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this game is basically what vanguard feels like it should have been/should be, a cheesy feel good story with a bunch of anime tropes about going through a region with a few friends
presentation-wise really really good, tilesets used are great, like the music choices, designs are fun, girls are sexo, etc etc.
i don't think the writing is super strong (i have no idea why it's the champion and an e4 member journeying with you and they don't do much with the concept, both the champion/e4 member are basically just 'generic nice people' and the rival/mc are assholes, the evil team is about as boring edgy evil as you can get and they basically barely exist until the last 20 minutes of the demo kek) but it's a just nice simple fun time with more than a few genuinely sweet moments and times i laughed, due in part to well written dialogue. the MC being an extremely edgy turbosperg with a not-so-hidden soft side is actually nice when you compare it to the usual bland as fuck talking MCs we see in these games, personally found his antics entertaining
i do wish i could say nicer things about the gameplay/overall structure. it is just very bland 8 gym stuff, without even stuff like regional forms or anything. again, that kind of thing isn't that bad, but it really hinges on the character moments to keep interest. that, plus some overall annoyances (repels basically being mandatory due to annoying as fuck encounter rates, a very strange difficulty curve that's reliant on the midbattle effects because of how weird the levels are and fluctuates from braindead easy to surprisingly hard) makes it...just serviceable on this front. serviceable is better than a lot of games we do though, so, kek
and yes, kinda mad the MC won't get laid, but hey i did name him virgin after all
probably give this a low-mid 6 for now, could see it scoring high in the 'solid' tier when it's done. i don't think it's even close to being on par with opalo at all though
