izigame.me

Okay, only 6.3 hours into this, but I can definitely say thumbs down.
Cons:
- VERY repetitive soundtrack
- VERY repetitive gameplay
- sticky walls stop you from running
- no top-level map, only a tiny automap - some items you will have to backtrack for entire dungeons later, but just try to keep that location in your memory, because this game doesn't...hope you like drawing maps on the fly
- no way to tell how you rank against enemies, you can defeat one 10 levels above you easily with your 4 to their 1, but 20 levels above you, your 4 to their 1, and you can't lay a finger on them, even with points put into skills
- getting bonuses for befriending people is difficult, all you can do is to talk to everyone with a Lv. 0 next to their name (and no lock symbol), repeatedly talk them up to Lv. 3, and wait for something to open up on the friendship map - which shares the same problem as backtracking for items
- you can't talk to some NPCs without befriending others (see previous bullet point), and they're not all in the same area, requiring serious backtracking without a map, because they also WALK AROUND AIMLESSLY, UP AND DOWN STAIRS...good luck tracking them down
- NPCs can go BEYOND the borders of an area, requiring you to wait (and wait and wait) for them to cross back over so you can talk to them
- talking to NPCs from Lv. 0 to 1 is instant on start and finish; Lv. 1 to 2 takes 2+ seconds to disengage; Lv. 2 to 3 takes 2+ seconds to engage after 3 prompts, then takes another second or to to engage multiple prompts on the back end, then another couple of seconds to disengage - this is very frustrating because other Lv. 0 NPCs you want to talk to will walk away while you're talking to the first NPC, and they can and will move beyond the borders of the area if you're close enough
- level 40+ enemies in opening area (you'll be lucky to scrape level 10 unless you grind A LOT)
- world feels extremely empty, especially the shopping area level - you can't buy anything; what's the point of being in an artificial world where you get everything you want, but you can't buy anything?
- you get items that give you Off / Def / etc skills, but most drops are so low-level as to be pointless, and there's no way to combine these into something useful, nor sell them off (see previous bullet point)
- this game is a controller-killer; it's turn-based, but requires you to input THREE SETS of commands in each turn...since most fights are squash matches, you end up spamming the first command times three each time, times 4 characters, which given the amount of fighting will destroy your action button by the end of the game (and given a cutscene after the first high school dungeon, which shows at least 10 bosses, not counting the AI who's imprisoning you, you're in for a LOT of fighting...and button-mashing)
- I'm into the second area, and not one passive (purple) skill item has shown up; again, what's the point?
- The writing of the characters is awful; one temporary NPC you pick up sells you out by posting your info on the chat net, and you just let her go unpunished; one NPC who can fight with you wants nothing to do with you, and another who wants to fight with you is blown off by your 2nd in command (although this generates a story point later, it's still stupid)
- it's like Persona, but without the slice-of-life stories that make the game good; you're always in the dungeon, literally; granted, you can talk to people in the dungeon, but see above for what little good talking does in this game...there's almost no story, and what little there is seems linear on rails
Pros:
- nicely drawn anime
- the song at the train station area is good (it's more jazz than j-pop)
- the concept of two AIs fighting for dominance of an artificial world, and forcing people to stay in it, is interesting (but not interesting enough to slog through this game, IMNSHO)
Summary:
Don't buy this, buy Persona 3 / 4G / 5R and enjoy them. If you're interested in the story, watch a YouTube story video (which I just might do). The grind is very, very real, and it gets old very, very fast. The sheer lack of quality-of-play improvements makes this game a headache to play. Save your controller. If you like grinding and button-mashing, then knock yourself out. Hope it's worth it to you.