ANOTHER EDEN

I've been playing AE for several years now and I still haven't caught up on all the things there are to do, and each expansion adds more depth and colour to the enormous world of the story. I particularly love how all the characters' stories (both free and summonable) frequently connect, and how they're brought back with upgrades whenever new content comes out where they would logically be present story-wise (ie, if a new story is set in the area they're from). While summoned characters make a lot of content easier, it's entirely possible to play through the entire main story with just the free ones, and there are players out there who take it as a challenge to clear harder optional content with just them as well, and as far as I know they always manage it eventually. Summoning is therefore fun but essentially optional, and the game is truly effectively F2P. Another favourite thing for me is the music: it's absolutely beautiful, and at this point there are literally hundreds of tracks. I listen to the soundtrack on its own all the time because it's just that good. The translations are also pretty much always at least solid, occasionally inspired (some of the funnier character quests can be spectacular), and they continued to improve as new content came out, so at this point they're excellent. I will note that it while it can be VERY grindy, it's not worse than other continuing RPGs, none of it is ever time-limited, and it's generally the kind of grinding I personally enjoy and find calming. The battle system is easy to learn and hard to master, making challenge fights very satisfying. My biggest current gripes are a) the inventory UI BADLY needs an overhaul, and b) due to the sheer amount and complexity of content and insufficiency of in-game guides and tracking, you really can't avoid leaning heavily on the fandom wiki to figure out many boss fights and complete quests without obvious next steps. Thankfully, they're already working on those, and things are improving with each update. Also of note: the phone version is still superior to the PC version, because the controls are more unified and you can watch ads to get a not-insignificant amount of summoning currency each day, but as far as I've found it is in fact 100% playable on PC. (I have two accounts, one on my phone and one on Steam, so I can compare directly.) All told, it's one of my favourite games of all time and I heartily recommend it to anyone looking for a great mobile RPG that's single-player, story-heavy, and has a truly astonishing amount of very varied content to enjoy.