The main reason I dropped this game is that it is constantly interrupting gameplay with VN style cutscenes. This game initially pulls you in with gorgeous visuals and smooth gameplay but the longer I played the more bored I got. The moment it all fell apart for me was when I was going through a particular level and I had forgotten some of the controls for the game because of how little you actually get to use them. Going through levels is so quick that most of the time spent in this game is just watching cutscenes. The levels are also quite linear with very little to explore and they even get reused.

The biggest drawback to this game are these so-called bonding events where your character interacts with another and you increase your affinity with them in that way. It's initially fine but there comes a point in the story where major shifts happen in the power structure of the whole military complex that you're a part of. The story takes a slightly darker turn and it's relatively interesting. Problem is that the game still has these bonding events despite all of the nasty stuff happening in the story. The game literally has you go out for a night on the town and grabbing some food from a restaurant with a squad mate while all kinds of heavy ♥♥♥♥ is happening in the story. And it even has bonding events where you are casually going for coffee with characters that are supposedly your enemies at this point in the story. There is nothing to interact with during these bonding events, you just sit back to watch a VN style cutscene of characters talking. That's it.

Other negative points to mention:

• Constant hints and tips get really tiring after a while. They pop up every single time you use any ability and there is no way to turn them off. Characters during missions also make me want to pull my hair out with constant comments like "Hey, I bet we can use that train against these enemies" right after I received a tutorial on that exact thing. Even after I used a train against enemies twice during that level already, the characters just keep commenting like I have the memory of a goldfish. The game will not let you figure out anything for yourself at all. Every single interaction you could think of will have a tutorial and it is so annoying. It even goes so far as to have a character stating that if I am on fire I will lose health. Thanks, never could have figured out myself that being on fire might be a bad thing. This game is like Dragon's Dogma on steroids when it comes to unnecessary hints and comments. If you thought "goblins are weak to fire!" is annoying, you haven't seen anything yet.
  
  
• There's this powerup state called 'brain drive' which enhances your attacks and so on. Pretty basic stuff except that it's forcefully activated the moment the gauge for it fills up. You have zero control over when it's going to activate which just removes a layer of decision-making for no good reason at all. It could activate just as you're finishing off a group of enemies and then part of it is wasted when running to the next group of enemies. It seems to drain slower when out of combat but it's still stupid.
  
  
• Side quests are garbage. Actually, they're more like tasks that are just asinine and stupid. They're like FFXV's side quests. Absolutely worthless content to include in the game. You get very little reward for doing them and there is nothing to them. Just a character that hands out the task and that's it.

[h1] Far too much story and far too little gameplay [/h1] The main reason I dropped this game is that it is constantly interrupting gameplay with VN style cutscenes. This game initially pulls you in with gorgeous visuals and smooth gameplay but the longer I played the more bored I got. The moment it all fell apart for me was when I was going through a particular level and I had forgotten some of the controls for the game because of how little you actually get to use them. Going through levels is so quick that most of the time spent in this game is just watching cutscenes. The levels are also quite linear with very little to explore and they even get reused. The biggest drawback to this game are these so-called bonding events where your character interacts with another and you increase your affinity with them in that way. It's initially fine but there comes a point in the story where major shifts happen in the power structure of the whole military complex that you're a part of. The story takes a slightly darker turn and it's relatively interesting. Problem is that the game still has these bonding events despite all of the nasty stuff happening in the story. The game literally has you go out for a night on the town and grabbing some food from a restaurant with a squad mate while all kinds of heavy shit is happening in the story. And it even has bonding events where you are casually going for coffee with characters that are supposedly your enemies at this point in the story. There is nothing to interact with during these bonding events, you just sit back to watch a VN style cutscene of characters talking. That's it. Other negative points to mention: [list] [*]Constant hints and tips get really tiring after a while. They pop up every single time you use any ability and there is no way to turn them off. Characters during missions also make me want to pull my hair out with constant comments like "Hey, I bet we can use that train against these enemies" right after I received a tutorial on that exact thing. Even after I used a train against enemies twice during that level already, the characters just keep commenting like I have the memory of a goldfish. The game will not let you figure out anything for yourself at all. Every single interaction you could think of will have a tutorial and it is so annoying. It even goes so far as to have a character stating that if I am on fire I will lose health. Thanks, never could have figured out myself that being on fire might be a bad thing. This game is like Dragon's Dogma on steroids when it comes to unnecessary hints and comments. If you thought "goblins are weak to fire!" is annoying, you haven't seen anything yet. [*]There's this powerup state called 'brain drive' which enhances your attacks and so on. Pretty basic stuff except that it's forcefully activated the moment the gauge for it fills up. You have zero control over when it's going to activate which just removes a layer of decision-making for no good reason at all. It could activate just as you're finishing off a group of enemies and then part of it is wasted when running to the next group of enemies. It seems to drain slower when out of combat but it's still stupid. [*]Side quests are garbage. Actually, they're more like tasks that are just asinine and stupid. They're like FFXV's side quests. Absolutely worthless content to include in the game. You get very little reward for doing them and there is nothing to them. Just a character that hands out the task and that's it. [/list]