Now this is how you do open world!! There are so many games more "open" than this and yet have no personality or life to them. The game lives or dies on this, to the point where if this was just a beat em up, it probably would just be a 3 star game. The whole story's backbone relies on immersion and its protagonists, so the substories really are the reason the game's so good! The gameplay is easy to learn but a bit tricky to master, which I'm glad about because I am not here to get good at it. It's satisfying and that's enough for me. The only major complaint I have is that it's a tad long. Some parts of the story dragged for a bit, and by the end, I was burnt out.
I hear that the franchise doesn't reach another high like this until the turn-based games, but I have a feeling that as long as I like Kiryu, I'll have a good time.

I can see why people think this is the best or worst Dusk game. Its synthesis is much weaker than it was in Escha and Logy, with now there being a stronger focus on exploration. I only felt satisfied playing around with it towards the end, but it doesn't allow you as much freedom as it did before. They also dulled the difficulty too much and simplified the combat by removing the positional system. It was actually TOO easy.
However, everywhere else, I think it does a great job of merging the strengths of the past two games while having a story with stakes. It has the best atmosphere, having the adventure of Ayesha and the homey town feeling of E&L. The story ties all the loose themes and character arcs in a way that stays true to its slice-of-life approach while being more serious than it has ever been. The only complaint I have about the writing is the way the Shallies' relationship could have used more time to bond like Escha and Logy. But, it's not narrative-breaking and it has the best supporting cast to make up for this.
Overall, I think despite having a story with stakes and finality, it ended up being the least stressful experience in the trilogy. In many ways, it took a couple of steps back but landed gracefully.

Wow...who knew a game I picked up on a whim would be this much of a surprise? I thought it was just going to be Atelier but magical girls, which it is, but I didn't think I was going to care so much by the end. The ending was bittersweet in a way I haven't experienced in a game in a long time. It's a low-budget affair but the entire way through, I could see the vision and how much work was put into its characters and story. It's slow and way too easy but I think it's one of those games you're meant to just cruise through and enjoy the vibes. It will definitely be seeing a new game plus run from me.

Insanely addictive and cozy until you realize how much you suck at time management so the last hours of this become incredibly stressful.
I enjoyed it much more than I thought I would! I’m very impressed with how addictive the crafting system is. They didn’t do a very good job of explaining it at first but once I got it, I was very obsessive with it. I also like how it was tied to story quests and combat, where grinding means nothing if you don’t have good items in your basket.
I also liked the characters and the general world building. Some of the characters felt paper thin on this first playthrough but I’m willing to bet that the side quests I didn’t get to would help. Ayesha herself is very likable and her growing student-teacher dynamic with Keith was nice. Definitely motivated me to get through the story instead of wandering around the map until time was up.
Overall very nice, I want to NG+ this, which is the first time in awhile I’ve wanted to do that with any game. Looking forward to playing the next two games!

I came back to the game for the first time in about 2 years and I'm slowly making my way through new content and trying to give it all a fair chance. When you're not as hooked up on the meta and gacha, it becomes a pretty enjoyable experience. I got to take in the atmosphere and story much more this time around and found myself enjoying some of the story content. A lot of it is still needlessly wordy and requires too much lore reading, but I can say it's passable now. The game truly shines in its exploration as the newer areas have better level design, especially in comparison to Liyue and Mondstadt. When you're not obsessed with keeping up with the game and logging in consistently, it can be a pretty cozy and relaxing before bed game.

I get it. I really do. It’s got a really nice early 2000s charm to it and some interesting themes. However, it has taken me 3 years to get to its final act and I don’t see the game turning out better. The story has gone on for about 20 hours longer than it should have with a lot of repeated plot contrivances and weak plot twists.
I usually don’t knock games for old/bad graphics if the devs work well with what they have but here I think it actively HURTS the experience. For the scale of the story, it really needed better visuals. If it had just a bit better art direction, I could see the aged graphics making it out ok, but a lot of the world here feels bland and boring and the characters are expressionless.
The game is also really easy. It has a lot of systems and mechanics that you can jump into but the enemy/boss design never required too deep of a dive in, making it all pointless. Kind of disappointed as this is my first Tales Game. I really liked the characters and some thematic threads but the game never tied its components together well enough to do them justice. I just hope the next Tales game I try is better.

The original is one of my favorite games, so I went into this cautiously. Many people are upset that this isn't a traditional remake, as it is clearly made with the compilation series in mind, but personally, within the base game, I really didn't mind and found that it brought up some interesting concepts. It's hard to be upset at the changes when so much of the game is crafted with obvious love and passion for the original game. The only that really sucked about the base game is that it padded the hell out of sections in the original that were an afterthought (mainly chapter 11).

The Intermission DLC is where I got a bit wary about the tie-ins with compilation material. I feel like any big references beyond Crisis Core and Advent Children are unnecessary because any other additions would stray a bit too far from the core plot lines. I hope the next two games don't include Dire of Cerberus plotlines but they probably will it would be such a drag. I think my problem is I'm just a Vincent hater deep down though-