This was great game. It is a little meandering in the first third or so with the princess in another castle feel to the plot just kind of shuffling you here and there but it really picks up, in the end I found Kiryu's story in particular very affecting and thoughtful. I won't say the game goes hard at this but there is a nice touch of taking previous games where you were portrayed very heroically and recentering that more neutrally and asking the character how meaningful or positive their actions really were, I liked that. Ichiban's presence or plotline feels a little softer this time but he shines a character any time he's on screen regardless with some genuine laugh out loud scenes. Great cast and story overall.

As a game it felt like an absolutely massive improvement over 7 basically in every way. You have way more control over your character and party in combat scenarios, in the actual build make-up with skill inheritence, no horrible difficult spikes grinding the pacing to a halt. Where 7 sometimes felt like a very enthusiastic proof of concept that showed RGG's inexperience in making a full on rpg in practise, this is the fully realised well polished thing.

I went 4 stars because or my personal taste it is REALLY big and it could be trimmed up and paced a little better I think, but it has to be said these devs are ridiculously generous in how much content they pack in and how fleshed out some of the side modes are. I need smaller games, not bigger games lol but if you're looking for a game you could easily spend a month or so on 100%ing, this is a good option!