This game's highs and lows are equal in that the highs are incredible peaks and the lows are insane valleys. A standard playthrough can gloss over these lows but upon trying deathless it became glaring that this game's balance is really frustrating. The controls are not responsive in a way that flatters its high octane gameplay and precise inputs, which inflates the difficulty that in my opinion is already insanely artificial. The difficulty in question is... Enemy spam, enemy ambush, spammed ambushes, and tight spaces that get walled off that you are forced to fight in versus non-stop lunging enemies that jumped at you with no warning while you were dashing through the level.

If you can look past all the trash that the game forces you to fight and severely punishes your mistakes against, the rest of the game is stellar. The collectibles are fun and rewarding with lite metroidvania backtracking, the bosses are rad, the art is incredible, and the soundtrack bops. It's unfortunate that the game is far from being a fairly balanced challenging-but-rewarding experience, and instead is simply hard for the sake of being hard.

This might be my hottest take for the franchise but I didn't fall in love with this one like everyone else. The character stories are all just reskins of one another almost entirely 1:1, the party members get cycled too quickly to really establish a bond with any individual character, and the huge twist at the end is really of absolutely no consequence to anything that transpired in the story other than just being a shock value moment for the protag. Twists are supposed to make you re-evaluate and re-contextualize everything that happened in the game. Not to mention the character arc that Cecil goes through actually seems to make him WEAKER in the back half to the point of becoming my most useless party member for the final fight.

The game still stands on its own but it feels like I missed what made this game special for everyone else. I suppose it may just be my lack of nostalgia for this entry, though.

The best thing it did for the franchise was the ATB gauge, if nothing else, in my opinion. I'd argue FF2 had a stronger story and did an extremely similar twist significantly better.

This game is so incredibly miserably grind reliant and will punish the player for any misstep they weren't even aware could be made.

Yet it's honestly still not that bad. I have a strange soft spot for this game in spite of my lack of nostalgia for it. I would wager it's due to being the franchise's first attempt at a character-driven story and for just being different. In fact, the story was actually surprisingly bleak and well-told. Characters die and their deaths have real weight. The game does not end in a picture perfect fairy tale.

A fantastic game but regrettably, though bordering perfect in terms of visuals and storytelling, I feel like with the Kaycee's mod update it really overstayed its welcome. Evaluating solely the base game it's phenomenal, only losing points to being a tad bit confusing at times in how to progress (certain things bordered requiring a guide, which for a game like this - one that is extremely reliant on a lack of spoilers in order to be totally effective - is a major pitfall).

I pushed through and achieved everything in the free update and was left burnt out and generally unimpressed. The game's balance, which wasn't necessarily balanced to begin with through the story (due to a lack of necessity) feels as if it falls apart and breaks wide open. Very clear and borderline necessary strategies begin to form, which there are several at least - but past a certain difficulty it all just hinges on beefing up a Mantis Lord and sending it. The update effectively doubled the playtime but I can't consider any of it to be "quality" playtime. The narrative it added to the game was somewhat enjoyable, but I didn't feel it was overall worth it or as memorable. Considering Kaycee's Mod with the game as a whole it solidifies my 4.5/5 rating on a game that could otherwise be a potential strong 5/5.