I really do respect that after the relatively safe, straightforward Sophie (which I love), that the team here decided to just swing for the fences and try something wildly ambitious. Honestly, it's really cool seeing what they went for on a pretty small budget and tight deadline. Still, it's a messy game, and that became a lot harder to ignore the longer it went on.

The first half here, with a time limit to reach the other side of the map and pass an exam, is honestly terrific. It has a nice sense of scale that the series doesn't often go for, and the little stories you encounter in every town along the way are super cute, if sometimes frustratingly structured.

The second half, though, is where things fall apart. Firis wants to find a path in life, and the game really commits to just letting you do whatever. There are different endings for every single character here, and that's super cool. But when your objectives at this point are literally just "talk to various people and do various things", it can feel more than a tad aimless. It's worse when completing character stories often boils down to "do one cutscene, sleep three days, do another cutscene, rinse and repeat". With more time, I'm sure this team could've figured out a more satisfying loop, but it's still a bummer how much the pacing falls apart here.

I'm pretty mixed on changes to alchemy, too. I think Sophie's panel system was really smart and fun, and all the changes here kinda just make things longer and more tedious.

Still, for as negative as a lot of this sounds, I really did like this game. I think the cast is super charming and fun (a huge step up from Sophie's pretty dry supporting cast), Firis is a great protagonist, and a lot of the ideas here would be executed far better in both Lydie and Suelle and the Ryza games. It's an important step forward that I'm glad they took, ultimately.