The opening to this game is almost text book in inability to deliver an engaging experience and frankly, flat out incompetence. Five five feet. Cut-scene. Walk five feet. Cut-scene. It never ends. 2 hours into the game, It is still forcing me to walk five feet. . . cut-scene.

The story within those cut scenes is extremely boiler plate. It would be serviceable if was in service to game play, but it's the focus in a languid and beleaguered way. Just in terms of competent writing, you need to cut down what's here significantly or write better. Yes, they did get Studio Ghibli to make cut scenes and those are charming, but even those are clearly from the same story board. If this was repacked in some way and you told someone this was a Ghibli movie, they would call you a liar. Everything is obviouis, slow, and boring.

But what about that game play when it does happen? The combat system is very older RPG which a little bit of freedom of movement and extra systems tacked on. It feels like unnecessary clutter-- busy work in the fight to make it feel more complicated or keep the player busy. I would have preferred pure turn based just to shave down the nonsense I need to keep track of. Even systems like being able to move and dodge attacks while you select your own isn't meaningful, because the game is not that hard.

Are there positives? Sure. The game features a pokemon-like system of obtaining and training new critters. These are fun and are functionally the same as new playable character in combat, they aren't implemented in any meaningful way, in fact, I'd say it's pretty clunky with a stamina system that forces you to continually change them out with each other and the human characters.

There's a tiny amount of exploration. Tasks to do. The larger exploration and goals are not what I'd call robust.

The graphics can look nice at time. I was impressed by the towns especially. There was some weirdness to the cutscenes. The game functionally has 3 art styles. The main game, the 3d cut scenes, and the ghibli animations. The 3d cutscenes stand out as wonky and unusually poorly done. There would be weird lighting changes that clash with where you just were in the 3D game world.

So that's a lot, but I really don't have a lot of positives to say. It's what looks like a ridiculously high budget game with zero aspirations, attention to detail, or inspiration.

4/10 at best.

I'm gonna be honest: The concept of a Studio Ghibli RPG does not make up for the fact the not-action-but-also-not-turn-based combat is more of a pain than it is fun. The world also didn't really grab me.

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