To be perfectly honest, I went in expecting Terrain of Magical Expertise to play like Megaman Battle Network and instead got Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars. Fortunately, I also really enjoyed the latter, so I felt right at home.

The story made me feel like I was part of a quaint indie MMO private server. I would say the thing that this game really shines with is the voice acting, as it was extremely charming and expansive. (Literally half of the games file size is just the sound files of dialogue, as there is a lot which I really appreciated)
The art style is unique and is also really well done. It is minimalist enough that it has a timeless quality to it.
Overall it was an experience I was happy to have.

I originally went in with the mindset of traditional RPGs where grinding is key, but I quickly learned that it was completely unnecessary and it made darting around the map to get to the next story beat much less tedious than I would have expected considering the genre and theme.

That said, it is not without its problems. The game still has its quirks, some bugs (both major and minor) and there was one area in particular that I got soft locked a couple times.

It definitely leans on a couple of tropes that I am less of a fan of, like the "scripted battle with the antagonist in which the game forces you to lose despite being perfectly capable of beating them", being locked into your skill choice before really getting a feel for what you need or should prioritize, and alluding to game mechanics in the story that you can't actually interact with (breaker beam - I am looking at you).

While there are some things I would have liked to see done a bit differently, this game was really quite the gem and I would highly recommend giving it a try if it strikes your fancy.