0/10 no mana transfer with saber

I've been pretty addicted to this one all week. I'm not sure how far I am into the story but tackling all side missions and objectives that pop up has kept the grind going steady. For people who play a lot of musous I'd say the combat feels along the lines of Age of Calamity, where enemies have overshields that need to be broken down through perfect dodges/parries and spells which is nice because it keeps the combat from feeling mindless but still fun. That's all I'm going to say about the straight combat because there's lots info out there.
I would like to use this post put focus on the Laylines/grid battle system (just because I hadn't really seen it covered much in reviews that I was digging through here or youtube) and its a shame because I think it's a highlight of the game.
It's a network of nodes that the player is supposed to travel along to concur and buff your party with limited moves/actions and different ways to engage the enemy. Whether it be cutting off their route for an effort free win, knocking their piece off the board or meeting that piece head-on to jump out of the board and into an arena to hack n slash them musou style. It gets tricky because they can cut off your route as well, turning back your progress and causing you to use up your limited moves. There are resources that you can use to extend your actions, leap to different spots on the board or prevent the enemy from moving but they are kept to a limit and the enemy will occasionally use them against you as well. This all adds a layer of thinking to the quests they're part of and feels pretty satisfying when you wrap up the encounter and get bombarded with XP and loot drops.
I hope more people give this one a shot because even if they're not a big fan of Dynasty/Samurai warriors. Koei approached this one with the same level of creativity that they brought to the Zelda and Persona crossovers making it fun for fans of the respected IPs even if they don't usually dabble in musou games.

unbelievably bad combat