A good game, very close to being great. The story is a bit darker than usual, though it soon settles down, the music is very Disgaea (same guy!) and there are a lot of interesting systems which interact well.
I really like the idea of swapping around character classes in real time, especially doing things like bringing in summoned minions then swapping back, or specifically targetting enemy weaknesses or changing your loadout within that to change the way attacks move you around. A good example is magic attacks - you can get an ice wall which hits immediately in front of you, a single slow moving homing shot or a 3-5 way homing shot that sprays away from you so it's unreliable when point blank. I did things like bring in a weapon which does magic damage part way through a sword combo to increase a single class's viability, and even completely change weapon types halfway through to deal with a boss having constantly changing weak points. The skill system is really good too, letting you change your loadouts freely and giving you surprisingly varied options, particularly with the summoned minions you get part of the way through.
The main issue is that the game balance kind of takes a back seat in the last third; it goes from pretty nicely balanced with tough but beatable bosses to being one-shotted constantly. I wouldn't mind so much but the evade button (and corresponding Witch Time effect are so muddy, unclear and responsive - an issue not helped by blurry, unclear graphics. Let me cancel into a dodge!
Given how much it improved from the first to the second game, as well as how well they did with the same team on Refrain, I really do think that a third version of this game could be truly great.
I really like the idea of swapping around character classes in real time, especially doing things like bringing in summoned minions then swapping back, or specifically targetting enemy weaknesses or changing your loadout within that to change the way attacks move you around. A good example is magic attacks - you can get an ice wall which hits immediately in front of you, a single slow moving homing shot or a 3-5 way homing shot that sprays away from you so it's unreliable when point blank. I did things like bring in a weapon which does magic damage part way through a sword combo to increase a single class's viability, and even completely change weapon types halfway through to deal with a boss having constantly changing weak points. The skill system is really good too, letting you change your loadouts freely and giving you surprisingly varied options, particularly with the summoned minions you get part of the way through.
The main issue is that the game balance kind of takes a back seat in the last third; it goes from pretty nicely balanced with tough but beatable bosses to being one-shotted constantly. I wouldn't mind so much but the evade button (and corresponding Witch Time effect are so muddy, unclear and responsive - an issue not helped by blurry, unclear graphics. Let me cancel into a dodge!
Given how much it improved from the first to the second game, as well as how well they did with the same team on Refrain, I really do think that a third version of this game could be truly great.