Played on a PC/Switch Controller, as all the menus seem to be designed for a controller.
Do not skip this game. I have seen many reviewers/players mention that it's better to skip directly into the sequel, Second Light. I will admit this game is clumsy in many ways. There are quite a few obvious spelling errors from mispressed keys. A lot of attack animations have voice lines but they are mistimed or even have absent facial animations. A lot of cutscenes have that cheap film trick where they only show the back of a character's head to skip animating their face. There are no voice lines in most of the side content found in the game.
Hinako, our main protagonist has a uniform 2 sizes too small, you can see her belly and back time to time. And our camera man loves to pass out, leading to very weird camera angles. Wait, are we even allowed to be in these places, isnt that the shower-
...But even with all that, there are enough merits to warrant a full playthrough. A summary will not do the story justice imo. Hinako's struggle with her leg injury, her bonds with her classmates. And her story of saving the world, it's worth a playthrough.
It helps that the game is pretty damn relaxing and fun. I feel like RPG experts and casual players can both find enjoyment in this game. There's no dungeons. The levels we do have are very basic and easy to navgate, you'll never be lost. There's no need to worry about sustain, as you get fully healed after every fight. And there's no penalty for losing other than redoing the fight.
There's no need to kill monsters to get exp, but you do have to grind your friends. ...As in you gotta talk to them multiple times to progress from time to time. Also you gotta help out your school mates with their troubles to progress the game, but you also get rewards with levels and skill points for your trouble. Less of a magical girl, more like the school's problem solver.
I won't delve too deep into the game mechanics. The game slowly introduces more and more complex mechanics as you progress, giving a good sense of power progression as play through the game. I played on Hard, and it was still a relatively relaxing experience as long as you somewhat try to win. I can't say I fully understood how the ATB system works with all the end game mechanics but I still got by pretty easily. Definitely recommend picking hard, even then the game kinda rolls over after the start once you get your bearings.
Boss fights are... a spectacle for sure. But it's really repetitive. Definitely the weakest part of the game for me.
Graphically, the game still holds up pretty well. However, the facial animations definitely could have used more polish. A lot of expressions seem to lack that extra bit of emotion to really draw out the character's feelings. There's a considerable effort seen in a lot of the main story cutscenes with regards to scene direction though. It really makes the scenes a lot more dynamic and full of life compared to how dull some other games present their story and dialogue. (That said, the side content is dull in this regard.)
The game ran at a pretty smooth high refresh rate experience. If you got the hardware, it runs great. Personally it stuttered when loading into another stage from time to time, but that may be an issue on my end. Other than that, expect high 200+ fps on really high end systems. The sky is the limit when it comes to FPS in this game.
