my second favorite after aa3 so far - keeping the narrative cohesion that the 3rd really nailed, but weirdly swinging the narrative back to phoenix at the end. i like the cast of apollo a lot, and the animation of klavier playing the air guitar is batshit. more of this, i hope! (i have no expectations)

i catcha da fish

mechanically, a marked improvement over the original. lots more tactical options even if the difficulty rarely necessitates them. the new characters are great, and the setting is excellent - but the game kind of collapses under its own weight and tries to balance too much at once to succeed. ultimately, the story feels a bit rushed, and made me long for the focus the first ichiban game had.