I would say one of the biggest barriers to marketing this game is that your enjoyment of the combat mode is almost directly linked to your own personal investment in the narrative and the characters. You could show any one of these battles to someone that hasn't played it and they'd probably think its dull, but when you jump on for the big boss battle stage, get a big twist dropped on you, and when the battle starts you are hit with some japanese 80s idol music the whole experience is elevated to something beyond what's currently on your screen. Your brain fills in the gaps.
Your comment perfectly encapsulates my experience with this incredible game, and I wish others would see it. Just the other day I tried explaining and showing the "seaside vacation" battle to a close friend who has no interest, and he didn't get it. And it makes sense because to truly enjoy this game you have to commit to the experience. Hell, I didn't really care for the combat mode, until midway to Area 2 when I switched the difficulty to "Intense", which made battles much more brutal and desperate. In addition, the twists and turns of the story, and character development you encounter truly elevate the stakes of the world and really invest you with the experience. I really grew to appreciate the minimalist aspect of combat mode, because as you mentioned, your brain fills in the gaps, and you are reminded of everything your characters go through as you fight for survival, and the incredible sound design only makes it much more enriching to behold.
Well lucky for us, the switch version runs perfectly. While I had 2 hiccups when there were just TOO many things happening at once (like the Final Battle). It's rare and that's particularly if you spam Missile Rain or moves like Anti-Ground Salvo. Also personally for me the Switch doesn't blow up like a jet engine.
I almost lost in this final battle because I forgot to cover one side of the map and the terminal was about to be attacked by a barrage of missiles. Thankfully the battle ended right before it even hit.
I played most of the game with basically first try S ranks on normal, felt the game was pretty manageable. I rarely got city under 90%, the terminal was almost always intact. I decide to try the mission with my best characters (mainly Yuki, Megumi, Ogata, Juro, Tomi, Ei) expecting some kind of giant boss to shred health from with destruction blades. Boy I was wrong, I should have invested more into those darn flares and bring Ryoko along xD The zerg rush felt very real, as if I was just taking out one of one hundred problems that were constantly respawning. Sure, Yuki chan was instakilling anything with quad legs, but missles were homing in on a side Megumi was not defending, maybe Tomi's double railgun was still on cooldown, Juro had pushed in too far to use the plasma cutter, and the 1st generation was too busy zooming around with tackle doing what they could. It felt like a battle no one could win, ever. You could just hold out for the upload, delaying the inevitable missles approaching.
Ehh combat...its live tactical RTS if that's what you call combat. But yeah, the game is divided between character story and this is the combat ''gameplay''. This finale only unlocks when you 100% all story characters.
The final battle literally looks no different from any other battle in this game.... I really wish they made the battles visual instead of taking place on a city play mat with shapes shooting eachother....
You're out of your mind, The only character who comes off flat is the pop idol, and she's literally an AI. Give credit where it's due, the dialogue is really good dubbed in this game.
@@dbo3akrowdy not only that, the voice actors had only like a month to record the lines and they had to record them at their own homes because of covid
