A very cozy and sweet game with quite a few issues. The combat is a surprising cut above the typical JRPG affair, but one of the biggest things holding it back is its arguably unintentionally obtuse crafting system UI. The crafting system in and of itself is delightfully robust and justifies its existence as a core mechanic more so than what most people think of when they hear 'crafting system', but the way the system is laid out in the UI felt less intuitive than it could be and made it difficult to truly experiment in curious ways since the game isn't very clear on what you can and can't do. Some sort of filing system where you can track the properties you've unlocked, their commonalities as well as their sources would've gone a long way in selling the experience of being an Alchemist.

I kinda wish the story had a bit more going on since the setting is pretty interesting and what few story bits they do show (mostly near the end of the game) show a lot of premise. Outside of the main duo characters range from decent to dull

PS: This may just be a me thing but playing in the alchemy menu for extended periods of time imparts a work-like stress on me that makes my brain scream. That being said I still enjoy it...I'm sorry I can't explain this...