too streamlined and linear, with no real player involvement regarding character progression.
It is a childish story that does not take itself seriously at all and not in a good sarcastic way.

The combat is just button mashing with some different combos that all have different "effects" like one knockbacks etc. But all characters have the same combo effects so it's just a reskin with different hitboxes
Gear progression here is a gaming trope I want to be eradicated
When you HAVE to buy the new shiny gear at the next town or else your damage output and defense fall behind where you're currently at in the story, just because it just the same sword with better stats, and you have ONE weapon option per character, no variations whatsoever that could push you into thinking more about your build, why even have an equipment system in the end?
Just have a weapon and emphasize upgrading it by killing stuff, instead of making us pay extra for shit weapons that just have better stats

Character progression is linear, streamlined, boring
I did not feel rewarded for my decisions, abilities weren't interesting. I CAN NOT STAND the fact that Duran, Angela, and Charlotte can get the same stupid saber magic spells with no variations

I would recommend it if you do not want to overthink but I think you'll get bored even playing that way so just play something else

It's pretty good, decent, not amazing by any means
I enjoyed my time with it but tbh after 20h of doing the same exact thing it got really boring.

It starts of pretty slow, with your characters getting wrecked at first and having to be careful of every encounter, until you start to rank up some xp and level up and build your mercenaries. Once they start specializing they can become quite deadly, turning most fights into the same strat pretty much everytime
There are a lot of systems but end up being shallower than what they seem to promise
The quests are just there to make you go places and fight stuff, the economy is uninteresting to toy with
I'm not sure if I missed some mechanic in the end-game, because I didn't get there I got burned out prior to that, but in my overall experience it always felt like something was missing.
Contrary to XCOM, or any other rpg game with tactical combat like DOS2 o, Underrail, Wasteland 3, there's some EDGE missing, something that keeps you coming back to try out new builds and strats and combination.

I put 3.5/5 because the game is indeed really polished, I haven't encountered any bugs, but I just got bored with the content. Get it on sale or maybe you'll love it idk