It's hard for me to put into words everything I adore in this game. It was a world I could immerse myself in and find respite, during a time in my life where I felt lost and hopeless. I finished it right before a whole new chapter began. Would that mean a heavily detailed review would come with bias? Absolutely! But it has clearly left a profound impact in the many others who have also played. It's a fantastic game that fans of JRPGs should absolutely play. So I'll keep it simple:

The goods: Simple but engaging gameplay, a cast of characters that come from different walks of life, music made by legendary composers through JRPGs of old, a world the size of two literal titans the likes of which you'll never see anywhere else, a traversable environment that constantly invites you to explore every crevice of its twisting landscape, and a damn good story that continues to unfold in ways that keep you wanting to uncover the history of this mysterious world. And it's all somehow on the Wii.

Some bads: The textures on the characters models on the Wii are not...good. You get used to it, but it's not the prettiest first impression. Item sorting is downright terrible. The arrow that leads you to your next objective does not take into account the layers of elevation on some parts of the map and will get you lost. Team A.I. is helpful in parts, but bad when doing some things you need it to do. And 1 or 2 boss battles are straight up broken.

HOWEVER.

These issues were all fixed in the Definitive Edition for Switch. Clamorous fights with the casts' nonstop dialogue are still an issue and it unironically has become a trademark of the series (whether we like it or not). Anyway, please play that version instead if at all possible.

Graphics- Ass (still)

Fun- Still not fun at all, but there was one part that I actually felt stimulated even a little which was balancing three tasks at once which wasnt bad albeit a tad frustrating.

Story- Getting to the point where they are starting to input some story, and I cant tell if its decent and thought out or just a dogpile of random ideas that they are going to keep adding onto

Replay value- None, still didnt even enjoy a first playthrough

Game length- Maybe about 2 hours now, but half of that is still things meant to artificially halt your progress so you dont get refunds on steam. Long sections of elevator rides, opening 12 doors in a row, bad checkpoints with instant deaths you cant react to putting you back a while.

Legnth for value- Not good enough, this still feels like chapters in an otherwise finished game, being marketed as full sequels. As soon as you beat a "level" it already markets the next one to you.

Who is this game for- I dont even know anymore, but at least the series is starting to get a bit comedic in its tone

I'm genuinely surprised this series has crossed over and away from the half star territory, this is still garbage. But there's some vision starting to sprout out like mushrooms on a stinky pile of trash

The stuff with the jellyfish was unnecessary and boring, jumping puzzles ect. Just a shit series so far

What do I like about these games so far? I didnt mind doing the mixture puzzle, and the jumbo josh club wasnt bad either. Aside from that the rest of this is just unpolished mascot horror with barely any effort still, but hey at least its improving. Maybe by Garten of Banban 20 we'll actually have a good game.