far weaker start than pmd2 that goes on for a bit too long but eventually gets up to proper levels of quality after 7ish hours. there are a few moments in this game story-wise i think i like even more than similar moments in sky and it (mostly) plays better than sky but i still prefer sky because i haven't been that impressed with the music and visual direction of the series post-ds

also yeah, it's really difficult to ignore how weak this one starts whereas with sky it's not as hard to shrug off like 2-ish hours that isn't even at the very beginning

also also sky's postgame runs laps around this one's