Original, entertaining and all around a game that shows compile heart has a lot of potential to make the series great.
Throughout the story you will make a handful of decisions in which your soul mates will either approve or disapprove, depending on their personalities. Whether it be a question they ask about themselves, or a decision on where you go next, it will effect your relationship to these women. Each generation gives birth to a new protaganist and I must say, each generation it just gets better and better, every single protagonist in the game has a personality unlike any other, and it brings a new freshness and interesting new approach on each differing storyline. The cast of side characters is really great, there are so many. You can basically pick and choose any couple of characters that you feel suits your playstyle the most.
The gameplay is pretty original for an SRPG, and it's very entertaining. You control a cast of 6 characters, and you are free to mix and match whatever you think will suit you the best in your playstyle. I personally always have 2 healers/casters, 2 tanks (one of which is based more on strength to do a little more damage.) and 2 rogue like characters, for agility (which determines the order you will attack) and a healthy number of powerful attacks that can be chained easily. Linking your characters is key, this is where you connect your characters on the grid depending on where you place them. Each character has a differing pattern surrounding them that glows on the grid, it's up to you to figure out how to puzzle them each turn to make sure they are all connected but it's not something you have to do, just the most effective way to get through a battle. Once linked each character can attack on any other characters turn they are linked to, the idea is to link your slowest characters to the fastest ones, so that they can act on their turn as well. This game uses AP instead of Mana to determine what attacks you can do each turn. You get a set amount each turn, as well as whatever you dont use in the turn before it. Building AP could mean that when you normally could only pull off say 2 moves at one time, now you can do 4 at once on each character, which is important because not only are characters linkable, but so are attacks. There are certain combinations in the game that make attacks into even more powerful attacks (absolutely key in the later generations). It could be 2 attacks linked, 4, even 6, to make an extremely powerful combination. It's very gratifying to chain all your characters into a massive web of damage to inflict on an opponent and see it all play out. Each battle you are judged on how fast you complete it, you get ranked from S all the way down to H, and depending on what rating you get, determines how much bonus XP you will achieve, sometimes you get taxed for being too slow and don't get as much as you should've. It keeps you on your toes.
This game has its flaws, being that some of the battles can drag on before the next event and can get mildly repetitive. The cutscenes arent perfectly animated though the character art is great looking and the game is subtitled, no english dubs (which some people may not like.). This is a game you have to play in small doses, if you try to play it all day, it can drag a little but if you moderate your playtime, it's always fun and entertaining.
I give this game an 8/10, considering that its 15$ cheaper than a normal game, considering how new it is, also considering that the company is new and has made considerable advances in their sequels, learning from their mistakes and this game is overall, really addictive. I recommend it to anyone who is a lover of SRPG's or JRPG's.