It would have been a great Metroidvania game, if it weren't for the abundant level-breaking bugs and glitches; I am disappointed, considering the simple story was interesting, and that the base gameplay is actually fun. If you are patient, and don't mind re-starting levels repeatedly, you may get some enjoyment out of it.
It's a technical mess, a distorsion of the classic Baldur theme, a sad political tool, and a waste of your time. This game is so bad, that it feels as if the devs slept their way through the original game, not understanding what made it fun and enjoyable in the first place. It just goes to show that their recent remastered edition, which I actually enjoyed despite changing some things that were fine untouched, succeeded not because of their creative process, but because of the strength of the original idea. They should stick to remastering and improving things from a technical standpoint, rather than trying too hard to come up with something "original". I wish the devs would show a little more respect for the original game, and accept that they did a terrible job. Their action of asking for positive reviews is immature and unprofessional.
An incredibly grind-intensive game, you will have to spend hours and hours and hours of grinding before you can make decent progress, but this was a jerky move on the part of the game company, who wants to monetize on you purchasing the DLC to cut a few months of grinding. The music is good most of the time, but after hearing the same tune time and again after grinding, you will hate it. The graphics are good as well, the japanese voice acting is superb, and the story is actually good if ou match it up with the right timed events and the good ending; there are some sad, funny and dramatic moments that you will remember after playing this. The dating sim part is one of the best I've seen, but the combat feels very repetitive and only the boss battles offer some variety. The game has multiple endings, most of them "bad", and to get the good ending without getting the DLC it's impossible unless you grind for months and try it after New Game+. Get it if you don't mind spending more time than needed on excruciatingly repetitive battles and if you are desperate to have several anime waifus. If not, stay away and get yourself an anime hugging pillow... or better yet, a real girlfriend!
What I like: - This game has some good atmospheric bits. There are a few decent puzzles as well. What I dislike: - The game is episodic, you do not get the full experience thematic and storywise; it leaves many things unsolved and unanswered. I get the feeling the developer maliciously left the Episode I trait out of the title. - Most puzzles feel more like scavenger hunts instead of logic and creativity challenges. - The game is very buggy and glitchy. - The save system is awful, you need to wait until you solve some puzzle so you get a buggy checkpoint, that will probably reset things you had already solved or done. - As stated by the other reviewer, the immersion is constantly disturbed by achievement messages, and if you choose subtitles, they appear as a huge ugly box on the lower part of the screen. - The game stutters visually and in the audio department at random times; the mouse is unresponsive at random times as well. My PC runs other games at their highest settings, and this game doesn't look too demanding on the graphics department, the visual and audio flaws should not happen. I truly regret buying this game, there are better games for the same or lower price. Get Amnesia instead, or if you don't care about graphics, get The Cat Lady.
