It's crazy how you can miss this guy's entire tragedy if you just walk past him. The game made this an optional part of the game, which makes it hurt that much more when his life ends without satisfaction.

can't believe Halara Nightmare joined the team for only 5,500,800 shien! What a steal!

I don't know that it shows on account of how poké-pilled I've been recently but I'm very charmed by this game.

Yuma is a very sweet protagonist and I like that when he's stripped of his own identity, the first thing he does is try to help other people with their problems before getting his own feet on the ground. Halara is sick as hell and I thought their dynamic was really interesting; if this game can give me more insight into their character, I'll take it at the first opportunity, but as it stands it seems like they use the demands for payment and their pride as a detective to bolster their sense of self to fill a lack of meaningful human connections. They remind me of Makoto and Kyoko in some ways, though I find these two as standalone characters a lot more interesting imo, at least for the moment(especially Yuma in comparison to Makoto).

I was kind of worried that Shinigami's eccentric, bubbly, horny personality was going to drag on the atmosphere the game builds a lot more than it actually does, and I'm pleasantly surprised by that. She's got a lot of charisma that makes her fun without imposing on the story, but it's clear there's a lot more to her than it initially seems. I am like 99% sure she's not just killing the culprits regularly, but is in fact straight up eating their souls to gain power, and that that's gonna cause a major ethical dilemma for Yuma once he figures that out. As for how I feel on it, I think it depends on the motivation considering she's a death god and not human, but I like her well enough so fuckin uhhhhhhh support women's wrongs?

The atmosphere is really well put together with the maps and the music(as per usual, Masafumi Takada understands the vibe and is cooking) and the mysteries and slow reveal of the power structure within Kanai Ward seems to be paced out well so far. I enjoyed this chapter's use of religious corruption and the urban legend of the Nail Man as another play on faith in otherworldly beings being used by both the devout and depraved of humanity(sort of like V3 chapter 3, but with much more room to breathe). That's the kind of theming I really fuck with, so it really sunk its teeth into me.