the game of my childhood. the music still slaps to this day and Ancient Cave is just fun as heck. also Dekar was my first crush

i also own the original 3DS release but this version has makeup and wigs and a Horse. I wish they could have added more things like extra Jobs, new dungeons and/or a way to control the team a bit better. either way the music is phenomenal.

a game that had the potential to become a solid IP, dicked over by lacking marketing and a fight between its parent companies.
Harle should call me.

you play as a mortician, simply put. you don't just process bodies and send them on their way -- you learn their names, you meet their families and learn who they were as people, because they were people.
it is a heavy experience for being only a few hours long. i know it made me think about things for a while.

i wish this game could get a proper sequel.

one time i crashed the game by accidentally spawning about 500 cobra eggs that all hatched at the same time. absolutely fantastic.

the best way to play this game is to inflict it on your friends

this was my first FE game, my friend convinced me to buy it by telling me to pick my favourite hot guy. i married Stahl, Frederick, Gaius,,,

excellent dating simulator. I married Azama and i've never been happier-- huh? what do you mean, "this is a strategy RPG" ??

This review contains spoilers

the combat gameplay is far improved from the first game's "rock paper scissors", feeling less random and more strategic.

that said, as much as i enjoyed the game, there was one disappointment for me: Oltura. for the majority of the story, it seemed that Oltura's spectacular, tentacular appendages pointed it to being a kind of eldritch, squid-like elder dragon, something like Nakarkos. now, I love Nakarkos. I wanted to love Oltura.

but when you finally face it proper, Oltura turns out to be...just a dragon. not even a very large one; it's no bigger than your Rathalos pal.
fighting it is a major pain as well, for a number of reasons:
-- Oltura's moves hit like a truck, and a lot of them hit the whole team. when its wings unfurl, it can attack multiples times a round. remember your healing items, bc i know i didn't for the first few attempts.
-- Oltura has an unavoidable supermove in the final phase, which outright forces you to take the damage and lose hearts. because you and your Monsties share your Heart Health, you lose two hearts from this attack. you have to have made it to the final phase without losing even one heart, or you'll have to restart the fight again.
-- for Plot Reasons, Kyle's your companion for the fight, but as a Bow user he's not optimal for DPS. that, and you can't control other humans, they more-or-less run on RNG.
-- I did manage to defeat Oltura at one point, but the game then crashed trying to load the next cutscenes. I was furious.

by the time i'd finally beaten Oltura and got it to stick, all the energy i had for the game was pretty much spent.

to say nothing of the voice direction; it's decent, but my god, the localisation team couldn't think of anything better than Make Reverto Talk Like A California Surfer Dude? really doing my husband such a disservice...

as much as i enjoy the characters and the music, i feel like the game tries to do too much at once, to the point it becomes overwhelming and exhausting.

play this with a friend if you can!

incredible music and visuals, but I feel there were a lot of weird decisions (writing and mechanics wise) made in the dev room when they were making this game.

it's an otherwise tolerable entry in the Paper Mario series, but you could not pay me to play through Shy Guys Finish Last ever again.

the game looks pretty, the characters are pretty, and the voice acting is excellent.

but given i drove myself to beat the main story out of spite, i think the game wasn't for me. i couldn't master the combat system, i was annoyed with how the skits were done visually, they overhauled the Party AI for the worse, and i forgot there was even background music. not to mention, the most powerful artes and skill trees are locked behind paid DLC.
i also had the rotten luck of the game just randomly softlocking every 2-3 battles, at the time i played it. i don't know if that issue has been fixed or not.

i wish i could forget i played this game at all, but unfortunately for me, the name Balseph Erwolsey Teldilys will haunt me until the day i crumble to ashes.