Time to play another Yasumi Matsuno game! With Hitoshi Sakimoto composing, this definitely has the FF Tactics / Tactics Ogre feel, except this particular visual novel-sounding track No Picnic For Me which sounds hilariously out of place:

Battles are challenging, and especially punishing in New Game+ if you don’t have the right strategy. You can’t just keep grinding for levels either, because characters don’t have levels! All stat boosts come from your equipment, so you better make sure you spend time adjusting your weapons and armour.

The dice rolling gimmick got old really quickly, but at least you can speed things up a tiny bit by pressing the Start button.

Respawning enemies are annoying as fuck, ugh. Make sure to use buffs and debuffs!

Witch Kings mirror battle, fuuuck. Posted my strategy on GameFaqs.

Normal ending - bad guy escapes and traps the party, then the world ends up in ruins. Dark, I don’t mind it.

Offensive magic was pretty useless for me the whole game, but level 3 healing spells are a must, especially in NG+. Surprised at how long I lasted without it actually (up to Lost Mausoleum).

There’s a rare item drop needed in order to get open a chest in NG+. Fuckin BS.

This game badly needs a quick save feature during battles, because they can go on for a LONG time, longer than it should for a portable game.

Witch Kings mirror battle in NG+… fuuuck x 10. Burnt through pretty much all of my potions. Yeah definitely should have been using level 3 healing spells here.

It’s annoying how random the loot drops are, tried to grind for better gear at one stage but it was too much work for too little reward, so gave up on that.

Lost Mausoleum is a marathon, so get comfortable, and prepare to heal, buff, debuff and curse a lot.

Final boss (the Crimson Shroud!) and her god damn HP draining spells. MP restore items and Lippi to the rescue!

NG+ ending is a happy one… too happy if you ask me, but I think the overall story is really interesting. Lots of lore for a game that most can finish in around 10 hours (double that for NG+). Still, don’t think I’ll be touching this again, like Giauque, Lippi and Frea with that book.