Synduality: Echo of Ada Review (etc)
Look, there's enough reviews covering there being a paid battlepass and paid cosmetics in a paid game which is really gross so I won't go too deeply into that. I won't go into its features as an extraction shooter either as that's also covered and, frankly, there's too much complaining about the genre than the game itself.
Mainly, I want to address the sad lack of customization in this game, especially for a mecha game.
For your cradlecoffin, you only have 3 main parts that you can't repaint or decorate. Instead, you get different versions of the same part from the battlepass with just a different paint job.
You shouldn't mix and match cradle parts because there are bonuses to using a complete set. There are only two slots for weapons and you can only use one at a time, you have to swap to the other, though you may pick up weapons and switch with whatever's in your main weapon slots. No shoulder weapons despite what's been shown in the anime and even ingame cinematics, and your only side arm is a bog standard melee attack. As a result, the combat in this game is dull as you're very limited with what you can do at any given time and there is almost no build variety to spice up your sorties.
The garage was heavily touted pre-release for how you could upgrade it and take it from a dump to a real living space, but in a nutshell, it's just time-gated upgrades to each room that besides the gameplay benefits, it all just becomes a cleaner background for your Magus to do random things in the main menu. You don't even get to wander around either. You may watch your Magus bathe and that's it.
Gameplay-wise, Magus customization begins and stops at the support ability that you decide to pick for that Magus, except once you choose one, you can't change it without using a remake ticket, which costs real money. The game gives you two tickets for two extra Magus, but there are 5 abilities in total, so spending money is required if you want all of the abilities. Yet most of the total customization you're allowed to do in the game is on your Magus, which is clearly what most of the developers' focus went into, and I think that's what they only care about, selling a paid dress up game and paid clothes with the skin of an extraction shooter and the caked on makeup of a mecha game.
Would I recommend this game?
As an extraction shooter, it's a maybe - it's a more chill entry in a genre known for how unforgiving it is, and the gameplay loop is not too bad but the lack of PVE enemy variety will become repetitive in the long run, so it'll probably turn into a PVP game rather than PVPVE over time until the game peters out as a whole.
As a dress up game? Not really, even that is lackluster as there are better games available with far more customization as well as actual social features to go with. The game does seem heavy-handed in showing you your Magus even at the worst times, such as forced cutscenes while you're taking damage, which doesn't grant invincibility. The Magus you're supposed to become attached to and spend a lot of money on just ends up getting in your way when you're actually trying to play the game.
As a mecha game? Absolutely not, would not recommend. The design of the cradlecoffins are an interesting take which is probably influenced by tachikoma and the addition of an AI companion is not a bad idea, but the gameplay execution is poor because it all falls to the wayside for the sake of your anime waifu.
You are playing in a mecha game that is neither fast nor exciting as some of the speedier and flashy mecha games and lacking the firepower and weight of some of the heavier and more brutal mecha games. Your cradlecoffin remains in some middle ground of mediocrity, slowly trudging about on stubby legs, led by the nose by your Magus which you're reminded again and again that the game is about them, not your cradlecoffin, with the forced cutscenes for attacks and exit/reentries, their chattering heads taking up 1/4th of your screen constantly, and the far larger amount of Magus customization over what little you are allowed for your own mech. When nothing would really change if the cradlecoffins were replaced with humans on foot, this game fails to deliver on the mecha premise.
Until Game Studio Inc. (I still can't believe that's a real name for a game development studio) decides to grow a soul and give this game one, this review will be a hard No.