I think this game has it all. It's my favorite strategy game. The canvas engine is beautiful in this game. The look and feel is like a water color painting come to life. The game has a really charming anime WW2 basic story here but the game is really well told through it's storybook chapters and in game cutscenes. There is a huge cast of characters in this game and you can pretty much customize your squad with who you like. The gameplay is a true strategy game with twist. When selecting your units on the battle map it then goes into the game world and you can move your unit around and shoot like a third person shooter. Watch out for intercepting fire and line up your shots for maximum damage. You get the customization of an RPG, the tactics of a turn based strategy and the movemnt of a third person shooter. It's really cool and well done. There are multiple classes and different jobs for each unit. Each character has their own potentials that can turn the tide of battle. Maybe one unit moves faster in the grass, or gets a defensive boost when standing next to a tank or how about another unit has better accuracy when around women and then on the flip side you can have negatives as well. Like such and such hates this character and won't act when near them. Or this unit has a dust allergy and will lower his accuracy. Or this guy can't see in the dark ect ect. It makes your team stand out and feel like real people and trying to maximize their strengths and weaknesses is a lot of fun. The game is a ton of fun trying to figure out to conquer each mission while trying to keep my units alive. There is also a perma death element if your unit dies and is overtaken by the enemy and not rescued in time. So you wanna strive to keep your favorites alive and aim for total victory. I was generally invested in the games story and characters and I think it's a great highlight as well. The voice acting is really good too. This is a fantastic franchise. I replay this game every year or so and everytime I enjoy it. It's a perfect ten in my book.

Platinum # 54