Story

Damien is a gamer whose friends with Ravier, an extremely powerful and rich person at a young age. So when Ravier is making a game; is looking for players to test it, Damien doesn't hesitate to jump at the opportunity. However, little did Damien and his friends know, that the game Ravier is making has another purpose..

There's a lot more story that I won't go over due to spoilers and it's complexity that makes it hard to explain at times. But it's pretty interesting if you're not overwhelmed by the info dump.

Characters

These are the four characters you will be following the most throughout this game; as such I will only talk about them in this review.

Damien - As mentioned earlier, Damien is a gamer. He has the tendency to break the fourth wall; is a coward who fears for his life, unless there is something important on the line for him. He is also generally considered the dumbest person in the group score wise. Though to be honest, he's in a prestigious school for Espers, so I wouldn't really consider him to be dumb. Damien is generally a ranged support with very useful debuffs such as lowering enemies' attack and defense.

Vincent - Vincent is the guy who will make you question Damien's status as the main character. Due to how often we get to see his backstory; his connection to important characters and events. Due to his kindness, he is the object of affection from a couple girls. He's also really afraid of the dark due to trauma from his past. Vincent uses a sword, just like a main character in any video game!

Isabel - President of the prestigious school mentioned earlier; daughter of a powerful family. She has a lot of pride; is quick to anger. Isabel also has a past that she regrets over. Isabel mainly specialize in ranged attacks; is capable of buffing her own range attacks even further and providing some support.

Lyeric - Out of the four characters in this group, I believe that he has the least plot relevance, aside from being forced to fight against his friends due to unfortunate circumstances. Lyeric has the tendency of teasing Isabel; then facing her wrath. Lyeric is a martial artist; some of his skills will depend on the equipment that he is wearing at the time.

Music

Throughout the game, you get to hear popular soundtracks from works such as, The World God Only Knows and Halcyon. In short, the developer has good taste in music that usually fits in every situation.

Gameplay

Turn based combat - What you'll be doing majority of the game. Most of the normal battles in the game will be fair. Bosses however... They will usually have a gimmick when their health falls under a certain amount. This can range from: Restoring their health to full health, reviving their dead allies, get massive buffs, party gets nasty status ailments, reinforcements, or automatically perform powerful attacks that can bring a healthy character to instant death.

But the worse in my opinion, is when a boss casts reflect or counter that lasts for several turns. For instance, in one boss battle where all my physical characters moved first; got the boss' health to 50%, it automatically cast reflect mid attack before everyone else (ranged attackers) gets to attack. So Isabel will now have all her attacks reflected back at her once she gets to attack... Other than that, the bosses can provide a fun (subjective) challenge with their gimmicks.

Action Battle Phase

jtrev explains this best in their review, that this is similar to a 2D Legend of Zelda Game with cool-down on your attacks. At a certain point of the game, bosses will have a "Finishing Move" where you will need to hold down a certain button to avoid taking massive damage. Of course, there's going to be that one boss that will frustrate people; for me...

That would be this one boss where you have to fight in the dark, with narrow hallways, rooms with moving mines that can go through walls, and the boss can teleport. The saving grace for these kinds of fights is that usually, one or the other, there will be a save crystal that will also restore you to full health or you can access your inventory and heal up from there. There's also the fact that your standard attacks have a range of two square; it can go through walls, so if you can exploit the AI, it becomes much more manageable.

Puzzles

Do you like puzzles? Do you like them with floating mines around?
Do you feel wrath when doing math?
Could you would you solve them in the dark?
With invincible enemies chasing you by the way? Within a narrow hallway?
Are you fine with being sent back to start...? If you got hit by a bullet that you didn't see in the dark...?
With a timer ticking down? With your mouth slowly turning into a frown?

I jest a little, most puzzles won't cause you frustration (maybe...). There's also the fact that there is a guide with answers to the hardest puzzles so you can avoid those frustrations whenever you need to input a code. And if it's not in the guide, you can ask in the comment section for help; hopefully someone will come and help.

Trials

Basically, you need to find the contradiction in a person's statement; or use evidence to agree with someone. Near the end, you will then piece together what happened to the victim; how the perpetrator did it. Though, if you get it wrong, everyone will repeat their statements, which can't be skipped or rushed through, until you get it right or lose all credibility (How many times you can be wrong until you get a game over, each time you're correct, you'll regain credibility).

Bugs/Problems

- During a puzzle, you will find a girl name Ingrid standing behind some spikes in a narrow hallway with a chest behind her. Once you release the spikes, Ingrid will walk out; if you go get the chest before speaking with her, she will walk back and block your path. The game will then freeze as it was scripted to push your character near the entrance of the hallway; Ingrid wasn't supposed to be there as you were supposed to speak with her first.

- If you initiated the quest: Visitor from the other world ~ Phantom. There will be a powerful boss that will harass you throughout the game. It is possible for the boss to randomly appear and fight you in certain locations. Once you managed to drive it away, the boss can immediately reappear and fight you after taking a few steps. This had occurred to me twice.

- There is one quest that is not listed in the guide. In chapter 4, the town where you need to go speak to Isabel's father, there will be a merchant who will want 3 things from you. One of them will be from an optional boss in a location that can be hard to find. If you decide to proceed to talk to Isabel's father before completing this quest, you will be unable to come back until after completing chapter 7. By that point, even if you finally find the optional boss that drops the item he needs, he will no longer be in the spot where you first find him. In the e-diary, it said that the quest is not failed, yet it might as well be considered a failure now that the quest giver is gone. "I can wait" he said, well that merchant is a liar, he won't wait if you go speak to Isabel's father.

Final Thoughts

This game has its flaws that I have pointed out throughout the review. As frustrating as some of them can be, it feels good once you overcome it. After all, this is meant to be a challenging game (which means if you're new to the rpg genre, I wouldn't recommend playing this as your first rpg game until you're more experienced). The game is very unique as how many turn based rpg games have court trials and action battle phase; managed to blend them all naturally into the game's story?

Personally, I think this game is at least a 4/5, despite its flaws. (Or 3/5 if the flaws bother you that much). As I believe the story, characters, maps, music, variety of game-play, etc. will make up for it. The developer clearly loves this game to put in that much effort; maybe... Just maybe... You'll be able to enjoy it as well if you're willing to brave through its flaws; reach the golden ending...