Recent reviews by TheNovelista

Even I recommended this game, this is one of the game that I really want "Neutral" button because while I have fun and like it very much, I cannot fully recommend it for a few reasons.

Pro:
Artstyle, very beautiful and animations are very fluid.
Very fun platforming
Control is very tight
Finding combos and teams is fun

Neutral:
Music kinda so-so
Combat can get repetitive (fast)
Weird level progression that tie to story

Cons:
Story kinda generic and rushed for RPG that said focused on story
Characters are good to abysmal or no character at all
Still have many bugs
Price kinda expensive when compare with content received
Poor character balance

I main Eliza and Bryan but also want to play some Mishimas.
So I just practice Eliza's instant divekick combos (and receive hate mail for not playing "Tekken" characters), try to do Bryan's Taunt Jet Upper (and fail miserably), and practice Mishima's Electric all day, but practice no fundamentals :v.

Also when Iori Minase for DLC character, Harada-san?

10/10
Will divekick, (Fail at) Taunt Jet Upper, and EWGF again.

P.S. I really love this sexy narcoleptic vampire girl.
P.S.2 ♥♥♥ Capoeira and Yoshi mains, lol.
P.S.3 Also Noctis mains who spam YOLO Ora (db1+2) and Pfft (db2)

Real shame that this game will no longer on Steam. I play this game for 200+ hours but never finish it, not because of the game, it just that I sometimes do everything the game offer (I do all sidequest, hunt all rares, unlock all unique general, craft some high-end weapons for Rush and his crew, do all Arcanas, beat all superbosses, clear Ancient Ruins and beat all DLC bosses) and just save at final save point and leave it there for no reason. It is really a great game with really huge potential in its gameplay and its world even with mediocre, slow, and pretty uninteresting/cliche story, music also some of the better one in my JRPGs experience too.

The Good:
+ Gameplay, if you understand its extremely deep, complex, and confusing system that almost necessary to use Wiki. It is very fun both in battle and army building. The party building in PC version is the most fun thing for me, this game party is can include up to 18 people! which can be divided up to 5 group (called Union), and like many team-based games, you need basic role for your party like Physical Damage Dealer Union, Field Clearing Magic Union (with Special Arts or Arcanas), Healing Union, Tanking Union, etc. but you still can be creative and create the party that suit your playstyle, some people even did some challenge like all males/females, all yamas, all qsitis, only generic soldier, etc. The battle in this game is like a full-scale war, not just a battle, some story event is really epic with you guest Union alongside and enemies sometimes called backup, it really makes the battle feel so epic.
+ Its world and its lore have is really interesting but doesn't really explain clearly, you have to pay attention to all tidbits to understand.
+ Music is really good, I like it, especially various battle theme.

Neutral:
Difficult spike in various point, especially some story bosses like Fire Idol or Namul Niram or some story event like Nest of Eagle and The Base.
Tons of permanently missable for completionist.
Graphic does not aged really well.

The Bad:
- Also gameplay, it is too confusing and luck-based sometimes, like sometimes you need your healing troop to heal the tanking group or revive someone but RNG roll all useless command for you. If you first play this game like all other JRPG (First time you play is just slaying all the monster you come across), you are screw because the really complex mathematics in leveling system will makes your later general really sucks and level up too slow, and some of starting character is not really good late-game even he/she maybe OP in an early-game. But even with all my rant, it can be avoided somehow just be extremely well-prepared, even use guides and wikis even you play it for the first time.

- Character, almost everyone is quite bland and those character tend to be a main character like Rush, David, Pagus, even Irena or come out of nowhere and doesn't really explain much like Emmy. Some unique general from sidequest even have a better backstory and personality than the main ones.

- Heavily grindy stuff, you have to grind for the moves, you have to grind for the money, and you have to grind for the material to craft better weapons or accessories. It feels really good when you get higher tier moves or have fancy weapons and oneshot some of the enemies you used to struggled with, but the process is quite slow and tedious, I spend almost 20+ hours just farming Bai Ze (a rare monster many people use to farm skills because its high HP and not so difficult) to beat one of superboss and spend many hours in Ancient Ruins to farm some rare material to build a weapon for DLC bosses, I admit that I cheated a little by use trainer to guarantee rare spawn, if I not use it, it would be much more hour I spend running in and out of the area hopes that the rare will spawn.
- Some technical issues like texture loading.

Conclusion:
Even with all that rant, I truly love this game, I'm just a kind of person that remember negative more than positive but trust me, this game is a game that JRPG or Tactical RPG lover should try, this game is kind of "love it or hate it" kind of game. With it really fun and creative gameplay, good lore, world and backstory, and good music but it sadly held back by heavily grinding-based, extremely complicated system, and mediocre story and character, it is the game that really has the potential to be something big, I dare say that with some polish, I can be as huge as other Square Enix JRPG franchises.
This game is one of my best game of all time.

Verdict:
9/10 for me but this game is really hard to score with number because it is not for anyone

Just hope that they do something with this IP in the future, I really love it.

Pro:
+ Great and Loveable Character even annoying one *cough*Kokichi*couch*
+ Great Story
+ Unique Artstyle
+ Dem Plot Twist tho
+ Make you hate (and love) Kodaka even more
+ Miu Iruma is best Danganronpa waifu ever, period.
+ Tons and tons of bonus content, all is great for me
+ Improved Gameplay
+ Miu Iruma

Neutral
~ Okay music, good but not outstanding
~ Some may find the twist at the end is nonsense or even offensive to players
~ For me, all the cases are kind of easy compare to previous titles
~ Some may find some characters too obnoxious or annoying

Con
- Have very grindy or very luck-based achievement
- Some technical issues, such as unresponsive control, the patch made it better but still slightly unrespondsive
- All your favourite characters die :v
- Casino, not the big problem but I just hate something important tie to casino in general (in this case achievement, I like to collect all achievement in my favourite games) looking at you Digging Minigame
- Setting is kind of stale for me after I play previous titles a bunch

Verdict: Miu Iruma/10
Annoying, Obnoxious, and Over the Top (in a good way) but still great and loveable

Serious Verdict: 8.5/10

+ A lot of character and each of them have distinctive style (minus all the clone but it still have something different from others
+ The game is quite well balance but still have some characters that dominate others (K', Kasumi, Nameless etc.) and some character that find it really hard to win (May Lee etc.)
+ Interesting mechanics
+ Great Music
+ Angel, May Lee, and Kyo-1 are fun as hell

~ Hard to play and understand for people who not similar with fighting games or KoF series
~ some special move just too hard to pull off consistently, such as Ryo's second MAX2.

- Online sometimes have a serious lag issue
- Hard to find people to play with in my region (Thailand)

Verdict: 8/10 One of the best fighting game ever but I think I like XIII more

For me it's second best fighting game for now.
My best fighting game is KOFXIII.