This game surprised me. I'd heard about it from just about everyone who loves JRPGs. It took me forever to finally get around to it and my expectations were sky-high.
The game is a weird mix of shooter/action/RPG. It has sections where I felt like I was in an old arcade playing Galaga. It had moments where I felt like I was listening to a philosophical discussion in college about the meaning of life and sentience. It had moments of pure joy and also ones of complete aggravation. But the experience was certainly unlike anything I've experienced in the past.
The best part of the game is the story and the music. You have to play this game multiple times to actually get the ending that makes sense. But once you do, it is one of the best video game stories on offer. It gets into robots and consciousness and how your life is assigned meaning. It also covers racism/prejudice and how that can impact the world. Overall, I really enjoyed it and I still think about it a month after completing the game.
The music is also great. It's a little over-the-top for my tastes, but during boss fights there's nothing better than hearing a loud choir shouting at you. The game is at it's best when it combines the game with the music. There is one battle against a "singer," who is super creepy. She sings the music and her moves line up with it. It's the best boss fight in the game.
The battle system is...fine. The shooting parts were awesome, and there are moments where you are fighting on things like a roller coaster or on a giant robot arm, and those are fantastic. However, you fight the same 3-4 enemies over and over and over. It drove me insane by the end of the game, especially when they gathered in packs and surrounded you, making the game feel impossible at points. Luckily the game has a difficulty system that can be changed to help you get around those frustrations. There is also one part of the game where you are almost dead and have to traverse far too wide a gap across the map while "glitching" out. It was extremely annoying.
My main complaint about the game is that it feels like it wastes your time. Why did I need to play the entire game twice? Couldn't they have morphed in the second story into the first one? At the very least, why couldn't they just have me play the different parts of the story that I didn't see the first time? Traversing the SAME areas and seeing the SAME cut-scenes and fighting the SAME boss fights with no change was infuriating and I honestly almost quit the game about halfway through it. The fast travel system takes too long to get and it purposely doesn't work at important junctures, making you trek across the map several times for absolutely no reason. This kind of thing really aggravates me, and luckily the payoff for completing the game again was worth it.
7.5/10