(Written Oct 12th 2023)

I can't remember the last time I played a game that got me thIS excited over the battle mechanics? I initially overlooked the release of the game since I had other titles I was working my way through at the time, but after getting to try the demo on switch- I was enthralled with how the battlesystem was interwoven with itself.

It felt like a fusion of Chrono Trigger and Mario RPG titles- with some of its own flare added into the mix. Timed hits to block and execute attacks with unique timing per move and enemy, regenerating your magic attacks by executing physical attacks- which alSO drop elemental embuements you can either power your next attack with- or grant an additional element to a physical attack depending on the party member, varied combo attacks and ease of swapping party members in battle on the fly, and probably my faVORite mechanic- cancelling enemy spells by strategizing how to best use your physical and magical attacks alike.

All these varied systems combined make the fights consistently engaging, challenging, and like every mistake made is within your control, rather than something poorly balanced on the game's part. As a bonus, this game I think wonderfully handles accesibility settings, with varied badges you can pick and choose to adjust the overall gameplay experience and difficulty. So far I've only run into ones that seem to ease difficulty- so I hope in areas there could be badges to create unique challenges too.

On top of the battle system, the animation, environmental, and overworld artwork is phenomenal. My jaw dropped a good few times over some of the gorgeous spritework and phase changes for enemies within battle. The lighting engine as well is the perfect hybrid I think of pixel art making use of more modern tech- compared to the blurred and blown out lighting effects used in some of Square Enix's HD 2D titles like Octopath Traveler.

I will say the character portrait art feels slightly more ameteurish and stiff compared to the cutscenes and overworld assets, and much of the writing is a bit bland, but the gameplay more than carries the overall experience for a fun, challenging adventure, that I would like to try and see out to the ending sometime.