Mechanically, the game is a solid step up from its Persona predecessors.

Stylistically, I really don't like the character designs. With the exception of the one pseudo-furry race of the eugeif, which I found to be at least an interesting take on the concept, the characters are mostly boring in design, and half the outfits feel like they came out of the 1970's rather than some quasi-medieval or Renaissance era.

The character writing is mostly OK. Nothing profound, but nothing excessively grating for the most part. There's a fair bit of anime-style camp and melodrama, but that's part of this style of game IMO, so I can't consider that a mark against it.

The plot writing is the weakest part of the game. While fundamentally a coherent narrative, it's excessively bland. It feints at major plot twists, but never commits to them, what twists do actually occur don't really change anything, and therefore beg the question of why even bother with the "twist." The people's support for the main antagonist is not explored well at all, and you'll spend the game simply baffled at how anyone sees him as anything but an active threat to their safety.

Similarly, while inter-tribal discrimination is extremely prevalent throughout the story and setting, it's also not explored in any meaningful depth. The story has a running theme of "racism bad," which is fine on its own, but the specifics of the prejudices at play, the history of conflict between the tribes that created the prejudices, and an actual effort to have characters confront their own biases just aren't there. Through the story, you gain support from members of every tribe, but you never learn anything about the tribes or their history other than their superficial features, like horns, pointy ears, or vestigial wings. Generously, this is meant to drive a point that the differences are *only* superficial, but that point falls flat because there are allusions to a long history of conflicts between the tribes that that are presumably only suppressed from reigniting by the overwhelming power of the Royal Magic, which implies that you need a tyrannically powerful government in order to prevent strife, which I don't think is the message that was intended, nor an especially healthy one.

If it's on sale for $20 and you just enjoy persona-style games, it might be worth grabbing, but honestly, it's a weak entry by Atlus.

Mechanically, the game is a solid step up from its Persona predecessors. Stylistically, I really don't like the character designs. With the exception of the one pseudo-furry race of the eugeif, which I found to be at least an interesting take on the concept, the characters are mostly boring in design, and half the outfits feel like they came out of the 1970's rather than some quasi-medieval or Renaissance era. The character writing is mostly OK. Nothing profound, but nothing excessively grating for the most part. There's a fair bit of anime-style camp and melodrama, but that's part of this style of game IMO, so I can't consider that a mark against it. The plot writing is the weakest part of the game. While fundamentally a coherent narrative, it's excessively bland. It feints at major plot twists, but never commits to them, what twists do actually occur don't really change anything, and therefore beg the question of why even bother with the "twist." The people's support for the main antagonist is not explored well at all, and you'll spend the game simply baffled at how anyone sees him as anything but an active threat to their safety. Similarly, while inter-tribal discrimination is extremely prevalent throughout the story and setting, it's also not explored in any meaningful depth. The story has a running theme of "racism bad," which is fine on its own, but the specifics of the prejudices at play, the history of conflict between the tribes that created the prejudices, and an actual effort to have characters confront their own biases just aren't there. Through the story, you gain support from members of every tribe, but you never learn anything about the tribes or their history other than their superficial features, like horns, pointy ears, or vestigial wings. Generously, this is meant to drive a point that the differences are *only* superficial, but that point falls flat because there are allusions to a long history of conflicts between the tribes that that are presumably only suppressed from reigniting by the overwhelming power of the Royal Magic, which implies that you need a tyrannically powerful government in order to prevent strife, which I don't think is the message that was intended, nor an especially healthy one. If it's on sale for $20 and you just enjoy persona-style games, it might be worth grabbing, but honestly, it's a weak entry by Atlus.