Every aspect of this game is hilarious and/or infuriating. The plot. The music. How contrived the puzzles are. The hyper-specific dialogue trees. And especially Halligan's characterization. This is not the only game I've played with a self-centered and obnoxious protagonist, but it IS the only game I've played where no attempt was made to offset that unlikeability whatsoever. You, the player, will spend the entire game actively be rooting for him to fail. You will come to learn first-hand why his colleagues despise and distrust him so much. And you will wonder what masochistic fascination compels you to keep aiding him on his quest. Please don't let that stop you from playing though. Go into it as blind as possible, you'll thank me later.
Overall, I enjoyed it. If I was being totally objective I'd give it a solid 3 stars, but I'm adding +1 for the nostalgia factor and because I have a soft spot for pixel RPGs. The gameplay felt a lot like the FF Tactics series though the difficulty balancing was a little odd on some levels.... In particular, I noticed it was possible to fail on the very first round of turns on certain protect-the-unit missions, and in a few missions you're outnumbered 2:1. That said, it is a solidly fun tactical combat experience and I particularly enjoyed the unique ways in which the characters can move about the map. Another bonus is that you can replay levels with different enemies if you revisit the locations... However, there are a few points in the game progression where you lose (and in some cases regain) access to certain areas of the map. The game is short enough that it honestly doesn't matter, you don't need to grind THAT much to progress so revisitation of areas isn't something you need to do constantly or anything. For such a short game it told a pretty compelling story. There are some genuinely emotionally nuanced parts, and it goes a little deeper into anti-colonialism than other fantasy adventure games. The dialogue is rough in some spots but I found it forgiveable. The ending felt a bit abrupt and open-ended, like a demo that ends after the first chapter of the overall story. The AI is funky at times. Occaisonally the ally units will attack each other, or your own units will get caught in their AoE. Also, enemies will sometimes randomly know where your invisible units area? I encountered an interesting glitch where completing a battle in an adjacent area to one in which you can recruit your ally at the end still triggered the ally recruitment event. Not only that, but it kept repeating the event so I ended up with two Qiamats lol
