I don’t really know what to say about this installment besides the fact that it’s very lukewarm. It has all of the charm of Trails, but somehow with even worse storytelling. And that’s saying a lot, because Trails already has some pretty bad storytelling.

Your main character is Kou, your generic “I’m sarcastically over it” protagonist who acts like he just came from an emo convention, minus the aesthetics, which honestly could’ve added some much-needed spice. You start the game in what seems like a dream, watching some girl beat up demons. She then, of course, shows up in real life as your typical tsundere who doesn’t want to talk to you (okay, ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥). You press her anyway, and surprise: there’s a secret society that deals with demonic portals appearing all over Tokyo.

Despite her warnings, you’re recruited into this secret group, because, apparently, everyone else in the group knew about you the whole time and decided to override her. From there, you pretty much go portal-hopping with her, investigating and shutting them down.

Hilariously, every other new recruit ends up being someone from your school. They all have some dramatic backstory or emotional reason for being involved. Yeah, they all get sucked into a portal, and you jump in to save them. Then they magically awaken their Power Ranger abilities just like you did.

What’s even funnier? They clearly transferred assets from the Trails games into this one. Towa’s in here. She acts exactly the same as in Trails, which completely kills immersion.

Other characters are either knockoffs or blueprints for future Trails characters. Once you notice it, you can’t unsee it, and it’ll probably bug the hell out of you.

That’s basically the story. It’s a silly Persona knockoff without the writing chops, more like slop.

Now, the combat. Oh boy. The combat is everything I hate about hack-and-slash games: sluggish, floaty controls that feel like you're on 300 ping, a dodge that only works half the time, and a camera that actively works against you instead of helping. Ocarina of Time, a game from 1998, has a better third-person camera than this mess.

It’s clearly an experimental game where Falcom tried to test-drive the Persona formula… and we all see why they gave up on the experiment.

I wouldn’t even waste your time. Don’t play this. You’re better off playing Animal Crossing.

Decent JRPG experience. Perhaps not the best out there, but worth a play for me