A mid-00s light novel come to life, with all the trappings therein. I like some of the gameplay elements here; anyone miffed about the loss of press turn is whinging over some fun experimentation. The Sabbath system offers some interesting choices in combat, forcing you to question how offensive you need to be to maintain your forward advance.

I really like these characters in their downtime, the hangouts and meal segments are sweet and they manage to feel both like coworkers and emotionally stunted 20 somethings meandering through life. Milady was the standout to me and Ringo is a lovely protagonist, I enjoyed Saizo, Arrow was not my fav.

This isn’t a bad game by any means, just a bit simple; the dungeons, particularly the Soul Matrix segments, can be brutally tedious and pale in comparison to the original’s Vision Quests. But it’s a cute and fairly short (compared to its peers) game that never quite coalesces into something truly essential. I will say this game is extremely stable on Series S and ran beautifully. Some fun tunes too.

I think when it leans into its more relaxing, “lo-fi” vibes the game does shine. The hate campaign against this game is saddening because it’s inoffensive at best—you don’t really see this kind of energy for all the Vita RPGs it isn’t too far from