izigame.me

The game has a ton of good going for it. I've seen other reviews compare it favorably to other games from the same developer, but this is my first title of theirs, so I can't really make those comparisons. If you've played the Sailor Moon RPG for the Super Nintendo through its fan translation and enjoyed it, this game feels very similar, but has a much, much better script and more balanced combat. The short synopsis of the plot is magical girls meet Shakespeare without forcing you to really have to know much about either to enjoy the game. The characters are memorable and distinct from each other in combat, the Shakespearean "translations" are silly and fun, and the ability, item, and even "magical girl title" system all put a fun spin on what can sometimes be a drab, standard turn-based JRPG experience in other games.
I just wish it stuck a little bit closer to some of the norms of the genre. This game has that combination of "you can't run from combat," and also "you can stealth around enemy encounters (but there's no stealth gameplay)", and also "there's no soft reset," and also "your grind is kinda not rewarded." At "normal" difficulty, the bosses are relatively easy to beat at what feels like a minimum level. At higher difficulties, your only rewards seem to be pride and a longer grind for the extra numbers.
Additionally, after introducing you to an ENTIRE TEAM of fantastic magical girls, one of whom is an AOE expert, the game takes all of them away and pigeonholes you entire specific party setups. You'll end up fighting big groups of enemies where you're lucky to get an elemental advantage, have no AOE, are lucky to have a rez ability, and the rez ability requires two separate characters to be upright because it's a rare, once-per-fight Unite ability. The end result is what, to me, feels like some arbitrarily long grind fights with no reward, fought by party members the game chooses for me despite teasing the ability to pick my own team.
This isn't the first non-AAA RPG I've played that does this. Clearly it's a gameplay loop that other people like. And aside from that, I love love LOVE everything about this game! The soundtrack is fantastic, the game looks like a Super Nintendo RPG which is exactly how I like my RPGs to look, and when the game finally lets me pick my party at the end of the game, I'm having a blast blowin' everything up with the characters I want to use. It even uses a "party XP" system so everyone levels together! No level gap! Seriously, the game hits every single note for a game I look for as a speedrun, and I want to make it the next game I speedrun. I really, really do.
But I'm a cranky old man when it comes to my games sometimes, and back in my day I had a run button and soft resets so I could pick and choose when I wanted to fight knucklehead enemy peons. As it stands, it feels like if I get caught in a "normal" enemy encounter, the best thing to do is hit Alt-F4 and try again. The combat mechanics are unique and fun, but not so unique and fun to warrant grinding when I don't need the EXP. I definitely recommend this game to lots of other people, even if it wasn't entirely my cup of tea from start to finish.