Frankly, I'm perplexed to see so many glowing reviews. This game was a chore to play. Sluggish pace and terrible camera transitions are perhaps the worst offenders - the camera angles tend to change suddenly and illogically, making the simple action of moving from point A to B a chore. The conversations can be decently interesting, but usually too long - the protagonist's sedate voice doesn't help and the characters take forever to get to the point. I played through the whole game thinking "this is painful to play, but the story premise is full of potential, I'll see if it gets interesting in the next section". For the most part, it didn't. This game didn't grab me at all, at any point. It felt flaccid and lifeless. I say skip it, life's too short to be playing below-average adventure games. There are so, so many better ones around.
With so many glowing reviews, I decided to give it a go, craving a good jRPG. The game's most important aspects were disappointing. WRITING: Oh Falcom. If you like stereotypical, "pleasant" anime writing, you will probably enjoy the story. Others will cringe at the amount of cutesy anime cliches. Typical interaction involving the two leads, Estelle (a stereotypical teenage clumsy, hyper tomboy) and Joshua (a stereotypical teenage responsible, spiky-haired protagonist with a troubled past): E: Says something endearingly OCD in a cocky way. J: Scolds her for it while smiling, because he knows that she's a good and noble person with a ton of potential. E: Gets mad in a quirky way, because she's apparently 10 years old, not 16. J: Says something positive about Estelle, because the game really wants to know that they care about each other. And it's not only during the prologue. They keep going with this format throughout the whole game. WE GET IT, GAME. WE ALREADY HAVE A GRASP ON THESE CHARACTERS' PERSONALITIES! And whoo boy, there's a lot of text, much of it filler. There's some decent worldbuilding at times, but sometimes a simple "Welcome to our village" would've sufficed instead of a tirade from each and every npc in town. COMBAT: It tries to emulate tactical jRPGs, but there's not much tactics to it, really. Normal enemies? Attack or use area craft skills (no magic, since it takes too long). Enemies with physical resistances? Use the appropriate magic element. Bosses? Save up for S-Breaks and unload. Heal, rinse, repeat. The game uses a magic system that's kind of reminiscent of materia from FFVII, but much less satisfying. Having to look in the manual to see what spells you unlock with which orbs is clunky. EXPLORATION: The biggest offender. Dull, mostly empty corridors with avoidable enemy encounters. So very boring. The game's sidequest system forces you to backtrack multiple times, and most of them expire after a while, so you have to do them right away.
