A quite delightful strategy RPG offering some of the best gameplay in the post-Awakening portion of the series. The emblem ring system let me feel like I could tinker away at my units to satisfaction, and almost all of the maps are very interesting to play. Hell, I’m into the character designs!

Unfortunately, this is sandbagged with some of the worst cutscenes I’ve seen in a video game. The body animations (such as the very theatrical hands-on-hips pose every female character does) feel out of sync with the English dialogue, and the love of constant camera movement for every cut highlights that every background is a static image. It’s ugly, and it caused me to put the game down at least twice, for months. This is a shame, because not only is the game really fun, some of the later story sequences kinda hit me in a way I didn’t expect.

Also, a lot of the characters are unmemorable, but Alfred, Lapis, and Rosado are personal faves.