I still come back to this from time to time since
-the backgrounds look better
-I prefer most themes to their 3S counterparts and there is no reused music for characters
-The Victory screens are downright gorgeous
-Fun Sean
I really do like the presentation in this game a lot, a big shame that capcom either replaced or straight up removed a lot of SFIII's charm when it came to making Third Strike.

In the realm of SHMUPs where shortest range attack is maybe a lock on attack, melee abilities are rare, and even then, frankly unsatisfying. examples of this are Radirgy, Soldier blade and Radiant Silvergun but all of them feel very limp as much I love RSG. even Psikyo tried melee attacks multiple times before.

but this game gets it. each character has a dedicated melee button which when pressed, launches the dragon the player is riding, a short distance forward with great force which is strong enough to kill pretty much any stage enemy and deal great damage to the bosses and whatever enemy killed with it spawns numerous gold coins instead of the few silver that is normally released from killing enemies. and it feels so satisfying, your dragon stays there like an option from r-type dealing damage by its own and collects whatever item that touches it until called back to you. the feeling of hitting an enemy with the melee attack and having all the excess gold coins collected by the stationed dragon afterwards never gets old and it ties the attack and the quick-killing playstyle of Psikyo games perfectly to the scoring system of the game.
bosses have brief moments where they expose their weak point and unleash a very brutal pattern against you and if you manage to climb through the deadly pattern and get close enough to hit it with the melee attack, it gets killed instantly and you get a Technical Bonus Which is even more satisfying because Psikyo bosses are such mean pieces of shit.
I get it now...

A couple months ago I wrote a really fucking mean (and undeserved) review on Sengoku blade not seeing the appeal of Psikyo games but this game has really eased me into them. being able to zoom around the screen while dodging these lightning fast patterns is something very sweet and the games generally shower you with a lot of resources like meter attacks and it helps you route around all types of difficulties you're facing in your run. the bosses are so well animated and expressive which adds to the charm of the games. and honestly think I'm gonna give a few of their games a second chance like Striker 1945 II because I want more now.

first time seeing a necromancer named Ian.

Aside from archer not being to deal damage to armored units due to whatever calculation the system runs, this is the most fun version of Tactics ogre to exist out there. It keeps the best of the 2 previous releases while fixing whatever didn't work and having some good additions of its own on top of that. the rearranged music while not necessary sounds really good and certain PSP tracks i didn't like are stuck with me. all of this on top of an already fantastic and unique plot that is elevated by the fantastic Japanese voice acting as they were given actual direction by the original scriptwriter.
As for a nitpick while I'm really glad they kept the isometric 2d look of the game instead of falling to become another bloomy vomit 2D-HD square game but damn the new filtered sprites look worse than the originals in every way