looking for new soulslike
ask if its exploration focused or combat gauntlet
"its a good soulslike sir"
play the game
combat gauntlet

Very solid if unremarkable tactics rpg.

Gameplay feels kind of halfway between fire emblem (separate enemy and player phases, greater emphasis on positioning) and ff tactics (smaller maps, lot of ranged and aoe attacks flying around.)

Difficulty is a bit low. I found myself grinding a bit in the first third just to keep pace with enemy levels but as the game goes on units get a lot more options and the level curve seems to smooth out. By the last third the game was definitely too easy.

Story feels pretty flat, I think mostly down to mediocre dialogue and character writing. Characters would definitely benefit from extra dialogue outside of cutscenes, but to the game's credit there is an attempt to keep even the early game nobodies present in cutscenes throughout.

The skill binding system is a lot of fun, and generally pretty balanced. Some skills are better than others of course but no one skill breaks the game wide open as far as I can tell. Character building with skills is a bit shallow though as the limited slots fill up quickly with hp, attack, and mobility boosts before you get to the interesting stuff.

Visually the game is fine, though the in-game artstyle is way lamer than the box art would have you believe. Sometimes the field can get cluttered, and there are no zoom options. The game drags a lot between phases, moves, etc., which isn't too noticeable normally but becomes a huge slog as soon as you try to do anything repetitive like grinding or the colosseum.

Overall totally solid fun game, and while the difficulty is kind of low, with free grinding available and lots of skills to collect this might be to the game's benefit.

the amount of luck that goes into every single map in this game is completely absurd. enemy ability spreads are luck. enemy behavior is luck. ally npc behavior, hit chance, debuff hit chance, even self buffs. multiple times I replayed maps over and over with near identical input and had wildly wildly different results. completely unacceptable for a strategy game.

keeping pace with enemy levels requires grinding. I know grinding in rpgs is kind of contentious and can have a place, but in a game with a battle system this slow it should be not be a necessity for blind players, not to mention the amount of grinding it must take to get the most out of the job and poaching systems.

story seems really good from the about 50% of it I saw, and the game really does work when its not halting your progress with inflated enemy levels or absurd rng checks every other map.

this game really seems to have a lot to offer somewhere in there but is probably best played more slowly than I am willing to, or just with a guide. game sucks idgaf. play fire emblem