a more player-friendly nocturne if you want to think of it in that way in both gameplay and story a more accessible game even if hmmmm it has some quirks and odd characterizations and this first part does leave a lot to be desired in terms of a satisfactory plot but ofc this basically a part 1 of a game so we will see how that develops going forward.
gameplay wise you are stuck to 5 characters at most so it does make it have a lot less going on progression wise you really just upgrade these characters like a regular RPG no pokeman elements here and that's fine but not my favorite side of smt it does have its upsides though with enough grinding any of these characters can cast any attack/magic you want really ofc you still have to play to the strengths of their stats and type advantages though since you can only choose stat upgrades on level up for the main character which is again normal for the genre
overall a solid jrpg with potential will have to see how the sequels shapes it up though