Just completed all 3 games, and I gotta say, I enjoyed various things from the series a lot.
[h1]Gameplay[/h1]
The balance in this game was pretty well done. Playing on the hardest difficulty also wasn't an issue. Each area had a mob that was basically a boss to avoid, but I think that is fine. It wouldn't feel like a challenge to traverse the dungeon if I was able to clear every mob with ease.
I put an extra challenge to myself that I wouldn't switch classes, I could still unlock them and their skills though, I just can't take the best stat line for what I want to accomplish. I also did my best to match each character's weapon with their art (as much as I could, Hamln, Pyre, and Mary, I can't tell what their weapons should've been).
Aside from the mob bosses, I didn't experience any weird difficulty spikes unlike MS2 where I find City Street's upper floors to be the hardest in the game relative to your characters' progress, and that was on normal difficulty too.
The game has all the same good mechanics of MS2, but with one added annoyance, the Insectmares, which randomly disables certain commands and could only be removed with blood packs or the jail roulette. They have increased chance of appearing the longer you stay in the dungeon, and reset when leaving the dungeon. I could see what they were going for, but I think it wasn't needed.
[h1]Story[/h1]
It's a bit annoying to navigate, but splitting the group into 3 was pretty genius. It allowed for more focused story telling for each group of characters for every chapter, unlike MS2, where each chapter revolves around a subset within the group of characters. However, Finale fell short by not having any story dialogue in the middle of each chapter. It offers a more streamlined experience by having predictable places of when events occur, but the story telling really suffers. I still enjoy it more than MS1 purely from a mood basis. MS1 felt too stiff, while Finale, there is a good balance between seriousness, and trying to uplift the mood just like MS2.
[h1]Conclusion[/h1]
The series was overall great. From best to worst, I find:
1. MS2
2. MS Finale
3. MS1
the most enjoyable games in the series. I still have yet to experience everything as I skipped out on reading the prequel novels, which would likely resolve a few things I've been questioning
