really disappointed with it.
Outside of the main two characters, none of the party have any development whatsoever. The main party character designs are lazy, almost every single NPC you can recruit has a better design and some of them even get more screen time. Similar to Octopath there is "party banter", but it occurs in a very small text box on the bottom of the screen that doesn't even give you time to read it. None of the banter is voiced either, which would have been a solution to this problem. In fact, hardly anything in the game is voices. You could probably count the number of voiced scenes on your fingers. One third of the party join and then do absolutely nothing, another joins for absolutely no logical reason after his entire plot arc plays out within one short Skirmish. It's just... off.
Speaking of Skirmishes, they are a decent little mini-game but for some reason there are 50 of them and they never really get any more complex or engaging. The rewards for beating them are virtually non existent. There is really no reason to play them unless you are forced to.
Two of the original continents are also "just there". Autumnia and the Winterlands have minute relevance to the entire game (including optional sidequests) and it just makes the whole world feel a bit empty.
Monster designs are also weak, there are literally 16-20 different monster designs. In an RPG. You see the same thing in hour 1 as you do in hour 100. No variety. The ones they do have are also boring as shit. There's a jellyfish, which I guess is the most interesting one there. Hamster, slime, skeleton, dragon, small dragon, fairy, wolf, bird, pig man, robot, golem, other robot, giant mushroom, yeti, giant eel, mouse soldier. No imagination at all. Huge step down from Ghibli's creature design. The bosses are cool I guess?
The loot system is dreadful, if I'm getting a new sword for every other monster I kill why would I need any of these upgrade materials to upgrade my current sword? It doesn't make any sense. Not that it really matters anyway because the combat system is just mashing a button and hoping you don't get one shotted by an telegraphed attack. There is a dodge and a block button, but everything will either do chip damage or one shot you regardless (I was playing on Hard mode, which isn't actually that hard anyway).
I DO really like the Kingdom building aspect of the game though, it's really the only positive other than the soundtrack and art direction (and Ding Dong Dell) being the only real link between this and Wrath of the White Witch. Unfortunately it all becomes moot in the post game, because there is no actual post game content other than a Mementos / Tartarus style 40 floor dungeon. So you finally get your awesome fully maxed out Kingdom so you can, uh, look at it I guess? I thought it was done better in Atelier Meruru tbh, there it felt like everything was earned. This was more Mother Base style, wait for my free credits to come in while I idle on the throne and my programmed citizens do all the work for me.
Overall it's hard to really recommend, its alright. Maybe it's good. But it's not great, and it does not live up to the first game in any capacity.
Familiars > Higgledies.