Wanted to play this game for years, but never got around to it.
Heard lots of good things about it. Even Kojima praised it iirc.
But having actually played it, I have only one question - "Why?"

It's an okay game at best. Seemingly interesting, but repetitive, borderline annoying gameplay, uninspired music, incoherent story and the endings are even worse (the first one literally makes no sense and the second is a tired cliché that makes you groan if you're older than 12).

It's got cool style, though. Very distinct. And it's very short.
Aside from that though I'm pretty disappointed, not gonna lie.

Decided to play this after Super Eyepatch Wolf's video and honestly am disappointed. It's not bad per se, but just mid as all hell with a lot of potential left out.
The game has a great prologue, but from there goes meandering throughout the entire story with the ending that has an interesting idea, but is really underwhelming.

Pros:
- It has gorgeous visuals. The game is undeniably one of the prettiest VN I've played.
- Has some great suspenseful and surprising moments.
- The story is rather engaging and complex, with some clever red herrings and foreshadowing. Though at times it can feel as a jumbled mess of coincidences.
- Some really creative 4th wall breakage.

Cons:
- No distinct gameplay or exploration, and VERY few puzzles. The game is just a series of simple click-through dialogues and a bunch of text entries.
- The story is very linear, with several dead-end fake endings consisting of a couple of minutes of text and are not even worth mentioning.
- Characters are underdeveloped. The story mostly focuses on the overarching plot or frequent exposition dumps and rarely does any notable character moments.
- A ton of missed potential. The first few hours of the prologue have some of the best moments in the entire game, where you try to outsmart the opposing curse-bearers. It actually feels like a thrilling game of cat and mouse. But after that, you barely do anything like that for the rest of the game.
- The game introduces you to some interesting mechanics and then uses them only once or twice more in the entire game.
- It is relying too much on the cheapest jump scares with a ghost.jpg flying in your face and making a spooky screeching sound. Particularly in the first quarter of the game. Especially made worse by the lack of voiceover or any ambient sounds.
- No voiceover, no ambient sounds and though the music that is in the game is good, it's a very limited number of music tracks that get extremely repetitive.
- A few really dumb anime tropes. Like not immediately shooting the bad guy and letting them get away, or making the player to sympathize with a potential mass murderer because they're sad and unloved, etc.
- Felt maybe a bit too long for how simple and repetitive it is.

In conclusion, not a bad game, but I just can't bring myself to like it much. If only between the endless dialogues it had some more puzzles or actual gameplay like Danganronpa or Zero Escape games. Then I'm sure I would've liked it that much more, and could ignore some of it's problems.
Maybe in the sequel, if there ever is one.

Really fun platformer with enjoyable, fluid movements, beautiful art design and simple mechanically sound gameplay.
For me personally, the fact elevating this game is that it has an actual story. The lore is deliberately vague, but the plot has clear stakes, a defined ending, several distinct characters and tangible story progression.
None of that "in le head" nonsense of Rime or nonsensical storytelling of Journey, Abzu or The Pathless.
And holy hell this game has a real well voiced protagonist (also NPCs)! With motivations and feelings! Like, who would've thought a story can benefit from a main character that is not a hollow piece of driftwood. Amazing.

Subjectively, one of the worst games I have ever played.
It's been 6 years and I still can't get out of my head how jarring this was. The game is so tonally deaf it probably should be taught in screenwriter university.
At first, it seemed like a fun 80s pop culture nostalgia bait, but then it goes weird so much and so abruptly it gives you whiplash.
The game presents itself as a clear homage to Spielberg's work, Back to the Future trilogy, Escape to Witch Mountain, etc. So it's wholesome fun and adventure at first, but literally out of nowhere it quickly it deteriorates into grim horror and death while still trying to very awkwardly maintain the whimsy aesthetic.
Like in the middle of the game right after yet another one of your group dies an agonizingly slow and painful death, you get a "fun" time travel segment where you help a cowboy to fix his time machine.
"It's just like Back to the Future! Get it? Get it? It's funny because it's a reference. Nerds love fan service!" - the writers say to you. "Also ignore the cold body of your friend in the next room. Go have fun until we decide to do more forced drama and kill yet another one of your buddies for shock value".
It's so jarring, so out of place and out of touch, that it just makes you uncomfortable.

To summarize, the game is like if halfway into Spielberg's E.T. the main character started doing crack, his sister committed suicide, the alien got AIDS and in the bike chase scene the government agents shot every one of MC's friends. But we still got the bike jump in front of the moon, the wholesome glowing finger touch etc.
That is what this trash fire of a game felt like to me.

Extremely addicting and fun, but can get pretty repetitive if you want to finish every quest, do every shrine, open entire depths map, max out stats, etc.
Actually liked it way more than BotW from the outset. Probably because I already knew how to play it and didn't spend the first 20 hours learning how to do basic stuff.
The plot overall is better this time, but 4 of the main story quests are so repetitive and bland it's hilarious. Just because you can tackle these at random, the devs made every quest end with a cinematic that differs only slightly, so you basically have to watch the same cutscene 4 times, lol.
The ending is heckin great though. Epic, flashy, heartfelt, with nicely animated cutscenes. Actually made me care a bit about Zelda (which I still hate overall because of her whiny fake british voice).

Extremely repetitive even on the first playthrough and you have to do it 3.5 times to see all the story and for things to actually make sense.
Even if you hack the game and oneshot everything, skipping the battles, it takes an absurd amount of time to finish the game in it's entirety.

Most characters are one-dimensional cardboard cutouts with 1-2 distinct traits/tropes that they just repeat ad nauseam.
- Yes, Leonie, I know you are Jeralt's apprentice. Stop mentioning him every two sentences.
- Yes, Sylvain, I know you're a horrible human being. Stop being horny all the time.
- Yes, Cyril, we know you like Rhea and cleaning. Can you kindly shut up now?
Not to say that every dialogue or interaction is boring or horribly cliché, but a lot of them are. And a lot of them are just meaningless filler. Though, even despite the flaws, you do get attached to the characters. Seteth is my favorite personally.

The music is repetitive also. The same "heroic" track plays in EVERY character introduction in the game.

Most of the missions are bland "kill all enemies" or "kill commander" and they keep repeating over and over with no variety at all. AND you play the exact same 99% of missions on different story routes. The only fun missions are in the DLC which I actually enjoyed.

The difficulty balance/progression in the main game is broken. Which is also somewhat fixed only in the DLC story.

Basically everything that is bad with this game is done better in Valkyria Chronicles 2 on PSP (or any VC game really). Even graphics imo, since VC series is heavily stylized. And I just can't stop comparing the two. Even the story is very similar with the military academy setting and warring nations in the background. It had better builds, player progression, better side-stories, better characters, more even difficulty curve and more engaging game mechanics.

Not that I completely hated the game. I actually intend to do all 4 routes and already watched all of the support conversations by hacking the game via emulator+cheat engine table. And I will probably do the same with the Three Hopes sequel/spinoff, since I really did get attached to the cast. But holy hell, this game is overhyped AF.
It has a ton of wasted potential, but ultimately it IS wasted.

If you, like I, heard all the raving reviews and want to play it, I would recommend you go play Valkyria Chronicles series games instead. They're leagues better than this one. Sadly, I must admit.

The game has only three positive aspects - it's pretty, it has some epic music tracks (in the later part of the game - specifically bosses and credits song is just beautiful) and it has a really great final act with plot twists, emotional moments and spectacle.

Everything else is mid to horrible.
- The story is a nice fairy tale, but it picks up only closer to the end of the game.
- The map is one of the worst I have ever seen in my 25 years of gaming. No mini map. The camera angle always changes on its own, but the map screen is always fixed. And the elevation tracks very poorly.
- If you want to 100% this game, it WILL be hell. Since the map is so sh*t you will wander aimlessly for hours trying to figure out where you need to go to pick the collectibles.
- The game's has animations for everything, and they're not skippable. Won the battle - 10 second animation of victory pose. Opened a chest - 2 second opening animation, then 3 seconds of cutesy pose. Entered a dungeon - a loading screen and a 3 second animation. Completed the dungeon - 10 seconds and a loading screen. And it just keeps on stacking throughout the playthrough. I actually feel like I've spent an hour total in these same repeating unskippable cutscenes.

I would say I enjoyed it rather than hated it, but it mostly because of how the final act was really really good. I'd rather play a mid game with a banger finale, than a good game with a lame ending.
If the entire game was on par with the final stretch of the game, it would have been an instant classic.

Pros:
- Great 2d sprite work, seamlessly incorporated into 3d environments.
- Design-wise the game is beautiful.
- The world is dense and feels lived it.
- Lots of varied enemies.
- The bosses are entertaining.
- The fighting system is a bit rudimentary, but feels good to play.
- Ayane's a clichéd, but fun and lovable character.

Cons:
- Nonsensical plot that has a bunch of unexplained plot holes and feels unfinished. Some of this is clearly intentional, but it still just feels like bad writing.
- A bunch of text logs that like to use gibberish pseudo-science talk.
- Most characters are either 2-dimensional cardboard cutouts or have motives so convoluted you'd never figure it out on your own. Like why the main villain did what they did.
- The game has a craft system and a lot of trash to pick up that pad out the game's playtime, and that you'd never probably use.
- A few typos, weird phrasing etc. are still present in the game's text even after patches. Though a lot fewer than there were on release.

The game's premise is basically a fusion of Evangelion/SCP homages, easter eggs and references.
Can't recommend, but I actually had fun with this game. Flawed as it is. Just don't expect it to be a clear, coherent story.

Excellent gameplay, but suffers from this stupid craze of making the game "hardcore" by making it's bosses frustratingly hard by inflating their health to dummy levels. And it's on top of throwing adds at the player, difficult to avoid boss attacks, and giving us little ammo.
The difference in difficulty between regular levels and boss fights was honestly baffling. And you can't even change the difficulty mid-playthrough ffs. Why?
I suffered through until the final boss, died like 20 times without even getting to the second stage, gave up, and watched the ending on YT.
I guess I kinda am proud of making it to the final boss, but I'd be proud of not dying of colon cancer too. Doesn't mean I'd enjoy having it.

Pros:
Great looking bosses and boss fights. Few as they are.
Graphics are pretty. Kind of.
Great OST.

Cons:
Everything else is just mediocre.
Slow, repetitive exploration.
Non-existent story. The lore is only presented through hard to find collectibles. Which is one of the worst sins of game design.
Cliche af ending. Though I've seen much worse.

This one has one of the worst, cringiest, most cliché dialogues and nonsensical story in the history of anime plots. And I'm not even exaggerating.
It's a pretty fun brain-dead shooter though.
Just don't expect it to be a complex mecha builder, since most stats are not properly explained and do absolutely nothing.
And certainly don't expect any good story here - the MC is a mute piece of cardboard, 95% of the game has no story at all and the rest 5% is a hilarious exposition ultra-dump so concentrated it melts your brain.