An interesting, highly aesthesized and stylized story wrapped in underwhelming, mediocre gameplay. Having played all main endings, it's quite clear that endings A and B should've been alternating like the "third playthrough" of the game is set up. It is quite bizarre that a game that offers such an easy way to get both endings C, D and E would make the player suffer through what is a gruelling repetitive design in the "second playthrough."

Overall, gameplay-wise it is frankly far too disappointing that its story can cover up. Combat is shallow, almost insulting to fans of Platinum's character action games, while the repeated intrusion of awkward and pace-breaking twin-stick shooter sections turn the experience from boring to downright frustrating. The shallow combat is salvageable if it's merely shallow, but the camera exacerbates the visibility problem created by the colour saturation and brightness, making it almost impossible to see what the character is doing or where they are sometimes. The targeting is even worse, forcing your to fight swarm of enemies while you are locked to a single one, and often the camera obstructs the player from getting the optimal view of the action. It is simply not a good gameplay design when the basic gameplay pillars are just not good enough.

RPG-wise, the skill system is good, but the combat itself is far too unsatisfactory that it really cannot contribute to the overall quality of the gameplay. The side quests are chores, and the fact they supposedly gatekeep little "details" about the world further adds to the frustration.

It is a unique story, probably far better than most JRPG stories. But I just don't see how it's good enough to forgive how much of a disappointing game this is.

Also, I don't know how he is in English, but 9S's voice when he's trying to be angry or mad is just so cringe.