I don't understand why this game isn't rated way higher, like... at least 85%. For me it's easily 100%, it just has so much great stuff. It's compared to the Persona games a lot - well, I'll just say that I liked Persona 4 enough to do all the achievements there (even that completely ridiculous one with getting 400 unique voiced lines from Rise), but I love this game so much more.
1) Combat is great. There's a planning phase for your characters' moves (where you also see what the enemies will do during that time), and then everyone's moves are executed at the same time (similar to Transistor, or a less extreme/more accessible version of Frozen Synapse).
* Characters can be launched into air, downed, or stunned - it works great for coordinated team action (I think that alone made the combat deeper than in Persona)
* Positioning characters is generally important - even if enemies are, say, 20 levels above you, you can either avoid their attacks instead of tanking them, or use shield to block them which would also stun the enemy
* Stat-modifying abilities are actually important for harder fights, AND they don't wear off in just a couple of turns like in so many other games
* There are NO items or shops - instead, all characters are fully restored after each battle, and for any in-battle healing there are character skills. So there's no need to stock up on items or have to backtrack because you ran out of healing, etc.
* The difficulty is VERY flexible. If you want challenging combat, the Hard or Extreme option is great - but if you don't care about it, Normal or Easy is the way to go. This can be changed at any time (well, except in mid-combat) with no penalty. Also, enemy encounters stop being forced on you once MC is 5+ levels above the enemies, so you can fight as much or as little as you want.
* They actually made sensible use of the mouse wheel for choosing menu options, making it often faster than using mouse AND keyboard. It's a relatively small detail, but I sure appreciated it.
2) I really, REALLY enjoyed the story.
* Plenty of lovable characters, and a couple of easy to hate ones, tons of funny interactions - seriously, it's great.
* The Musician route felt amazing. It was the closest I got to feeling like the MC of Eminence in Shadows - specifically, the arc where he [spoiler] works with another group against his own organisation, and they all think "wow, I wonder who this really strong person fighting against us is". They give you a bad4ss look and theme music, too. Interactions with other Musicians (and Go-Home club members) are very fun, the ending of the route is properly gut-wrenching - and you are not forced to replay the entire game to see the different ending, either. [/spoiler].
* I can't believe this even needs to be pointed out, but - I've seen some claims online like "this game condones/excuses <problematic behavior>", and after playing the game I found those claims to be as credible as saying "detective stories condone/excuse murder". Like, seriously, this game is VERY, ridiculously clearly on the side of empathy/compassion/etc.
3) Music, of course, deserves a special mention. The in-game setup is that there is one singer, Mu, who has different Musicians (each with their own background/personality) create the music and lyrics for her songs. Mu then performs each song according to the corresponding Musician's feelings (basically, she's taking on a different persona for each song). In real life, the songs were actually created by different people and performed by the same singer.
* Mu's voice actress (Reina Ueda) does an absolutely phenomenal job of it - she actually managed to make ALL songs really sound like different characters were singing them. E.g. someone who doesn't ever want to grow up, or someone who wants to break everything, or someone who just wants to be cooler - very different personalities, and all come through very distinct, through just her voice (though music style and lyrics/vocabulary for each song are also very distinct).
* Pretty much all songs are bangers as a result
4) This game has an *insane* amount of extra details that are completely optional - but they're still available if you want to seek them out.
* Each character has something unique they can say to MC or *any* other character the in the party once battle starts, and something else when it ends (and what they say to MC changes based on whether the link with them is maxed out). Moreover, after finishing the game, it's possible to [spoiler] put both the Go-Home club members AND Musicians into the party together - and see what they have to say to each other! Given some characters' histories together, this can be super fun. [/spoiler] The only downside is that this is Japanese voice only, without any subtitles.
* The in-game messaging app lets you ask ANY of the 500+ students how they feel on a variety of topics. For example, maybe you know that "The moon is beautiful" in Japanese has the meaning of "I love you" (for historical reasons - google it), and you're curious to see how different party members would react to the confession (or indeed, whether they even know that meaning)? Well, you absolutely can. Or try asking some of the more eccentric characters "What is important in battle?" - some of the replies are hilarious.
* The Causality Link system is mostly a way to gradually make MC more powerful through stat increases and extra skills - but it also has random bits about each of the 500+ students. Uncovering those bits feels a bit like Return of the Obra Dinn - it tells you bits of stories of what happened in each class, with some jokes and secrets. For example, one class is labelled as "Class Trial" on the chart, with some students on the prosecution side and some on the defence side... and if you explore this you'll find out that the trial was about [spoiler] who ate someone else's lunch. [/spoiler]
I just love this game so much.
