Mechanically, this game probably deserves a 3 or 3.5. But I can't help but bump it up because of how inventive its world is, how utterly AMAZING its soundtrack is, and how much I keep thinking about this game, even years after having played it.
I came off of this game feeling a little frustrated, and with its shortcomings at the forefront of my mind. "It's mediocre". But I kept thinking about it. I kept thinking about its art direction; the mesh of sleek, hypermodern glass and iron structures and nature. That is really what stuck the most with me. The closest I think a game gets to this is Phantasy Star Online, but Opoona does it better, cleaner, classier. I want so badly for more games to look like this.
As an immigrant, the subtext of bureaucracy in this game is not something I expected, but wow does it add to the experience. All the requisites and red tape you have to go through for just Existing in a planet that you're not a citizen of - it hit close to home. It's definitely a subjective point, but I heavily resonated with it and made me connect with Opoona's journey that much more.
I was also impressed with the town design, and how much life every single location seemed to have. It felt lived-in, it made sense that these locations would develop the way that they did. I love that there's a town known for its museums and high-class shops. I love that there's a business center with two competing technology companies, all of it UNDERWATER, and named "Intelligent Sea". What an amazing name.
The soundtrack is impeccable, probably the best on the system. Hell, probably the best in JRPGs period. It perfectly accentuates the environments, though I will say that the battle theme is terrible. It gets replaced with a much better song later, but only while on a specific mission. I wish that better song played all the time instead.
I think my favorite aspect of this game is how much it respects art. Whoever was in charge of design for this specific aspect clearly had a lot of love for the art world and was fully immersed in it. The game has museums, art exhibits, installations, paintings; pretty much everything that you can expect from the world's finest museums. And these pieces are scattered across the different locales, in different town museums, out in the wild where a rogue artist has set up a small studio and left an art exhibit behind. My favorite of these is the many empty art frames you encounter in your journey. They are introduced with very little fanfare. You just see these random, intricate, gold-leaf frames around the world, with a small inscription telling you the numbering, and the artist responsible. The idea of the installation is that whatever you are seeing through the frame is the art. The game never gives you a special camera angle, never zooms in on an intended perspective; they're all just there, capturing whatever it is the game's camera has put inside it, and it always works. It feels so real.
Opoona, to me, is a game about being othered. It's about beureaucracy. It's about art. Opoona contains multitudes, and despite its very glaring flaws, I can't help but love it. It's the closest I'll get to taking an intergalactic vacation.
