MONARK

This is a tough one to recommend and I'd much rather give it a mixed review if I could.
Thematically this game is a banger, I love the art style a lot and the boss OSTs are phenomenal, worth listening to by themselves honestly
Combat is pretty fun, tactics-esque
Characters are cool each with their own personality and well written backstories
The story itself is pretty good and is done in a non-linear fashion, after the first building you're given options to go wherever you want. The second half of the game is a similar thing although it's kind of a time-loop so it can end up feeling really same-y and I was definitely over it by the time it came to an end
There's also fun personality tests/quizzes from both NPCs in the buildings and from one of the characters, was a nice addition
Overall, the combat, the characters, the art, the music is great!
But the game has a lot of negatives for me personally
Firstly, I had crazy stuttering issues throughout, doing a workaround posted in the discussions helped but didn't fix it completely which obviously detracts from the experience
The puzzles are kinda wack, some are okay but some are straight up evil with how you're expected to figure them out (luckily google exists)
Enemy variety is really bad
The overworld is bland and all of the NPCs are pretty much copies of each other
The actual gameplay loop is pretty repetitive/stale - Go to building, clear 3 floors (Each floor is basically puzzle->fight), fight boss on third floor, repeat until end of game, of course most games' loops are pretty meh when broken down like this so maybe it was exacerbated by the boring world
Also this game is grindy - there's an easier difficulty but this does nothing to lessen the grind, it doesn't give you more exp or anything like that, My advice would be to either use a cheesy build to farm exp or just straight up cheat, pick your poison
Overall it's mediocre but it's highs outweighed the lows for me, it definitely has it's fair share of problems but I think if any of the game seems to call to you grab it on sale, it's a niche title but it's not horrid

Only a few hours on the Steam version as of the time of writing this but I have over 100 hours in the game on other versions and have beaten it multiple times. This game is amazing. My favorite game. The gameplay is incredibly fun, the story is engaging and interesting all the way through, the characters are amazing and very relatable, and the music is incredible. I can go on and on about how much I love this game. It is truly incredible.

I really like this game and I’ve played it on other systems it’s a mid but fun jrpg with an absolutely great soundtrack. I just wish it worked on the steam deck. I thought the December update might include that but meh. 6/10 game.

Don't lose to the unfairness and absurdity of this world.
The keyword of this game is "理不尽". Irrational, absurd, unfair. It's a major theme, a lot of the characters say it frequently. The game itself has this really compelling theme of fighting against the unfairness and absurdity of the world. The cast has a lot of depth and a lot of things, be they character traits or what you might think is going on, aren't what they appear to be at all.
The combat system is quite brilliant as well. It has a large learning curve to the point where even as I finished the game I feel like I'm learning new things about how it works, but it really encourages strategic thinking. A lot of other reviews say you need to grind up levels a lot but I beat the last boss quite handily while being 30 levels below by abusing Resonance.

Is this one of the best games I've played? No. But low key, I really enjoyed this. There are issues, no doubt, but there's a lot to like, for example. at how it skews many of the expectations of the genre - even if the vast majority of the twists are signposted very clearly (which, don't get me wrong, is FAR preferable to the opposite).
Combat is a tactical affair, which is quite easy to pick up if you've ever played a tactical jrpg. Your party can assist each other in battle if close enough, you can launch uncounterable back attacks, you have magic abilities for offence, support, and health. You probably know the drill. Then comes the slight skewing of the genre - magic costs sanity (going insane turns you berserk and then die after three turns - which loses you the fight if it's the MC) and physical attacks (other than basic ones) cost HP - think the same kind of stuff as Persona, for example. However... you can also use said madness to achieve Enlightenment for a few terms, vastly increasing your stats, giving you a risk versus reward set-up.
The combat itself could have benefited massively from more variety in the maps and enemies (but honestly, I've found that in a lot of tactical jrpgs that get praised to high heaven (like FFT, or Disgaea for example) and it feels more of a criticism of the genre itself, and the limitations of it.) Once you work out what you are doing (and the sheer power of the MCs special abilities) there is no need to grind unless you want to 100% it like I did. I was going into the final fight of the post game with almost all of the party 30 levels below, it's that powerful when utilised properly.
The story is... Well, let's just say it has its fair share of things that make me wince, wondering why the devs would think it was a good idea. Silent protagonist - big wince. (Seriously, I can't think of a good reason to include it other than (maybe) not having to pay much for the little voice acting you then include.) Amnesia (and other plot points) which people barely seem to comment about, and questions that should be asked rarely being done - big wince, albeit slightly redeemed later on. Being willing to die for your friends... but not give them all of the very important info you have on the situation at hand because... reasons I guess. Wince. A student body and faculty staff being remarkable unbothered by lots of people dying, people going mad, and a whole host of things that in a normal world would have seen them all panicking and running around willy-nilly before being claimed themselves - Seriously, I don't even want to go to a Japanese college/high school (depending on what they are called where you live...). Those places are unhinged! I spent most of the start of my time playing the game wanting to scream at the characters why they aren't freaking out more.
But I still loved it. It's dark, and off piste, and isn't afraid to touch some dark stuff, or unconventional wisdom into the mix. I liked the central thrust of the conceit which essentially takes the emotions labelled as the deadly sins, and play around with how these emotions can actually lead to drives for good things as well as bad if you get consumed by them. The romantic interest - such as it is, isn't the one you would have expected it to be. The music is in general really rather good and scene setting. There are some ACTUAL puzzles in it. Not fetch quests, but things you actually have to work out yourself, which is groundbreaking in today's world. (The final one is either really tough, or really simple, and if you find it tough I wouldn't blame you for looking up the answer. There is one other one I found a little difficult, as well, but most of them had enough info given to you that you could work it out okay.) Honestly, I had an absolute blast, and if there was a sequel for it, or something similar made off the back of it, I'd be interested.
That said, I don't have all that much money, and don't think I could have justified my purchase at full price. Getting in a sale softens your expectations and lets you put up with some things you wouldn't usually.
I'd say, give it a shot - it might not be for you, but equally, it might be your very own guilty pleasure.

This is a very messy game. Gameplay has 10 different mechanics and characters have 20+ options, but very few of them actually matter (namely deferals, PSY buffs, and Resonance). The story starts in media res, but takes a painfully long time to explain how and why things got there. Outside of the brief exposition from pactbearer ideals, we never get a glimpse of what the characters were like before the anomalies started, which can make their characterization murky. Date's motivations come off as weak compared to the other protagonists, while Nozomi straight up disappears for most of Act 2. Finally, Yoru and the Monark of Woe do not have satisfying conclusions to their stories in Act 3.

However, I still genuinely enjoyed my time with the game. The boss battle music is absolutely incredible, and the character portraits are excellent. The voice acting is generally solid. The gameplay, while repetitive, is satisfying. The characters are generally interesting, with the character chatter in the TSC room doing wonders to make the characters likable. Most importantly, it manages to nail the major emotional beats in its story in a satisfying manner.
Overall, I would recommend getting the game on sale. I would also firmly recommend getting your hands on the album of Monark boss themes.
PS: The achievement to fully level up every character to 99 is completely psychotic compared to every other achievement in the game. It exists to add 10+ hours of rather mindless grinding to the playtime of anyone hoping to get 100% completion in the game. It really should be changed to something else.

I enjoyed this thoroughly, but I don't think you should spend the full amount. Get it on sale. The game is tactics turn based (think Fire Emblem or FF Tactics). The story is interesting in that it isn't afraid to get dark. Other than that it's pretty cliche anime stuff. One thing, the overworld puzzles are HARD. I enjoyed this because I was tired of games having "puzzles" that were easy enough a 5 year old could solve. These require you to read and think. Happy to say I completed everything without a guide.