Having beaten pretty much all there is to beat in the game aside from a couple of lingering sidequests (Including THAT boss), here are my impressions;
Visually, the game looks great to me. I like the old school aesthetics mixed with the various effects in battle. It makes for a striking, unique look that I appreciate. It's also always exciting when you finally get to see the boss sprites, which all look great.
Music is another high point. I never got bored of any song in particular and I liked how character themes would transition into boss themes. Little touches like that are always nice
The story is where things get a little dodgy. Yes, it would have been nice to have more party interaction, and it is jarring for some characters to act like they're alone in a confrontation and then suddenly have three other people dash in when the boss battle starts. It would have been nice if the party was integrated a bit better into each story, but after the first two chapters, you kinda get used to it. The stories do start out pretty slow, but all of them hit their stride in the second or third chapter. In fact, I felt all the stories got progressively better aside from Primrose's, whose climax was a bit of a disappointment, and Tressa's, whose story keeps the same level of levity the entire time, which was a nice reprieve from some of the more dramatic tales. None of them break the mold too much but they feel comfortably classic while still having a few interesting surprises here or there. I'll mention more in the spoiler section regarding story, but gameplay needs to be discussed first
So gameplay is simple but satisfying. However, you never really deviate beyond trying to break your enemies. Even most of the bosses, despite trying to shake things up by doing things like chancing vulnerabilities, never really deviate beyond that cycle of breaking and unloading on them. But the game still goes out of its way to make breaking feel REALLY good. As I mentioned at some point before, everyone has a utility in and out of battle. Mostly. Even at end game, I still felt Ophilia was at worst dead weight as just a cleric and at best a redundant, weaker version of someone else with any other subclass. Outside of battle, I found Alfyn's Inquire and Ophilia's Lead to be the inferior path actions to the rogue ones, as they had a level requirement. I found more utility with Tressa, who could buy items with a low steal chance, and Olberic, who had more battle options when challenging. One thing that was a pain point was feeling like Therion was basically required in my party when traversing new terrain, since he was the only one that could open locked chests. It felt limiting and annoying.
Spoilers for Endgame (Nothing direct, but just in case)
Alight, time for endgame. All of the stories end with lingering questions, which is where the endgame 'dungeon' comes in. The area is locked behind two quest chains that can be a pain to figure out. All I knew coming in was that I had to do side quests, so I ended up wandering the entire map a few times finding the locations of these quests, as a couple are not located in towns but in the routes between them. The dungeon itself is a lore dump, and you get a chance find out exactly how all the character stories tie together into one underlying plot. It's interesting, but little more than journal entries so it can be a bit disappointing after the lead up. There is a bit of a resolution to the story beyond those journals, but it's brief. The boss itself is not for the ill-prepared. It essentially requires certain job skills and character subclasses to be beaten, and all your characters need to be of a decently high level to have a chance at success. This, and one other endgame side quests were the the only times I felt like I had to plan and carefully consider my party setup before a battle. I do wish more of the game had thrown curveballs at me like this, and I hope in a potential sequel there is a bit more depth to the boss fights.
Overall, I very much enjoyed the game. It felt classic with modern conveniences a unique aesthetic. It has it's flaws with how some of the story is presented and how some of the battles feel a bit samey, but it definitely scratched an itch for a traditional, old-school feeling rpg.
