After watching a streamer play through the game in its entirety, I have an incredibly elevated view of the beginning and the middle now. Enough to change my rating of the game from my previous 3.5 to a 4. I still feel the ending is a bit of a mixed bag but so much of the early game makes so much more sense and supports the plot up in significant ways that I didn't really comprehend due to how complex it is
I've left my earlier review below as is when I rated it a 3.5
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This is an ambitious and very well constructed game for the most part. But what brings it down for me really is the story that does not live up to the expectations it sets
The presentation is beyond excellent. Gorgeous art throughout, tons of polish in the animations and lovely character art all around. The music was incredibly good and I think I'll check out some of the menu and combat tracks for casual listening on Spotify. The sound design is extremely good, especially in combat where every single ability has a distinct and punchy sound which really sells the mecha angle
The combat is a decently fun time with just enough depth that you do need to consider tactics and placement. The combat explodes with pips, flashes and explosions and triggers the same part of my brain as Vampire Survivors except with more active brain usage
I don't think I can go too heavily into the story without spoilers but it is exceedingly dense and weaves a very confusing narrative through many characters and events. Every single bit of information demands review and scrutiny and I really couldn't keep up with some things without consulting notes. I was second guessing almost every single conclusion the characters came to and with good reason. I don't think I really even knew exactly what was happening until the last 10 or so hours. While the ending really did not resolve smoothly for me, I had a lot of fun with the whole process and some of the characters are very endearing. Conversely, some characters are exceedingly bad and act in very stupid ways which really took me out of their segments. I really want to call out how incredibly poorly the women are written here because they're all so flat and have some of the worst motivations for taking incredibly naive and ill-advised actions
Overall, for such a primarily story driven game, I'm not sure I'm as positive about it as everyone else. It's undeniably an ambitious work of art and a LOT of effort went into the construction but I really enjoy endings to a story and I really don't think this one sticks it. But I'm very glad I played it and I was never once bored by it
I've left my earlier review below as is when I rated it a 3.5
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This is an ambitious and very well constructed game for the most part. But what brings it down for me really is the story that does not live up to the expectations it sets
The presentation is beyond excellent. Gorgeous art throughout, tons of polish in the animations and lovely character art all around. The music was incredibly good and I think I'll check out some of the menu and combat tracks for casual listening on Spotify. The sound design is extremely good, especially in combat where every single ability has a distinct and punchy sound which really sells the mecha angle
The combat is a decently fun time with just enough depth that you do need to consider tactics and placement. The combat explodes with pips, flashes and explosions and triggers the same part of my brain as Vampire Survivors except with more active brain usage
I don't think I can go too heavily into the story without spoilers but it is exceedingly dense and weaves a very confusing narrative through many characters and events. Every single bit of information demands review and scrutiny and I really couldn't keep up with some things without consulting notes. I was second guessing almost every single conclusion the characters came to and with good reason. I don't think I really even knew exactly what was happening until the last 10 or so hours. While the ending really did not resolve smoothly for me, I had a lot of fun with the whole process and some of the characters are very endearing. Conversely, some characters are exceedingly bad and act in very stupid ways which really took me out of their segments. I really want to call out how incredibly poorly the women are written here because they're all so flat and have some of the worst motivations for taking incredibly naive and ill-advised actions
Overall, for such a primarily story driven game, I'm not sure I'm as positive about it as everyone else. It's undeniably an ambitious work of art and a LOT of effort went into the construction but I really enjoy endings to a story and I really don't think this one sticks it. But I'm very glad I played it and I was never once bored by it