If you're looking through reviews wondering why there are so many negative ones recently, know this: People can't read, don't want to understand that this is Early Access or even spend the time playing the game. Your best choice is to ignore said reviews massively as they do not represent the actual quality of this Early Access and the game itself. Furthermore the team has only 9 people as of writing this review. There were less at the start.


Now to the actual review itself. I'll start with the performance aspect of the game.

I've bought into this Early Access from the first day it launched on Steam. At the start I had the game running on an i5-3570k @4.2GHz with a GTX670 2GB and 8GB DDR3 RAM. At first the game was running very poorly, couldn't reach 30FPS outside of the first two zones regardless the settings (resolution always was 1080p). HOWEVER...
On the game's Discord, the developers are very active, open and helpful. They immediately acknowledged the issues, informed about why there are issues and their plan for how to deal with it in time. And indeed, in time with updates, the performance was steadily improving. From a relatively unplayable experience I got to a relatively stable 30FPS at medium settings. While there were still issues and in places the framerate dropped massively, it was still not final and optimisations were still to happen.
Again, most importantly, developers were always open about it and they constantly try their best.

Later on I moved to a 1060 6GB, and I was able to play at stable 60FPS at max settings at 1080p. With the latest optimisations that only improved. Moreover the stuttering that was quite noticeable and jarring at the start was steadily reduced and the frame timing as of now is incredibly good. Gameplay is very smooth even if you run at lower FPS (I tried running at 4K for lols).

Bottom line? As long as you meet the minimum requirements and adjust the settings accordingly, you should have a playable experience that will most likely still improve in time.


Now onto the gameplay:
It's a turn based jRPG, therefore those familiar with Final Fantasy games will most likely feel at home due to the "ATB" gauge. You have normal attack, ability to move on the field, spells and skills that cost mana (HP and MP regenerate between battles, similar to FFXIII) along with some static objects that can be used to damage enemies, heal yourself etc. With the latest chapter also "limit break" ability dropped in for one of the characters. Basically all the good stuff that you'd expect from jRPG are present... bar one.
Gear. This is the one and only gripe I have with the game so far. The equipment system is akin to the RNG loot based system from games like Diablo or Nioh. Every piece of gear has different rarity levels, that can roll different stats with different values on them. While this adds to replayability, I feel like it goes against the jRPG spirit and adds only unnecessary grind that isn't very enjoyable, at least for me personally. Developers have stated there is some unique gear planned that will have fixed stats on it, so that possibly will help, but regardless I feel like the gearing is the weakest point of the game so far.


Audio and visuals:
Game has a specific art style to itself. It's neither photo realistic or full anime style. More of a blend of the two. You may like it or not but the game overall has a rather charming look to it even if it's arguably not among the prettiest games out there. This is probably also where people may feel like the game "doesn't perform well" when compared to the visuals at display, however that confusion is purely due to the art style used (maybe also the weird vegetation system that at lower settings changes lush forest into a barren wasteland). Just because something doesn't look photorealistic doesn't mean it's easier to render in any way.
Sound wise though... it's a much more consistent experience so to speak. If you've played through many jRPGs it's almost guaranteed that many of the songs will "hit you in dem feels" hard, as some of them have strong nostalgic feeling. The rest while not being as good, still presents a good level that matches surroundings where you can easily enjoy exploring without feeling boring or generic.

Early Access experience:
This is by far the best thing about this game. Developers are open, they engage in discussions on the games official Discord server, if you have issues they or community will try to help with it. Also currently they are trying to cycle between a content and optimisation phases, so one month there are optimisations, other there's a content drop.
Most importantly though you can see that said developers are just jRPG fans. They are passionate about their work and the games in general. Feels like the Razer motto here would describe it well: "By gamers for gamers".
Naturally Discord is also the place where the new information usually drops first. It's not uncommon for someone's suggestion to be added later into the game. In fact depending on what it is, it can happen within hours. I've been a part of 4... no, 5 Early Access games so far. This is by far and wide the best, especially if they keep it up. I'm saying that since I was in another Early Access where at the start the devs were open and friendly but later on they just jumped on nostalgia hype and instead of making the game they proclaimed, they ignored community, threw features and just called it a day. Hopefully that will not be the case here.


Summary:
Game is a solid base. There's still a lot to be done but everything is moving in the right direction. Optimisation passes happen after every bigger content update and developers are extremely active and open. There are few things that some may not like but in overall the game is more likely to attract you and keep you playing than otherwise. Also some butthurt people who haven't played more than 1h are bombing with negative reviews. Ehh...

If you're looking through reviews wondering why there are so many negative ones recently, know this: People can't read, don't want to understand that this is Early Access or even spend the time playing the game. Your best choice is to ignore said reviews massively as they do not represent the actual quality of this Early Access and the game itself. Furthermore the team has only 9 people as of writing this review. There were less at the start. Now to the actual review itself. I'll start with the performance aspect of the game. I've bought into this Early Access from the first day it launched on Steam. At the start I had the game running on an i5-3570k @4.2GHz with a GTX670 2GB and 8GB DDR3 RAM. At first the game was running very poorly, couldn't reach 30FPS outside of the first two zones regardless the settings (resolution always was 1080p). HOWEVER... On the game's Discord, the developers are very active, open and helpful. They immediately acknowledged the issues, informed about why there are issues and their plan for how to deal with it in time. And indeed, in time with updates, the performance was steadily improving. From a relatively unplayable experience I got to a relatively stable 30FPS at medium settings. While there were still issues and in places the framerate dropped massively, it was still not final and optimisations were still to happen. Again, most importantly, developers were always open about it and they constantly try their best. Later on I moved to a 1060 6GB, and I was able to play at stable 60FPS at max settings at 1080p. With the latest optimisations that only improved. Moreover the stuttering that was quite noticeable and jarring at the start was steadily reduced and the frame timing as of now is incredibly good. Gameplay is very smooth even if you run at lower FPS (I tried running at 4K for lols). Bottom line? As long as you meet the minimum requirements and adjust the settings accordingly, you should have a playable experience that will most likely still improve in time. Now onto the gameplay: It's a turn based jRPG, therefore those familiar with Final Fantasy games will most likely feel at home due to the "ATB" gauge. You have normal attack, ability to move on the field, spells and skills that cost mana (HP and MP regenerate between battles, similar to FFXIII) along with some static objects that can be used to damage enemies, heal yourself etc. With the latest chapter also "limit break" ability dropped in for one of the characters. Basically all the good stuff that you'd expect from jRPG are present... bar one. Gear. This is the one and only gripe I have with the game so far. The equipment system is akin to the RNG loot based system from games like Diablo or Nioh. Every piece of gear has different rarity levels, that can roll different stats with different values on them. While this adds to replayability, I feel like it goes against the jRPG spirit and adds only unnecessary grind that isn't very enjoyable, at least for me personally. Developers have stated there is some unique gear planned that will have fixed stats on it, so that possibly will help, but regardless I feel like the gearing is the weakest point of the game so far. Audio and visuals: Game has a specific art style to itself. It's neither photo realistic or full anime style. More of a blend of the two. You may like it or not but the game overall has a rather charming look to it even if it's arguably not among the prettiest games out there. This is probably also where people may feel like the game "doesn't perform well" when compared to the visuals at display, however that confusion is purely due to the art style used (maybe also the weird vegetation system that at lower settings changes lush forest into a barren wasteland). Just because something doesn't look photorealistic doesn't mean it's easier to render in any way. Sound wise though... it's a much more consistent experience so to speak. If you've played through many jRPGs it's almost guaranteed that many of the songs will "hit you in dem feels" hard, as some of them have strong nostalgic feeling. The rest while not being as good, still presents a good level that matches surroundings where you can easily enjoy exploring without feeling boring or generic. Early Access experience: This is by far the best thing about this game. Developers are open, they engage in discussions on the games official Discord server, if you have issues they or community will try to help with it. Also currently they are trying to cycle between a content and optimisation phases, so one month there are optimisations, other there's a content drop. Most importantly though you can see that said developers are just jRPG fans. They are passionate about their work and the games in general. Feels like the Razer motto here would describe it well: "By gamers for gamers". Naturally Discord is also the place where the new information usually drops first. It's not uncommon for someone's suggestion to be added later into the game. In fact depending on what it is, it can happen within hours. I've been a part of 4... no, 5 Early Access games so far. This is by far and wide the best, especially if they keep it up. I'm saying that since I was in another Early Access where at the start the devs were open and friendly but later on they just jumped on nostalgia hype and instead of making the game they proclaimed, they ignored community, threw features and just called it a day. Hopefully that will not be the case here. Summary: Game is a solid base. There's still a lot to be done but everything is moving in the right direction. Optimisation passes happen after every bigger content update and developers are extremely active and open. There are few things that some may not like but in overall the game is more likely to attract you and keep you playing than otherwise. Also some butthurt people who haven't played more than 1h are bombing with negative reviews. Ehh...