This game had similar exploration to that of Super Neptunia RPG. It didn't have formations despite the characters being arranged in a way that looks like a formation. SNRPG had formations, although in its case it was just one per character(whichever one is leader, that's the formation) which honestly is better than most RPGs. This one still beats out SNRPG in gameplay though because even though the battling is somewhat dull, there are mix ups with 2 different minigames to keep players bouncing back and forth between gaming tasks. Still, it lacks in art significantly compared to that game. The game has a lot of content, so it can occupy your time for a long time, I would honestly recommend this as a children's game for that reason, especially for those old enough to read since this game has a lot of reading. It even has some minor replay value because players can opt to try out new build routes for their characters on a new playthrough. There are way too many side quests for my taste and the way they unlock is also rather annoying, but I think if I wanted to get 100 percent on this game, it would be rather easy. That's another thing that was good about this game: the achievements are built into the game, so you can track that optional objective progress even if you're on Nintendo Switch. I think not enough game developers take advantage of this, so a high five to these guys for doing that. The characters look really weird(even the ones that basically look like humans don't really look like humans if you get what I mean) but it's supposed to be a high fantasy world so I can let that slide. The major issue with visuals I'm having is the characters can look a certain way during battle but not that same way during exploration and cutscenes. Which is a major disappointment in every game that happens. Even FF13 had this happen with the characters' correct weapons not being shown outside of battle, although in that game it's still fixable with mods. Maybe that by itself wouldn't be so bad, but even the new outfits don't look particularly satisfying to me. Well, they only show their weapons during battle, not other equipment. Sure, I can see making sure they work on the actual models being a bother, but it would improve the experience. There's also the matter of a character having something equipped and no visual indicator they are using it. For example, the leader of your group by lore has a shield and when she switches her job she visually loses it, but you can still equip shields for these jobs she may have. You just can't see them. That is just really unsatisfying to me. Granted, you get to see a new outfit and you even get to see whatever weapon you equip, which is better than nothing, but I'd like to see more, so that combined with the lack of outfits being seen out of battle is enough of flaws around character design that I have to subtract points from art. The game is entirely turn based, and agility seems to make a difference, honestly, the battle system balance is one of the bright spots in the game. But I've played so many games with such similar battle mechanics so many times that it wasn't particularly exciting for me. That's another reason this might be a good recommendation for children to play so they could use this as a baseline to judge other games when they play those. Another game that could be a good baseline would be the original Final Fantasy 7, and I honestly think that game was better than this one in a lot of ways, but this one still has a pretty decent price and for a rookie game dev team they did a pretty good job. It's unfortunate that clearly a lot of the game was rushed, probably due to financial pressures I would assume, but it was still a good try IMO. Not every rookie game dev team's first game can be as good as Expedition 33(not that I rated that game very high, but the point was it still scored higher than this one and is still considerably better than most games of its genre). The story was easy enough to follow along with, but it just wasn't interesting. A good amount of dialogue and a decent amount of voice acting, to be sure. The story could have been longer or just more advanced somehow. Especially at the end they left a lot of stuff unshown and unsaid. I can guess what would happen next easily enough, but I'm 4 decades old and not everyone has that advantage. Whatever the case, I can understand that if they were struggling with the development why they might cut the end short like that, but yeah, unfortunately the ending fails to elevate the story writing. One of the things I really liked about the story was that your leader by lore's role was a 'sentinel' guardian which is an unusual role choice for the lead character of a story and IMHO it's a wholesome choice that could be taken more often. That's also part of why I was disappointed by her outfits in battle being the way they are. Even if you want to decide she blocks entirely with her weapon as some sort of parry, fine, but at least let her get those defenses from her weapon and don't let her equip shields if you can't see those visually, you know? Just felt so rushed, but hey it happens a lot, even with AAA game developers, so you can't get too upset with them over stuff like that.