Being able to play this game finally is a dream come true. This game is way more of an RPG than a lot of the other RGG games (save for 7). There's a lot of grinding for gear and money in this game. It admittedly makes the general pace of the game slow down a lot. Fortunately, a lot of the activities you do to grind for money and such is just fun. I really liked the Another Life side game. It was fun doing all the farming and cooking. Combat is really good but imo, not the best in the series. Because the combat relies too much on gear and combat troopers, it's less of a beat em up than even the other games which is unfortunate. Still it's really fun using the 4 styles. The story playing on Japanese history is really fun. It subverts expectations in clever ways if you know the history of Sakamoto Ryoma and the Bakumatsu period. The journey of the murder mystery and was a huge ride. I wasn't a fan of the substories this time around. There were a lot of good ones but it felt like most of them were friendships instead of regular substories and they're just not nearly as fun here. All in all though, this game is fantastic. It felt like playing 0 again which makes sense because it's basically proto-0. I'm so happy it came out here. I feel 9 years of begging for this game lifted off my shoulders.

It's not perfect but everything comes together for a great RGG experience. I'm so happy Sega finally was able to release this game worldwide.