Very charming tower defense game which is just long enough to not get stale. The actual gameplay is ffffine, each level has a few waves of guys and different-enough architecture to be interesting. One stage offers barricades to lower by hitting targets, another features a witchy gal following you around and replenishing one of your three arrow types. It's a little repetitive but it's fun!

It's a sort of weird thing because like, I think I made discoveries sort-of late in the game, and mostly just left-clicked my way through the skele-mobs. Things like "oh, that guy is responsible for the shields on others" and "you can lower the barricades??" happened very late, partly because there is very little tutorializing (honestly, thank God tho).

I also feel like I didn't make the best use out of the special arrows - one of the shots creates a large green goop wall to block enemies, but I rarely found utility for it outside of blocking the occasional destroyed barricade. Some of the issue with special arrows also lies in the delay on switching arrow types, IMO - there is a nice weightiness to the draw, the act of switching types, and even the travel time between different shot types, but it feels like inputs are quietly rejected in situations where you would be "busy" - trying to switch arrow type after shooting? If you're still recovering, it won't happen, seemingly no option for a queue action technique. This led to a bit of bungling in my playthrough and how I ended up sticking to rapid basic shots over situations where special shots may have been equally suitable.

The real strength here is in Lilith Walther's cinematography, the camera work and direction and high-res, low-poly expressions all come together to make a really magical experience. There's a very firm sense of humanity within this game - your reward screen is villagers and nobles coming up to thank you for your protection; the home base menu isn't just a selection of options but different locations around your tower, between going upstairs to change outfits or stepping outside to check the mail; every time you pay a visit to the merchant, it's a big sweeping camera shot from your location to his cart not too far away. Despite whatever has happened here, there is a connection between its people, which works well against the story's central issue of "reanimated departed ones."

People talk up the ballroom scene a lot and it's good, it's a fantastic execution of social anxiety. Here's what I wanna talk about: when you get the nobility costume you can press the Alt button for a looser fit and the animation is Elle pulling the collar loose. That's the good shit (I could sing another praise about how each outfit has a unique animation with it which I just think is a nice touch but I'm already going on too long).

Ultimately worth the experience, I feel very inspired after experiencing the heart that was put into this.

High points: The Strike Suit has a suitably enjoyable "oomfie in the Gundam" feel to its weaponry. Multi-target missile acquisition and auto-tracking flak cannons are just fun. There is a lot of switching between strike and pursuit modes, but I sort of enjoyed the rhythm of opening up for 3-second salvos before dashing to a new location to gather more energy.

I also really enjoyed the way score attacks fed into the post-mission briefings; lower scores report rebellion bolstering, but higher scores deliver on the results of your efforts to wipe out everything. I liked it enough to go back and clean up a few scores for the game's secret ending, although... well, the writing isn't much. The first time I got a gold medal and saw the post-mission report change was very satisfying, though. It's a neat trick.

I liked the music at first but ultimately I think it's not too much. Less favorable things could be said about the voice acting. I don't think a single VA gets above the level of "military NPC reading a line in a recording booth," even as the game asks you to overcome ridiculous numbers. I was constantly comparing against Ace Combat 7, which I think directed its voices very well and the climactic moments in that game were properly punctuated by its voice actors.

Speaking of "ridiculous numbers," I do think this game waters down to that more plainly than it should. The penultimate mission brings up an objective to take on 230 fighters, and although other things eventually happen, I was entirely willing to believe that it would ask me to do this. Bigger ships have numerous weak points but they also have such large health that it's sort of hard to tell if you're hitting one or not. Until you get the heavier weapons in the endgame, I think a lot of this is a chore.

I couldn't decide between 2.5 or 3 stars while finishing this up but thankfully the final mission is a 10-minute driving exam with plot dump which put a nice sour cap on the whole experience. Maybe the director's cut is better, maybe the DLC is better, I'm not worried about finding out.

Final rating: "Perfectly enjoyable considering it was in my Steam backlog for 10 years but would have been disappointing in any other context"