izigame.me

For those of you wondering "What is this game and why should I play it?", i'll do my best to explain.
For starters, this is a Japanese Mystery/Fantasy/Tactical RPG Visual Novel. The gameplay is split into a number of -very- different styles that enhance one another, set to a calendar system of limited passing days with choices to make regarding what activities you perform on those days.

First and foremost is the slice of life visual novel stuff to progress the narrative, plot, and character arcs. There will be lots of reading. You can unlock characteristic upgrades like in the Persona series in these daily life / time management sections, which then transfer to unlocking mechanical upgrades for your characters in combat as well as unlocking unique actions for use in later gameplay elements. I think the story is interesting so far, though it did take an hour or so to really grab my interest; but that's to be expected when both of the developers headed multiple successful, slow-burn mystery game series. I have faith in their talents and have become thoroughly invested in seeing this game to the end with the time I have put into it.

The second most prominent gameplay type is the tactical turn-based RPG segments where you control units to fulfill an objective (usually 'kill the enemy boss'). This combat is not particularly difficult and was designed so that you can approach almost any fight with practically any interesting strategy you'd like to try- and having the freedom to use the characters and tactics I liked most rather than the 'best ones' was frankly liberating. Every character has cool and unique stuff they can do, and they're all worth investing in and using- at least that I've seen so far. It's satisfying to have your units go on killing sprees and pull off coordinated maneuvers to explosive effect, and i'm a huge fan of this system's implementation. The game is yours. Play it however you want.

Next up is the boardgame. This is where you use randomized movement cards to traverse a game field and interact with special tiles that can spawn fights, award treasures, give you resources, or unlock key items that help with other elements of the game. You are given the choice of using one of two numbered movement cards in your hand; you choose your directions to move in along the board pathways, and whatever card you don't use is saved, while a new one is drawn. The map tiles are color-coded by difficulty, and with higher risk comes higher rewards. The amount of resources you can take back are limited by inventory slots so that you can't just infinitely farm stuff in one day, and there are checkpoint tiles that save your progress on that expedition so that if you fail, you rewind back to the checkpoint. It's an interesting and enjoyable system, and I had no issues with it.

There are also persuasion segments where you try to convince a character by listening to their dialogue and interjecting with the correct response that eases them to your side. These seem to be rare and brief compared to the other gameplay elements. Maybe i'm just bad at them, but I never really liked them much in the Danganronpa series, and it's kinda just more of the same. It's more 'meh' than 'bad', in my eyes.

And that's as much as I've seen so far. As the days go on, you unlock new systems and mechanics to add depth to the gameplay. Supposedly there are a hundred endings and over a hundred hours of content to go through. If you think this all sounds insane and disparate, you'd be right. The game and its creators are insane. But at least for me, the insanity works. It's a charming chaos once you embrace it, and i'm having lots of fun with it. The developers took a huge financial gamble by investing in and developing a game from their heart rather than focusing on what would be profitable, and I respect the hell out of them for it. The game definitely isn't for everybody, but if what I said sounds interesting, or you enjoy the developers' other works, I can only recommend you have a try for yourself. The experience is certain to be unique.