Starting off with a positive to say that I love the novelty of crossing tactics-style gameplay with a VN. I does often struggle on leaning into too much of one or the other at different points, meaning sometimes there's too much talking, but sometimes it's too much combat. The inconsistencies with the characters at points can also be annoying, but I realize that's at least partially due to different branching paths and conversations being forced to meld at points. On my only playthrough (so far), I nonetheless had a good time, any point with Shuuji notwithstanding. I rather appreciate the combat being dumbed down at points, even if scaling on the maps can be rough. I really am playing for the story, and as much as I love games like XCOM, I am genuinely terrible at that genre of game. All said and done I would have to give this game a 6.5/10, with that half point coming from the fact that the game takes some risks and experimentation that makes it worth the playthrough.

Starting off with a positive to say that I love the novelty of crossing tactics-style gameplay with a VN. I does often struggle on leaning into too much of one or the other at different points, meaning sometimes there's too much talking, but sometimes it's too much combat. The inconsistencies with the characters at points can also be annoying, but I realize that's at least partially due to different branching paths and conversations being forced to meld at points. On my only playthrough (so far), I nonetheless had a good time, any point with Shuuji notwithstanding. I rather appreciate the combat being dumbed down at points, even if scaling on the maps can be rough. I really am playing for the story, and as much as I love games like XCOM, I am genuinely terrible at that genre of game. All said and done I would have to give this game a 6.5/10, with that half point coming from the fact that the game takes some risks and experimentation that makes it worth the playthrough.