comfortably mid. straight up just a generic late 80s-early 90s style jrpg where the species involved are less monotonous. granted just about all of them are mostly just humans, but the sentiment was there. the unique abilities each party member has on the field are novel and feel a lot less arbitrary as progression or loot gates than many games are with their obstacles, so i applaud the designers for that.

combining all your party members like they're making a sentai mech but instead a big beast is a great idea, though it's a bit too limited and clunky in practice. it just doesn't work too great with the party menus and feels lacking in strategy with how linear the progression of their power feels. again, though, it's a cool idea! it's especially cool that you can shred bosses with the later combinations. it makes the combinations as exploration rewards feel very... well, rewarding.

basically nothing to say about the writing or presentation here. pretty bog standard. i started to get a bit tired of the game toward the end cause of the random busywork thrown in to break up the narrative flow but it wasn't enough to deter me from powering through to the end. this game was cute and fun enough that if the sequel improves enough on it even just mechanically then it has the potential to be great (and i've heard it does improve quite a lot!).