It's a given that this game is bad - what's interesting to me is that it exists at the precise cross-section of the graph of time investment and fun.

If it was one centimeter worse, this game would be unplayable to me. If it were 15 minutes longer, I would have dropped it before the end - and it is precisely bad enough to be interesting, but not appalling. The thinnest passing margin of all time. Associate's Degree with a D+ transcript, but a graduate all the same.

Somebody, somewhere, cared when they made this game, as made evident by how good the sequels are.

Heartbreaking: gamer thought 70-hour JRPG he put on a pedestal for 8 years was just "alright."

An arduously long game packed to the gills with dialogue and school simulations that feel like they add very little. Compared to the tight and witty dialogue from the Sky trilogy, and to a lesser extent Crossbell, this game's dialogue is, generously, 20% characters being lecherous toward high school girls. Feelings of comfort on that aside, that's a LOT of dialogue which is often your cast getting an anime sweat drop, then saying, "Well some things never change." I struggle to think of a single line of dialogue said by Angelica or about Emma that didn't make me sigh.

The setting is wonderful - Erebonia is a great region to explore and the political intrigue (and this game's ending especially) imply a promising future for the series, if the writing becomes more restrained.

The gameplay is also a marginal improvement still above Crossbell, featuring a more intuitive and rewarding Quartz system. I love to fidget in menus to get a small increase in power, and this game gave me tons to play with in that regard. My only complaint about this matter is that I found very few new spells after Chapter 5, which meant 20+ hours without a meaningful change to my approach to gameplay. Your mileage may vary depending on how much you value tinkering with builds as you play.

Overall, I'm saddened to say I don't recommend this game on its own, and I find it a poor showing from a series and developer I otherwise have a lot of faith in. I hope that when I play the sequel, I feel that love come back again.