I loved this game at first but the more I played it the less I liked it. You choose one of three houses at the very start of the game. No matter which route you pick the maps and plot will be the same, the only difference being your students. You can easily recruit students from other houses though aside from one or two people which are locked to a certain house. On my second playthrough I recruited every recruit-able person before even halfway through the game. So what house you pick doesn't really matter at first.
After the halfway point the three routes split to be completely different. The Black Eagles route feels unfinished. Not only is is significantly shorter than the other routes, but the story also doesn't have a true conclusion. We know there's still more people to fight, but we don't get to do it.
The Black Eagles route has a route split right at the halfway point for you to instead join with the church. This route is pointless as it has the same maps and cutscenes as the Golden Deer route aside from the final map. Don't bother with it. However, you might accidentally end up doing it because it's easier to get forced into this route than to do the actual Black Eagles route.
The Blue Lions route is the most unique and finished route in the game, but the story mainly hinges on a misunderstanding, which is especially annoying if this route isn't your first. As the player I clearly know the answer and could solve the conflict in a single sentence, but I don't get to and instead I just watch the world burn.
Also this game has one of the worst maps in all of Fire Emblem: Hunting By Daybreak. As I mentioned it's very easy to recruit other units, so in my second playthrough I used units from different houses. However, this is the only map that makes you use only units from the house you chose at the start, regardless of if you've leveled them or not.
Anyway, it's almost a good game. The characters are detailed and their side stories are often pretty interesting, but the gameplay has huge problems. The common route is too long, the monastery parts are repetitive, the class system encourages units to often pick the same class, etc.

The game has some problems but most important to me is that the game was always fun. It's easier than the prior entries, but this is because the developers removed mechanics that were frustrating, annoying, boring, or didn't matter.

Having your Pikmin attack or carry things just by walking near them was frustrating, so their AI is fixed and they only follow your commands. Having to divide your squad before fights because if your Purple or White Pikmin die it's very time consuming to get more was annoying, so now you can just rewind the game if these special Pikmin die. Waiting for the Pikmin to carry a ship part or treasure across the entire map was boring, so now you can move your base closer. Having a limit to the amount of days you can beat the game sounds cool on paper, but the time limit in Pikmin 1 and 3 was so generous that I've never know anyone to lose to it, so this game doesn't have a similar limit.

The only aspect I think is outright bad is the dialogue. There's a lot of it and it's mostly pointless so feel free to skip it. Otherwise I feel like this game does an amazing job of having a ton of different puzzle mechanics and switching them up constantly. It reminds me of a 3D Mario game. No level gimmick is particularity deep, but they change so often that I'm always engaged. It definitely my favorite of the series, and I recommend it even if you don't normally play real time strategy games.

There's a specific sweet spot in order to enjoy this game. If you just want to rush through the main story then you'll be disappointed. The game has fantastic world design, but you won't see most of it from just following the main story and instead you'll need to do some side quests. Some of the side quests are great, mainly the blade quests, but you have to go far out of your way to get these, as not only do you need the RNG to get a unique blade but you also need to level up each of them. first Likewise, the combat is great, but you're not required to explore it in depth, as even though there are technically limitless blades/party members, you could just beat the game with the ones that are given to you automatically.

Conversely, if you want to do everything in this game then you'll also be upset. In Xenoblade 1 and 3 you can get 100% in less than 100 hours, while here you'll need well over 200 hours. Some of the mechanics, like the Merc Missions or maxing Affinity Charts, require tons of time and just aren't fun. You'll probably spend hours just grinding the core crystals to have a chance at summoning your last few unique blades. Even though the world design is great, when you have to consistently backtrack because you didn't have the right Field Skill then you'll start to hate it.

It's an amazing game only if you're the very specific kind of video game player who wants to do most of a game's content. Not some, not all, but specifically just most.

When compared to the GBA versions three things stand out:
1: If you are emulating this instead of playing on a DS then the menus will take significantly longer to navigate. Also if you emulate then you don't get the feeling of yelling at MegaMan to get a buff.
2: The voice acting is annoying. Not to say that the voice actors are bad, it's just that there's only a few lines of voiced dialogue and they play way too often.
3: This version is much easier. In Liberation Missions you can edit your folder, and on the regular net you can other Navi's to assist you. I normally like my games to be tough but I like this change as it mainly made the regular encounters easier while the boss battles were about just as tough.
Overall, if you're emulating, or if you get annoyed by repetitive dialogue, or if you want the more challenging experience, then play the GBA version, ideally Team Colonel as well.

Great games. My complaints are just:
1: Requiring trades to get 100%. This is fixed on the Wii U version, but not the Legacy Collection version.
2: Still uses the style system. The fact that you can't really control what style you get, and it takes 100 battles to get another, is too RNG dependent for such a huge aspect of combat. I'm so glad they got rid of this system after this.
Otherwise great combat, music, fun story, not as much backtracking as the prior games, etc. Not much else I could say is an actual flaw with the game.

Great games. My complaints are just:
1: Requiring trades to get 100%. This is fixed on the Wii U version, but not the Legacy Collection version.
2: Still uses the style system. The fact that you can't really control what style you get, and it takes 100 battles to get another, is too RNG dependent for such a huge aspect of combat. I'm so glad they got rid of this system after this.
Otherwise great combat, music, fun story, not as much backtracking as the prior games, etc. Not much else I could say is an actual flaw with the game.

Seeing the same cast of characters follow one continuous plot over 20 years of publication is common for comics and books, but it almost never happens in video games. Games series tend to either have a new cast and plot each game, like Final Fantasy, or have the same cast but no continuous plot, like Mario. The only series I can think of that comes close to a continuous cast and plot are Ys, which keeps the same protagonist and best friend but has almost no other returning characters; Trails, which keeps the same setting but the protagonist and party members change often; and Metal Gear, which has ended.

Kingdom Hearts is an outlier in this regard. If you want a story focused video game series with the same cast and plot that spans twenty years, then Kingdom Hearts is your best and probably only choice. Now I don't actually like to read those books and comics that span twenty years because I find them repetitive, but Kingdom Hearts doesn't have this problem because the gameplay changes significantly from game to game. The first is focused on platforming with hack and slash, then it's a card game, then it's a character action, then a few games here are just movies, there's one with monster collecting, etc. It's varied and unique.

Another draw to this series is the Disney characters and worlds. Again, I don't actually care much for Disney movies, but I love them here because of the variety. One world might be in a whale, another in a computer, one is underwater, in one you sail a boat, etc. While there's a core cast that is recurring there's tons of Disney characters to add variety to the story and the aesthetic.

Is Kingdom Hearts always good? No. There are a lot of things I dislike. Some games I don't like the combat, some characters I don't care for, some worlds overstay their welcome, etc. but this is really about being more than the sum of its parts. If I had to rate each game in the series and average them out, I'd probably end up with a 7.5/10, but as a whole package, being an incredibly unique media experience that you won't find anywhere else, it has to be a 10/10.

Great concept with poor execution. There's too much dialogue, none of which is funny or interesting. The world design is very basic and empty. The sound design is surprisingly bad: the same few songs play too often, there's no voice acting at all, and the audio mixing makes many sound effects too hard to hear. The graphics have frequent pop-in and surprisingly low res textures. The combat is worse than mainline Pokemon games, as mechanics like abilities and held items are completely removed, and the boss fights are too simple.

Even the core mechanics of the game are poorly done. There's a whole feature about completing Pokedex pages by catching multiple of the same mon, beating it multiple times, seeing it use a certain move, etc. that is basically pointless as the reward for doing all of this is just money, which isn't needed, and a shiny charm, which is meaningless to most players. If you just want to meet Arceus, like the title says, then you just have to catch every Pokemon, which wouldn't be so bad if Spiritomb didn't require you to collect 107 Korok seeds with no map markers for ones you've already gotten.

That said, I had some fun, but what carried me was the novelty. After mainline Pokemon games being so afraid to take risks it's nice to see something different. If you've played almost all the Pokemon games like I have then you'll appreciate this change of pace, but if you're not a Pokemon superfan then you'll likely just get bored from this shoddily made game.

The base game is good. There's a unique blend of RPG and rhythm games, and I vastly prefer using a controller to the 3DS controls. I feel like the game was made with PS4 controller in mind though, as doing double stick inputs on Switch JoyCons feels really weird. For the older titles I'm upset at how many of them use the original NES songs instead of any of the copious remixes, as the original songs often loop three or four times in one stage.
Anyway, like most rhythm games the DLC system is awful. First, songs that were in the last game are now DLC, like Melodies Of Life and Zanarkand. Second, at full price the game is $50 for 385 tracks, which is 13 cents a song. Getting the Premium Deluxe version is another $50 for only 117 songs, which is 43 cents a song. This also isn't even taking into account that there's no DLC characters either, which also makes the DLC packs over priced.
I understand that most of the DLC songs aren't Final Fantasy and are from other series, but they're all still Square Enix games. It's not like Smash Bros. where Nintendo has to license songs for third party DLC, all the DLC songs in this game shouldn't cost Square anything more than the base game songs.
If you like Final Fantasy music or rhythm games then pick this up. It's fun but nothing amazing. However, I can only recommend the base game at this price.

There's a good idea here held back by bad rogue-lite design. The concept of a deck builder where you're like a tabletop dungeon master, trying to level up the hero while not killing them, is novel and decently executed. However, what most of my play time was spent doing was creating incredibly specific enemy patters for the hero to defeat so I could get some loot drop that's needed to upgrade the base. This mechanic should not have been in the game at all. Beating a boss should be the primary method to unlocking permanent upgrades, not to make intricate trash mob patterns.

I think Atlus realized that they have three separate audiences and tried to make a game that would appeal to all of them, but in the end they made a game that appeals to nobody.
-If you don't like old school Megami Tensei like the original Soul Hackers then you will hate the dungeon and map design in this game.
-If you don't like modern Shin Megami Tensei games like SMT 4 and 5 then you will hate the focus on side quests and backtracking in order to not be under leveled.
-If you don't like the modern Persona games then you will hate how much dialogue this game has, much of which is pointless moments like talking about food or chatting about backstories at a bar.
The only people who could enjoy this game are Atlus super fans like me who like all of those games. The issue with this though is because I've played most games Atlus has ever put out, I know that every thing this game tries to do has been done better in prior games.
There's nothing about this game that it does better than any prior Atlus game. I totally want Atlus to take risks with Megami Tensei. If you liked Nocturne then you might not like Digital Devil Saga, Raidou, or Persona 3 and 4, but that's because those games each appeal to a slightly different audience. This game tried to appeal to everyone by making a game with some dungeon crawling, some side quests, some slice of life dialogue, and in the end it appeals to no one.