loved this game. the main story was gripping, and i fell in love with the side characters: hamura, higashi, saori. just loved them. the mc, yagami, was harder for me to get a grip in - he's noticeably much more bitter than the previous rgg heroes - the guilt he's carrying around with him makes him somehow seem like more of an adult than kiryu or ichiban. but maybe that's because the tone of the story feels much more serious than the mainline rgg games.

things i did not like:
- no karaoke :( and one of my friends told me that takuya kimura is literally one of the most famous singers in japan! i guess it would have been too expensive to have him singing in the game, but still. how am i supposed to understand a character if i can't see how they imagine a music video starring them and their friends?
- the combat felt a bit clumsy to me, but maybe that's just me.
- mafuyu, unfortunately, really does nothing in the game. she has one of the most beautiful character designs in the entire series, but all she does is show up and look worried occasionally :( sad!
- no way to tone down the random encounters. it got to be kind of annoying at around the middle of the game, where i just wanted to focus on the main story because i was so enthralled.
- don't like the dice and cube minigame. yagami looks stupid with the glasses. sorry. actually i don't like his outfit either. he looks better with the lawyer get-up.

things i did like:
- whatever was going on with hamura. wow