Pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this, especially after seeing people say Covenant was way better (now im way more excited to play that one).

I'll get the gripes out of the way first. It's an early ps2 game and it's very obvious. While the in game models and environments are solid enough, the CG cutscenes are definitely not. Yuri especially does not resemble himself at all in these cutscenes. Luckily there's not a whole lot of them. Yuri's early characterization was not my favorite thing. They could've made him have the same vibe without being super pervy/creepy. Honestly, the only other thing I didn't enjoy much about the game was some of the dialogue sequences went on a little long.

Now with the plethora of good. Can't talk about this game without first mentioning the judgement ring. Taking combat inspiration from something like Super Mario RPG and Legend of Dragoon and turning it into this beautiful little circle. Items, equipment, and attacks were all created with the ring in mind and it all works flawlessly. Speaking of attacks, combat is a bit more than just pick an attack and don't miserably fail at using the judgement ring. Being able to pick a favorite demon for Yuri to transform into and go dummy mode on a bunch of creepy dogs is a lot of fun. I went with his fire fusions and buffed attack and popped off when I found the item that made my ring invisible but dealt double damage. Managing sanity points in the later boss fights when it's actually a danger is a lot of fun.

Going to wrap it up by saying the soundtrack is amazing, Brain Hopper whips. OST is equally eerie and beautiful and the fact that there's two composers working together in tandem like this is amazing. Characters are all fun and lovable and their interactions with each other actually get to be pretty wholesome. Game isn't really difficult but a lot of the late bosses hit the right level of difficulty. Story is serviceable and the way it connects to Koudelka is great. Play this game!

Wanted to start off by saying that with the most recent patch, the game added some really nice QoL changes that are likely to save a good few hours of playtime. Combat is mostly fun, but starts off pretty simplistic and a bit boring in the first few hours. This ramps up quickly, though, and stays fun and engaging until the end of the game. This is also where the first QoL update change comes into play. You are now able to have a few presets when it comes to equipped abilities and can switch between them freely. Unfortunately, if you don't have enough ability points to unlock/master everything you still have to refund and unlock abilities between presets which is something they should've also changed in the patch. This means you likely won't be able to have two presets with vastly different abilities unless you have an insane amount of ability points.

The second QoL update is being able to instantly travel to the side quest giver upon fulfilling their request instead of having to open the map, fast travel to the nearest fast travel beacon, then walk to them. This will save a lot of time and help with pacing a bit if you are wanting to complete the side quests. Doesn't change that most of them are still pretty boring and give you no real reward or payoff.

Everyone has pretty much talked up all of the good points and it's hard to disagree with them. Music is fantastic, story is engaging and has an edge to it to keep it fresh from other entries. The set pieces and boss fights are typically of very high quality. There's a good mix of cinematic fights that aren't too engaging to play but amazing to look at and more lowkey, mechanically engaging ones. Lovable characters and most are better than just eye candy.

Overall wish it were 10+ hours shorter and didn't include side quest designed MSQs, but still a great game.