ladies and gentlemen its..

i think the rpg is outstanding story telling wise but in terms of functionality it is Very Not Balanced Good and absolutely not optimised or accessible to those who have motor function disabilities. it is also Incredibly grindy and that can be and is a major turn-off to people who aren't hardcore fans of tome, or aren't tryhards. (i am in the latter group!) for Starters, if you make a video game and people think that their losses to minibosses are SCRIPTED, and only find out they're winnable via the Official Walkthrough, a VERY common occurance that I've found happens with the Cast 'O Dreams in PARTICULAR, that's Not a good thing 😭 all of the miniboss sections feel like they are Sucking thee soul out of me every time I play and have to fight and it's just so... Not exciting. the sheer amount of grinding you have to do, that most people aren't AWARE that you have to do, and the fact that you can't savescum or anything (or can't do it easily...) sucks, because i LOST to the CoDreams and i WANTED to go back and redo the fight and I Couldn't. X-( (not without the fear of corrupting my save. which i didnt want.) and now, with my wrist injury it is literally Impossible to play the game without causing hand pain or triggering ... well, my trigger finger (aka my joints in my thumb will probably lock up or get stuck, and it really does hurt when that happens), and the amount of button-mashing and quick time events you have to do that you MIGHT JUST FAIL because of how frame precise you have to be, will Actually cause pain whether or not you're disabled, honestly.

on top of that, this game and it's controls are NOT optimised correctly to be played with anything else BUT a controller, even IF you go through the setup menu it has, and if u use a keyboard you are either 1) the Biggest masochistic freak known to man or 2) my friend comic. hi comic. that guy got Friction Scarring from having to use twisty top as his ace move, and now he has to wear protective gloves if he wants to play the rpg. that is... definitely Not something you should have to DO lmfao. And again, if you aren't disabled, the amount of grinding you have to do just to be able to WIN the miniboss fights (aka endure them by using health items and hacking until you whittle their health down to 0) is... exhausting. it's why i stopped playing RIGHT as the game gives u a chance to grind in the arena before the tournament, because I... just... don't have the mental or physical bandwidth to barrage through a shitton of players like that with 0 reprieve, and now, with my left hand (the one i use to even button mash with) being outta commission, I doubt I'll actually Be Able To play it for a while. :(

I understand that the game was meant to be a homage to the super mario rpg, and on a conceptual and technical level, I CAN appreciate the thought that went into making it- game development is a Very long and oftentimes frustrating process, and with indie titles, accessibility options aren't easy to patch in. But I DO wish the rpg was a bit better about things like this and you winning wasn't so dependent ON grinding for netti to buy a shitton of stuff to prepare, or that it wasn't So gameplay heavy. And don't get me wrong! The combat CAN be fun. sometimes. but more often than not I find myself frustrated at how long it takes to take down the health of a boss even though I'm doing everything right, or how much HEALTH the bosses can easily take from you, forcing you to use all of your resources. It's pretty unbalanced, and again, referring to my first point: if most people think these miniboss losses are scripted, and the only way to know they aren't is from the official guide, I Do Not think that that is a GOOD thing at all 😭 because it just means to me that the game is only fully playable to the people who made it Because They're the Ones Who Made the Game. (every word capitalized for emphasis)

my pettiest thought about it is that this game shoulda just been a visual novel with Some rpg elements. because from what ive been able to play of the rpg so far, the storytelling and the characters are awesome!! the world is so vibrant and alive and it's such a beautiful evolution of what was there in the webseries and a really good full-circle sorta spiritual successor to what tta was Supposed to be. it's JUST the gameplay that bogs down the experience, and that sucks. :( A visual novel with this storyline wouldn't have been So combat focused, but honestly to me tome was never really about the combat ??? it was about the story and seeing the characters flourish and how they interact with each other. but yk, i'm Me and not el demonio caucasio (thank god) </3

Also because it coulda been labelled as an oTOME and that would've been funny . i dont have anything else to say if you got this far thanks for readinf my rant uhhhh uh have a guy