to me this is the ultimate “hidden gem”; it absolutely floored me when I booted it up. the artwork is shocking: the spritework looks like something from a lauded 2020s indie darling. Each of the party members are lovingly and naturalistically animated; points of pixelated colors bleed across the black-line character outlines. These aren’t the static chibi characters of Pokémon and the hoard of Game Boy RPGs in its wake, all of the art and animation feels high-end and bespoke. The first thing I ever saw of this game was a screenshot of the first boss, which looked like something I never thought you could do on a Game Boy Color.

Beyond the incredible look and feel of the game (also, I’ve never played a Star Ocean game before and I love that this is a gaiden/side story. just a bunch of friends that already know each other getting into a new adventure, no huge intro/setup. the ideal RPG beginning) this game is insanely deep and complex, with layers and layers of systems. each party member has manageable skills, abilities, stats, and equipment, with all characters sharing one xp pool. some characters have environmental-specific abilities that you need to access new areas. some characters have unique upgrade systems that involve complex minigames. some characters are op, some are very strange, all of them have customizable movesets that play out in fluid and fast paced Tales-style fights. I am still just scratching the surface of everything this game has to offer (all the gamefaqs we’re written 2001-2003 before there was an English patch, which is excellent btw) but I am so excited I found it. One of the best Game Boy Color games for sure, and such a feeling of wonder. Can’t recommend it enough.