Not only is "an insane asylum" far too frequently used for horror genres, but the game itself is manages to do nothing exciting. Exploring comes down to two things: running away and hiding. With 0 variation between these two methods. Do yourself a favor and skip over this one unless you're absolutely ravenous for a game concept that should have been retired a decade ago.
MM9 is typically hated on for a lot of very good reasons. It's unfinished, it's buggy, the character models hit uncanny valley, and towns and overworlds oft feel devoid of substance, but there's a lot of charm to the game and I invite people to give it a shot. Firstly, the community patch fixes a lot of the more serious issues with the game crashing or quests not working. Still, the game has issues, even getting the game to run can sometimes be a hassle. Next, the class system and gameplay are great. Not perfect, but still great. I liked the branching promotions, although it often felt like the 2nd promotion was the only one that mattered. The story is a bit uneventful until the 2nd half and reminded me a little too much of 6's fetch quest extravaganza, except the quests you're sent on are actually interesting and unique. For instance, instead of just storming a jail and releasing a prisoner, you can choose to stealth in there, lie your way inside, or slash through everybody and everything. Which brings me to my favorite part of MM9: the dungeons. The dungeons for MM9 are by and far my favorite bit. For however much the cities feel like unfinished ghost towns, the dungeons prove the exact opposite. They all seemed very carefully crafted and each provide their own type of challenge.
When I first played MM8, the game felt far more confusing than 7, which had its own intro area and a slower learning curve. In addition, you must recruit characters and you only have full customization over the first one (without using mods or hacks, at least). On one hand, this makes for an interesting party system where you can swap out characters at a tavern, but on the other hand it's punishing to a player who doesn't know what characters they'll get early on or how to plan for a balanced party. Luckily the game gives you a good core group early on to counteract this issue, but it's still disconcerting if you've played the other MM games. The gameplay and leveling is almost exactly that of 7's, which is a plus for me. The classes, however, do not follow typical archetypes of the MM series. Your mileage will vary whether you see this departure as a pro or con. I personally have mixed feelings about it. The story is also a slight departure from 6 and 7's. There is a bit of choice given to the player, which is refreshing, but it doesn't impact gameplay quite as much as 7's choices. Ultimately I enjoyed it because it didn't try to be the previous two games while still maintaining the core gameplay. Despite initial disinterest, I came to enjoy the game.
I've played all the might and magic games, and this is the one I find myself coming back to most often. The storyline is interesting and refreshing. I rarely feel as if I've been thrown into fetch-quest Hell as I did with 6. There's at least two different times where your choices can affect future gameplay, be it minor or major. The fact that the story branches in two major directions means the game can be played at least twice over without retreading too much common ground. The graphics are a bit less dated than 6, but I can see how someone might still find the graphics a turn-off. Compared to 9, which has a very similar gameplay style, 7 didn't age all that well. The class system felt a lot more refined than 6. Being able to grandmaster and promote twice gave the breadth of different classes unique styles. Simply put: more classes and more unique attributes to each class as they promote. The open-world gameplay is welcome and adds to the immersion. There's plenty of little things to discover and explore, and without feeling too large or overwhelming as I encountered with 6, where some areas had so few dungeons or points of interests that I wondered why they even bothered. Similarly dungeons are often unique and interesting and tend to offer novel challenges. The game is ultimately charming and refined, and what I see as the pinnacle of the MM series. If you enjoyed any of the other installments, I highly recommend this game.
