According to the story timeline I'm reading for an order to play these, this is the third game in the list, and it's a prequel. It also mandates three playthroughs for the whole experience, with the unlockable character after beating the game once being the canon ending and where the bulk of the "prequel-ish" parts come into play.
That three playthroughs part is my big red flag, because once you've played through the areas of the tower once, you'll probably know what to do the other two times, as there's not much variation between playthroughs aside from how characters work. Yunica had probably my favorite moves but had the least story relevance of the three. Hugo was a ranged character, and while he had some interesting moments, I did his playthrough first and had to endure the struggle of fighting the bosses for the first time with a character who felt very weak overall in terms of kill potential. As mentioned before, the third character, we'll call him Claw for spoiler reasons, had the most story relevance, but I wasn't a fan of his moves. He also fights the real final boss.
Gone is the world of bonk combat and in is the world of slaughter your foes through more traditional action RPG methods (unless you're Hugo, then you shoot things with magic). The game is more of an action game than an RPG, though. I would say it's also fairly light on the story at times, with most plot beats only coming up at certain points of certain floors.
I will say I did like the game...just not enough to give it 4 stars. The three sort of samey playthroughs through the same areas, with two playthroughs almost being identical in some aspects besides some dialogue changes, is the main reason I'm giving it a 3.
That three playthroughs part is my big red flag, because once you've played through the areas of the tower once, you'll probably know what to do the other two times, as there's not much variation between playthroughs aside from how characters work. Yunica had probably my favorite moves but had the least story relevance of the three. Hugo was a ranged character, and while he had some interesting moments, I did his playthrough first and had to endure the struggle of fighting the bosses for the first time with a character who felt very weak overall in terms of kill potential. As mentioned before, the third character, we'll call him Claw for spoiler reasons, had the most story relevance, but I wasn't a fan of his moves. He also fights the real final boss.
Gone is the world of bonk combat and in is the world of slaughter your foes through more traditional action RPG methods (unless you're Hugo, then you shoot things with magic). The game is more of an action game than an RPG, though. I would say it's also fairly light on the story at times, with most plot beats only coming up at certain points of certain floors.
I will say I did like the game...just not enough to give it 4 stars. The three sort of samey playthroughs through the same areas, with two playthroughs almost being identical in some aspects besides some dialogue changes, is the main reason I'm giving it a 3.