really good game, one of the strongest of the series for sure. story and character development are great, and the tone is pretty good absent a couple things that feel out of place towards the ending. narrative is one of the stronger points, combat is also pretty good. don't like the stun/soul mechanic sometimes combats feel too polarizing, either dominating or just dying. map feels incredibly linear and dungeons are repetitive, they made open world tales games over 10 years before this came out but this just feels a bit claustrophobic. overall a great game with way more strong points than weak points, would recommend as a first tales game if you're not into going back to the older, jankier stuff