I’m now on what seems to be the second major area of the game, and I feel comfortable giving some impressions on the game.
First of all, that bit on the school was weird, the shift to bullying and teenager problems was a bit too abrupt, it was like including this nugget of persona after 10 hours of full existentialist post-apocalyptic game. Also, I get the feeling that the segment at the school wanted to feel like or appear as a ""“dungeon”"" and it wasn’t super successful at that, it was too shallow and uninteresting. It reminded me of the more linear segments of FFXV and… let’s say I’m not the biggest fan of that game.
Second area proper is feeling a lot better, on one hand it seems a lot more intricate, dense and maze-like, all attributes I like, but I’m somewhat bummed out by the fact they just recycled a lot of the first area by putting a red filter over the map. Ignoring that, I’m still very engaged with the game, combat seems to be slowly opening up and I’m surprised by the amount of unique skills with additional effects, I love having healing or damage options which also increase defense or give additional status, strategic options seem rich and, in general, I love almost every new addition and choice they made with the combat, from the miracle and essence subsystems, to the skill affinity and the redesign of the hama/mudo abilities.
