Finished this game recently, and I liked it! The sidescrolling twist on the srpg genre is clever and keeps maps from becoming bland or aimless as you always have a clear idea of where your troops should be going, and there's other neat mechanical twists too, like how some moves can be used without spending your action but can only be used before moving, or how some characters can have abilities that only activate if you select "wait" without taking action. (And they stack too; at the end of the game my Salamander Otto had meditate and a shield, meaning he gained 10 mp and a defense buff whenever he waited. pretty cool!) I also thought the soundtrack was excellent and while many reviewers say the story was bland, as someone who enjoys SRPGs for gameplay I would somewhat more positively describe it as "enough;" cutscenes aren't too long and it's got some decent humor and plot twists. I also liked the characters of Nash, Kako, and Levy, though I will admit the Maguses (Magi?) were pretty forgettable as characters.
Now, where to begin with the topic of grinding and job class systems in srpgs...? Well, I will say that I'm glad the game doesn't give you job changing right off the bat, but the fact that it does allow you to summon new characters is a bit misleading. Most of the classes your default units are in classes that are tailor made for their respective species, so it's better to spend the first two chapters say, training an Archer Harpy than a Mage Harpy. I think the main reason they give you that option is so that you can do one species only runs, though I can't be sure. Works fine as a free basic equipment generator though, hehe!
Another thing that harms its value as a grinding game is its length. It is a very short game, with nothing in the way of a post game besides whatever free battles you had leftover. Skills take pretty long to learn in this game, so having such a limited time to learn them may leave some players disappointed at how they never got that ability combo they thought would be so cool. on top of that, the ui is pretty cluttered, with a scroll bar at the bottom of every character's ability tree. And the fact that there's no "unequip all unlearned abilities" option and you have to be in an ability's class to gain points towards learning it means you'll have to do a lot of clicking back and forth while preparing a unit's ability... curriculum? sure I guess you could call it that.
Finally, I'd like to talk about difficulty. This game starts off pretty easy, but when it gets difficult, it gets DIFFICULT. Unfair in most cases. for example, a common tactic is for the enemy team to feature a healer and a bulky "Black Knight." Obviously if you go for the big guy, the healer's just gonna heal him on her turn, but if you target her, it'll only deal about half her hp and thus she'll heal herself. If your team only has one or two attackers and she's still around, you're pretty much screwed. A good chunk of the later levels deal in that kinda difficulty, though I can't say it wasn't engaging, and it wasn't hard enough to crush my morale or keep me from finishing.
It sounds like I'm just harping on about flaws, and thus you may be wondering why I've recommended this game. Thing is, at the end of the day, this game is one that I both finished and loved my time with, and as a result I'd recommend it to anyone who thinks it sounds like their cup of tea. Heck, that's *why* I'm writing this review. This game might be rough, but it's special, and I greatly look forward to any future turn-based games the developer makes.
