Despite this game starting many infuriating trends in this series that persist to this day, I find myself strangely fond of it. While the overarching story was slow and uneventful, the individual characters were mostly very charming and fleshed out. The school setting also lends itself well to a series known for its cast of lovable NPCs. The other students at Thor's felt just as memorable to me as the inhabitants of Crossbell or Liberl, maybe even more so. While this game marks the start of a significant downward trend in the series, there's still enough to enjoy here for me to consider it a good entry in the franchise.