As much as I want to like this, my overall verdict shifts towards do not recommend and here's why:
First, the dungeons are huge and very interconnected. While this would be a good thing, as I don't want casual slop existing only as filler you auto move through... the fact is that there's only one thing going on within the dungeons which means... it's still filler you auto move through. It tries making hazards to block this, but then the traps deal 20 damage when all of your characters have hundreds or thousands of HP so all it does is break your auto move. There are plenty of shortcuts, so you will only be running back through the filler for the current stage and not all of them, but you will still be spending a good amount of time running through filler before resuming your exploration. Which brings us to...
The one thing that is going on on the maps is that the area boss will sometimes appear and chase you around until you get a certain distance away. They're unkillable until a certain plot point, so running is the only option. This would be a novel idea, except that there are some areas where you can escape the boss and then it starts chasing you again in under a minute meaning... you guessed it, more running through filler before resuming your exploration. Which brings us to...
The exploration has an unskippable RNG element. When you run around, these gauges will fill based on various actions and once maxed, a reward roulette will appear. One option that you need, often several times per area is the one that expands the dungeon. This doesn't always land on the desired result and said desired result doesn't always appear at all. If it doesn't... you run through filler before resuming your exploration as you need these in order to access necessary areas such as the plot event that renders area bosses killable or the next area which leads to the same.
What's worse is that it isn't as if the game could not fix these problems. It starts off strong by having you encounter areas you can only access after a later character joins. In other words, as much as the characters can be dumb about figuring out various plot events, they don't insult the player's intelligence by putting a giant exclamation point over the first cracked wall you encounter with a note that you should come back with bombs. And then... it does nothing with the mechanic after that, as either you will reach those areas after you already have that character and their unique skill or their skill isn't exploration related. The reward wheels can stay as long as necessary things like dungeon expansion are moved off them. Which brings us to the biggest flaw and why this is a do not recommend.
When I play games, I want to get immersed in them and don't consider them fully successful unless I lose track of time. You absolutely cannot do that here as this is a bad port. Many users, regardless of system specs or strength will encounter memory leaks and crash bugs. The longer you leave it on, the more likely this happens with the general estimation being two hours as though it were timed. Making antivirus ignore it does not make a difference. If you don't want your progress lost because "vibe coding" is the true nightmare boss, you must constantly make new save points, leave the dungeon regularly even if not needed, and close and reload the game client often. This further amplifies the stutter step progression and ultimately made me put it down and not pick it back up. Compare this with games that are objectively much harder such as the Wizardry games and those closely based on them. In those, if you are sent packing after one fight... it is because of the fight. Not because of some meta level competence crisis conflict.
Those last problems at least would not occur on the original Vita version, but apparently there is also some casual slop version out there? One that did heavily dumb down the maps, but didn't change anything else... so you're still running through filler so you're not severely underleveled? I don't really understand everything here, I just know my system specs are much stronger than a 14 year old handheld console. And if the developers had any interest in fixing their port, they would have done it already.
