[h1]You Can't Fire Me, I'm Overthrowing You! (8/10)[/h1]
[h2]Story[/h2]
This is a game about living with the consequences of your actions, both in terms of mutually exclusive player choices and in Morgalia's villain arc. This means some choices can result in certain characters joining, the another choice could have those very same characters die or become enemies. This can lead to some interesting possibilities, though it can also be hard to make a logical connection between the choices and the outcome for certain characters, such as [spoiler]Virgo becoming a boss[/spoiler].
Like in the Trails of Cold Steel series, the majority of character development will take place in bonding events, but since you have a limited number of activity points during each town/camp segment, you'll need to save and reload in order to see them all, but that shouldn't be too hard and it's worth it IMO. Though both possible final party members to join technically only gets very few bonding events to flesh them out. However, each individual character ending changes based on their final link level, which means someone you didn't bond with will likely have a less satisfying ending. That makes me feel somewhat bad for the people I neglected though.
As for the elephant in the room, [spoiler]yes, the bad guys are corporate fascists, but I do think it's interesting that the major villains have a fair amount of individuality compared to some of the other antifa-coded games I played. They all have their own backstories and even their role in Zeta's dystopian state differs. Zazz is one of the most unusual fascist villains I've ever read about, since while he's a human supremacist who wants to make non-humans into third-class citizens, he's also the only human currently alive and that means he can't just immediately build a cult of personality around his master race until he can revive the rest of humanity. Instead, he has to rely almost entirely on capitalism and imperialism as tools to conquer, control, divide (based on economic class), and impoverish non-humans while manipulating them into aiding with their own oppression. I think this is partially the point: the party can't let Zazz succeed in his plan to revive and indoctrinate humanity to follow his hateful views, or they'll be trapped in an unwinnable battle against full-power fascism.[/spoiler]
I feel like the inciting incident to motivate the protagonist uses some plot convenience. [spoiler]Basically, Aries shows up and puts the party in critical condition, but after syncing with Barbados, Barbados/Aries apparently have enough stamina to wipe out Pon Pon, but not enough to get past Libra to finish off the weakened party. That seems hard to believe considering that Akira took enough damage to be reduced to gas form.[/spoiler]
The story's darkest section is when [spoiler]Morgalia blows up the mines and frames Akira's party, or it would have been if we could actually see the citizens' reaction and actually have people visibly turn on the party. Instead, the party almost immediately goes to Aquarius Temple for the next plot macguffin. I feel like this is a missed opportunity to make Akira question if their journey is really worth it now that they see the risks that they bring upon themselves and others by rebelling. The closest we get to this is during dialogue that occurs specifically if you recruit Kael, who explains that change needs to happen despite the risk of bringing the Zodiacs to Zazz's doorstep, or Zazz will just keep exploiting people for the rest of eternity. Even then, the whole situation smells of tell, don't show.[/spoiler]
There are some unclear or loose ends in the story, such as [spoiler]what happened to the Kolfos during Zeta's occupation of Vulcanite. Zeta's records don't mention them at all, which implies that Zeta did something so horrible to them that they were wiped from history as stage 10 of genocide. There's also the conflict between the angels and the demons, as well as the God of Cycles punishing humanity for ruining the environment. The last point was either added very recently or a new game plus only detail, but I really think such an important point should be accessible on all playthroughs. Additionally, I feel like we need more specifics on how Akira's party is going to change society. While it's implied that Vulcanite will return to its collectivist roots or at least something resembling it, it's unknown what exactly changes in Zeta's government system where the corporation and state are nigh indistinguishable. Additionally, I have no idea what Akira's party plans to do in regards to the environment, since they have to avoid harming it or the God of Cycles will retaliate against them too[/spoiler]. Hopefully, the sequel will expand on these points.
I feel unsatisfied by the Evil Runi route. For one thing, [spoiler]I don't see how it's supposed to change the overall fate of Zeta as advertised in the Steam page, since the reformation of Utopya, Vulcanite, and Pon Pon happens anyway. Maybe the sequel will allow us to choose which outcome is canon? Maybe the world will become a worse place without Runi to help reform it? Additionally, Akira blames the demons for this situation, which while mostly true, makes it seem like they're ignoring their own role in isolating Runi. The whole thing just seems really out of character for Akira, since even disregarding the very act of unfriending Runi, you'd think Akira would have a moment of self-reflection in the ending. To me, the choice for Akira to befriend Runi should be the canon one.[/spoiler] TLDR, if you plan to do multiple playthroughs for the sake of achievements, I recommend doing the objectively worst route first so that every playthrough afterwards feels better.
Edit: The updated version of the ERR actually does have dire consequences now.
[h2]Gameplay[/h2]
The game uses a Hype system, where MP upkeep is difficult unless you hit enemy weaknesses in order to steal Hype from them, and enemies can do the same to you. This means you'll have to tailor your team to the enemy weaknesses in order to win efficiently, which works for most enemies except those without weaknesses. For the most part, I found the combat balanced, though they do take a decent amount of time on hard mode because of the lower active party headcount, which makes the party cover fewer weaknesses while having less DPS. Additionally, some enemies and bosses have no weaknesses, which kills your resource loop pretty hard. Fortunately, those are usually reserved for a handful of endgame and optional bosses.
As for regular encounters, they're pretty balanced for the most part if you figure out the best party for the majority of enemies in an area, but the bonus dungeon really mixes up their weaknesses. Since you can't run away from battle, this can potentially put you in a bad situation if you're unlucky with enemy weaknesses.
Note that you can't revisit most dungeons after you complete them, but I feel like the game is balanced so that even on hard mode, you can win even if you don't pick up every single piece of unique gear, though it certainly helps.
Related to that is a romance system, where certain characters can get romance endings with Akira if you always go for their bonding events. Like with Tales of Symphonia, one of of the characters is mechanically easier to pair with the MC than the others. Note that if you're like me and you like evenly distributing everyone's sync levels to ensure everyone has more skills on rotation, it will be very hard to commit to a relationship other than Eliza and maybe Setzuna. Yes, I have commitment issues.
