Overall: 7.2/10
Battle System: 10/10
Graphics: 10/10
Narrative Structure: 2/10
Battle System is one of the best I've played for a JRPG. The mechanics encourage using relevant techniques against all enemies rather than spamming attack. Even random encounters can present a welcome challenge, Bosses present real difficulties like old JRPGs. It is all incredibly wellbalanced, making the game to be quite engaging. Many battles work out like optimisation puzzles, and the job system is very flexible. The graphic style is great if it's your thing, like running around in a world of miniatures. If it's not, you won't like it, but that's personal preference.
Unfortunately, this is saverely let down by its narrative structure. The eight characters never feel like a party, they don't interact in each others' stories at all, and there's even story beats that don't make sense if you have a full party. The range of personal stories go from conquering a nation to being a great dancer. It's makes no sense for these people to be travelling together. The storylines themselves are cliche, predictable, and the writing itself is too weak to carry dialogue or charracter development. I wish I had skipped all cutscenes and saved myself some time.
Additionally, the narrative structure locks you into using your main character for essentially the whole game. My main was level 66 when I could finally swap them out and the others were like 46. This has the knock-on effect of ruining a lot of the challenges the battles present by making one character OP. Forcing this undrmines the game's excellent battle design. I get that narratively, they want you to feel connected to one, but it easily turns into the battles into the waiting for the OP character to wipe the field, making the mid-game much more boring.
