(SPOILERS)
Man what a disappointment this game was. Starts out interesting, but slow burns into mediocracy and ultimately left me frustrated and wanting the experience to be over.
Pros - Visuals, Music and Design
The visuals of this game are gorgeous, with beautiful, vibrant pixel art and super smooth animations. The world is interesting and environments are varied. The music is also really good (except for any tracks that had vocals, those were god-awful). Character designs are also unique and nice to look at, and it makes me very happy that the cast is diverse, with lots of LGBTQ+ representation.
Middle - Gameplay
I'm putting gameplay here because there's things I like and dislike about it. I thought that the turn-based tile system with a timing aspect was unique and fun. The timing on the attacks can be a bit wonky sometimes, with miniscule differences between getting it perfect or not, and not getting it perfect SIGNIFICANTLY slows down the fights, with even the most basic encounters taking way too long, even if you are always perfect, because of the enemy AI and there being too many tiles in an encounter. The UI doesn't help with the timing, either, you kind of just have to guess based on the icon above your character's head, but after doing it a good amount your muscle memory will take care of it. The game also has a pretty bad power creep problem. As more party members get introduced, the abilities they have are just straight up better than the starting party members, giving you no reason to use them once the new members show up. I really did like the combat at first, but as time goes on, it gets extremely repetitive, and becomes a slog.
Cons - Characters and Story
With all of that said, the characters in this game are NOT GOOD. They are either extremely one-dimensional or flat-out unlikeable. They try to give all of the party members some material to work with, but some is better than others. Even the main character I was starting to not like as the game progressed, and the ending actually made me mad. Basically, a love triangle forms between the main character and two of the other party members. But for some fucking reason, they end the game with the main character being with one of them, roll the credits, do a TIMESKIP, and the main character is with the other one. WHAT??? Any development those three characters had is completely out of the window so everyone can have it both ways. It's baffling. It doesn't really feel like any of the characters develop in any meaningful way, with a lot of the tension being the result of drama shown in flashbacks, save for Pertisia. It's pretty clear most of the love and care went into her, and the rest of the cast gets shelved.
The story is extremely contrived as well. A good chunk of it is told in flashbacks, which makes some sense given the context, but it also highlights how nonsensical a lot of the story is. Lots of things could have been avoided if the characters just told the main character the info they knew instead of withholding it. Take for example, the final boss, which is supposed to be a bit of a twist. There's a character that, for a majority of the game, is treated as a joke, with the joke being that he's "the most powerful student" at the school, but every time he tries to do something it's extremely weak. Well, the reason he's so powerful is that if he gets too emotional, he goes berserk and turns into a monster. Which EVERYONE KNOWS except the main character, but they still let him watch his boyfriend get hurt doing something extremely dangerous without even restraining him and become the monster. It's so stupid. There's a lot of moments like this in the story. It's trying to be mysterious, but just ends up being vapid and not thought out once you start thinking about it. If the characters just acted like normal people and shared the knowledge that they had with each other, there'd be almost no story.
Conclusion:
The game has a pretty exterior, that does a great job of drawing the player in, and the gameplay is good enough to keep you engaged for a bit. But, experiencing the story and characters for what they were absolutely spoils the game, and just left me angry by the end.
Man what a disappointment this game was. Starts out interesting, but slow burns into mediocracy and ultimately left me frustrated and wanting the experience to be over.
Pros - Visuals, Music and Design
The visuals of this game are gorgeous, with beautiful, vibrant pixel art and super smooth animations. The world is interesting and environments are varied. The music is also really good (except for any tracks that had vocals, those were god-awful). Character designs are also unique and nice to look at, and it makes me very happy that the cast is diverse, with lots of LGBTQ+ representation.
Middle - Gameplay
I'm putting gameplay here because there's things I like and dislike about it. I thought that the turn-based tile system with a timing aspect was unique and fun. The timing on the attacks can be a bit wonky sometimes, with miniscule differences between getting it perfect or not, and not getting it perfect SIGNIFICANTLY slows down the fights, with even the most basic encounters taking way too long, even if you are always perfect, because of the enemy AI and there being too many tiles in an encounter. The UI doesn't help with the timing, either, you kind of just have to guess based on the icon above your character's head, but after doing it a good amount your muscle memory will take care of it. The game also has a pretty bad power creep problem. As more party members get introduced, the abilities they have are just straight up better than the starting party members, giving you no reason to use them once the new members show up. I really did like the combat at first, but as time goes on, it gets extremely repetitive, and becomes a slog.
Cons - Characters and Story
With all of that said, the characters in this game are NOT GOOD. They are either extremely one-dimensional or flat-out unlikeable. They try to give all of the party members some material to work with, but some is better than others. Even the main character I was starting to not like as the game progressed, and the ending actually made me mad. Basically, a love triangle forms between the main character and two of the other party members. But for some fucking reason, they end the game with the main character being with one of them, roll the credits, do a TIMESKIP, and the main character is with the other one. WHAT??? Any development those three characters had is completely out of the window so everyone can have it both ways. It's baffling. It doesn't really feel like any of the characters develop in any meaningful way, with a lot of the tension being the result of drama shown in flashbacks, save for Pertisia. It's pretty clear most of the love and care went into her, and the rest of the cast gets shelved.
The story is extremely contrived as well. A good chunk of it is told in flashbacks, which makes some sense given the context, but it also highlights how nonsensical a lot of the story is. Lots of things could have been avoided if the characters just told the main character the info they knew instead of withholding it. Take for example, the final boss, which is supposed to be a bit of a twist. There's a character that, for a majority of the game, is treated as a joke, with the joke being that he's "the most powerful student" at the school, but every time he tries to do something it's extremely weak. Well, the reason he's so powerful is that if he gets too emotional, he goes berserk and turns into a monster. Which EVERYONE KNOWS except the main character, but they still let him watch his boyfriend get hurt doing something extremely dangerous without even restraining him and become the monster. It's so stupid. There's a lot of moments like this in the story. It's trying to be mysterious, but just ends up being vapid and not thought out once you start thinking about it. If the characters just acted like normal people and shared the knowledge that they had with each other, there'd be almost no story.
Conclusion:
The game has a pretty exterior, that does a great job of drawing the player in, and the gameplay is good enough to keep you engaged for a bit. But, experiencing the story and characters for what they were absolutely spoils the game, and just left me angry by the end.