Recent reviews by Khalen

Pros: Pretty much everything. Combat, story, music, characters, world lore... all top tier.

Cons: Eupha's third eye kinda creeps me out... *staaaaaaaaaaaare*

Overall it is one of the best RPGs I've played in a while. It shares a similar combat system to Trails Through Daybreak which is superb. it is great being able to engage in real-time to clear out weaker enemies quickly or use it to press for a stun advantage. This should be the gold standard for turn-based combat systems on this type of game going forward.

I've played a few Megami Tensei and Persona games over the years since about 2006-ish and repurchased a number of titles on Steam to show my support for Atlus... but this game is by far their best work, as a personal opinion.

This game was highly polished and immense fun thanks to the combat and variety of characters to play, each with very different mechanics, combos etc. Graphics and music are both top tier, with the stylised art taken mostly from the mobile game, and the music is at times up there with the best that the Final Fantasy franchise has to offer.

The game falls into two parts: The first part is the single player campaign which lets you earn the tickets you need to unlock new characters. The second part is a Monster Hunter World style mission board which lets you co-op or solo (with AI companions) a variety of boss fights in order to collect materials, upgrade your gear, then move up in difficulties.

Overall this is a game of missed opportunities though in opinion. It was touted as a game with no live service updates, just you buy it and play what is there... but in reality I almost wish it WAS a live service game. The endgame mission board system was a lot of fun to play with friends and is a good substitute for Monster Hunter for a good 50-100 hours I reckon.

I bought the game on the release day so cannot say if you can find other players outside your friends list for the co-op anymore, so bear that in mind.

As many have pointed out, the pricing for this game is a little suspect. My first playthrough took 6 hours and I managed to find maybe 50-60% of the collectables without trying that hard. That being said, I would recommend this game (but perhaps when it is in a sale) for the general experience.

The launch was apparently marred by framerate drops, however as of 11 June, this game ran wonderfully on my rig: i7-4790K @ 4gz, 16GB RAM, GTX-980TI on a 1440p monitor set at 85hz at the time of playing. Graphics set to High/TXAA, no noticable stutters at all through 6 solid hours of play.

No spoilers, but essentially in order to understand the full extent of the story, you will have to go out of your way to find the collectables and pay attention to details dotted through the game. It will not spoonfeed you much, except for the cutscenes between 'acts'.

Honestly, half the time I felt like I was playing a game which Studio Ghibli could have made, especially with some of the imagery looking similar to elements of Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke... this is no bad thing of course, as Ghibli makes wonderful imaginative movies, but still... I had to double check who made the soundtrack as it sounded like something Joe Hisaishi would put together. On the subject of the game soundtrack... beautiful! I love classical themes which are heavy on the cello and violin, and this has it in abundance.
Visually I found the game to be bright and beautiful, but behind it is a tale quite dark and emotional... just like a Studio Ghibli movie really!

Anyway, to sum up, I found the game to be a largely enjoyable experience, even if the 'puzzles' were all a bit obvious. It was visually and audibly beautiful at times, with smooth animation which emphasised character (a big need for a game with no real spoken dialog)... but do I feel compelled to return to it and finish finding the collectables? Not right now... so I would recommend the game for the experience, but do not feel it is long enough to justify the full-price tag at the moment.