Tentative recommend. If you like Fire Emblem, that's more or less what this is.

The class upgrades are nice, in that each base class has 4 options to upgrade to, and then can upgrade again later to 4 other classes, letting you mix and match some abilities. Obviously some synergize better than others, but my only qualm about it is that some mid classes have no direct upgrade available into the 3rd tier. They're all generally better than second tier classes, but occasionally it's a small disappointment.

The weapon upgrade system does away with any durability, and all characters have 4 weapons they have on-hand at all times. One for Damage, one for Crit, one for Accuracy, and one that's Balanced. You can spend money/items to permanently upgrade these items to be "better", and always available to you, even if you change classes into a class that uses a different set of weapons.

However, since this game uses a similar speed/double attack system as Fire Emblem does, the major drawback to upgrading weapons comes when the weight of weapons increases at certain tiers. Some of these weight jumps are very large, and very often you'll have wished you hadn't upgraded to the next tier, since you can't double some enemy anymore you would have been able to before. You'll often times find yourself using upgraded weapons, for the simple reason that they're lighter and will grant that x2 attack that's enough to finish off an enemy. This may be intentional, but it's rather annoying that investing into a weapon can render the weapon very much niche and you start to use it less and less, even though it's your 'best' weapon.

The whole upgrade system is a bit lacking in imagination. You can purchase weapon upgrades and stat upgrades with money. Therefore money directly translates into character power. Character power that can only be invested into one character, when literally every chapter throws a new character (or two) at you, none of which have any upgrades innately. It also forces you to use them in those chapters, which later in the game can really be a hinderance since you're forced to use characters you have no investment in.

The characters themselves are fairly simple. Mostly Tropes and one notes, but with so many joining your group, they all start to blend together into a stew of "I can't care about all these people anymore". The main character has a pretty big problem when for the first half of the game I wasn't entirely sure if he was the main character. He was just some schmuck following orders. Then at some point everyone in the growing gaggle of anime tropes declared "YOU'RE THE BESTEST LEADER EVER LLOYD", and pledge their undying fealty to him. So I guess after that he can talk to god now, or whatever.

Spoilers for the 'story':

The story is also rather frenetic and uninteresting. One moment there's a wizard over there that you need to stop for... some reason? Then you need to apparently murder your way through your countrymen to get to him, then when you reach him, the screen turns white, some people the characters (but not you) care about are dead, and it happens so fast I was extremely sure I completely missed something. But, turns out I didn't, it just has things happen extremely fast sometimes, and extremely slow others.

End spoilers

The later part of the game starts to also feel a bit lazy in level design. There's a particular map where it's an enormous open area, with zero map features, and just a swarm of enemies pouring in. The goal is to just break through them, which is plenty possible, but I have a hard time calling it 'fun'.

It's okay as a budget title, the game makers obviously have a passion for Fire Emblem as a whole, but they haven't quite gotten down all of the details of how to turn the formula into a well-rounded experience fans are used to from the classic SRPG series.

Tentative recommend. If you like Fire Emblem, that's more or less what this is. The class upgrades are nice, in that each base class has 4 options to upgrade to, and then can upgrade again later to 4 other classes, letting you mix and match some abilities. Obviously some synergize better than others, but my only qualm about it is that some mid classes have no direct upgrade available into the 3rd tier. They're all generally better than second tier classes, but occasionally it's a small disappointment. The weapon upgrade system does away with any durability, and all characters have 4 weapons they have on-hand at all times. One for Damage, one for Crit, one for Accuracy, and one that's Balanced. You can spend money/items to permanently upgrade these items to be "better", and always available to you, even if you change classes into a class that uses a different set of weapons. However, since this game uses a similar speed/double attack system as Fire Emblem does, the major drawback to upgrading weapons comes when the weight of weapons increases at certain tiers. Some of these weight jumps are very large, and very often you'll have wished you hadn't upgraded to the next tier, since you can't double some enemy anymore you would have been able to before. You'll often times find yourself using upgraded weapons, for the simple reason that they're lighter and will grant that x2 attack that's enough to finish off an enemy. This may be intentional, but it's rather annoying that investing into a weapon can render the weapon very much niche and you start to use it less and less, even though it's your 'best' weapon. The whole upgrade system is a bit lacking in imagination. You can purchase weapon upgrades and stat upgrades with money. Therefore money directly translates into character power. Character power that can only be invested into one character, when literally every chapter throws a new character (or two) at you, none of which have any upgrades innately. It also forces you to use them in those chapters, which later in the game can really be a hinderance since you're forced to use characters you have no investment in. The characters themselves are fairly simple. Mostly Tropes and one notes, but with so many joining your group, they all start to blend together into a stew of "I can't care about all these people anymore". The main character has a pretty big problem when for the first half of the game I wasn't entirely sure if he was the main character. He was just some schmuck following orders. Then at some point everyone in the growing gaggle of anime tropes declared "YOU'RE THE BESTEST LEADER EVER LLOYD", and pledge their undying fealty to him. So I guess after that he can talk to god now, or whatever. Spoilers for the 'story': The story is also rather frenetic and uninteresting. One moment there's a wizard over there that you need to stop for... some reason? Then you need to apparently murder your way through your countrymen to get to him, then when you reach him, the screen turns white, some people the characters (but not you) care about are dead, and it happens so fast I was extremely sure I completely missed something. But, turns out I didn't, it just has things happen extremely fast sometimes, and extremely slow others. End spoilers The later part of the game starts to also feel a bit lazy in level design. There's a particular map where it's an enormous open area, with zero map features, and just a swarm of enemies pouring in. The goal is to just break through them, which is plenty possible, but I have a hard time calling it 'fun'. It's okay as a budget title, the game makers obviously have a passion for Fire Emblem as a whole, but they haven't quite gotten down all of the details of how to turn the formula into a well-rounded experience fans are used to from the classic SRPG series.