Wanted: Dead Review (Kommandant Komi-San)
There's a lot to like, but overall this game is a big disappointment.
Everyone has already talked about the bugs, the poor M+K support, the janky combat etc...
All these things are there, sure, but I could've overlooked them if the rest of the game delivered.
Unfortunately, it does not.
The style and aesthetic is there, but there's no substance. The side characters had potential to really make a solid team but none of them get time to flesh out their characters or stories in any meaningful way... you never feel like you know them despite the captain saying you're all basically one big family. The writing is bad, and the voice acting too, even though I found Hannah's VA endearing in a way.
The villains are garbage, cliche, poorly written and you never understand their motivations properly.
The plot is the biggest let down. The story, which only takes about 5-6 hours to complete in its entirety, is convoluted, poorly executed and makes very little sense. There's so much going on, and none of it fits together in a cohesive way. I was confused about what was going on and who and why I was fighting for 90% of the game.
The melee combat is the best thing about the gameplay, and even that gets boring after the halfway mark when you fully unlock the skill tree. There's not enough depth to the combos and the movements don't flow well from one combo to the next.
The difficulty ceiling is insane too. As someone who doesn't normally play these kinds of games, normal difficulty felt like slow torture and I couldn't even get through the first mission without dropping the difficulty to easy (which you can't do at the beginning, the game only presents it as an option if you really suck). Even on easy difficulty, some of the enemies are so tanky and the combat janky enough that you'll just randomly die and then have to redo half the level again.
On the positive though, the finisher animations are amazing.
The minigames are cool.
The anime cutscenes are stylish as hell.
Stefanie Joosten is amazing, although her character is criminally underutilized and she gets barely any screentime.
The game looks pretty good, and you can clearly tell a lot of effort was put into creating the setting and everything in it.
It's a real shame that something with such potential was wasted like this.
TLDR:
Really wish this game was better, but after paying $60 for a 6 hour game that was confusing and frustrating to play, I'm very disappointed. I'd gladly pay $20-30 for something of this quality, but $60 is mad.