G-O-D: Mezame yoto Yobu Koe ga Kikoe

    I am truly glad I sat down to play this game cause it's one of the best I've played on SFC in a while!

    This game starts you off with a fakeout, making you think it's gonna be like EarthBound. The fakeout hooked me immediately!!! Aliens invade and start taking over the world and YOU have to help stop it as a member of the resistance. You travel not only Japan but the entire world along the way. It's incredibly colorful and varied in its areas and exploration and it genuinely feels like a grand journey.

    On your journey you meet all sorts of crazy characters including the ones that join you. All of which have their own depth and quirks! You get to see so many different countries with different aesthetics. Lots of jokes littered everywhere and incredibly fun enemy designs. It's full of references to animanga and other JRPGs. The grand adventure takes you on all sorts of travel methods, a floating hunk of ice, a hot air balloon, a dolphin, and others. All of it makes for a really fun time.

    The plot itself is a really fun sci-fi romp about fighting the aliens. The aliens have funny designs, are cartoonishly evil and funny! The twists and turns everywhere constantly keep you on edge and the places you turn out to teleport to are always surprising! And the way the game guides you from plot point to plot point is incredibly seamless, flows incredibly well. Some of the plot twists are even genuinely terrifying (such as what happens to the protagonist's mom). The only thing is a couple of the plot twists often feel like they're there for the sake of being a plot twist (the twist in Luna City in specific...). The game doesn't heavily follow any thematic idea which makes it lacking for people hoping for an emotionally heavy or intelligent game. But if you're just in it for the adventure, it sure is entertaining. There's even a postgame that leads you to a true ending at postcredits which finishes up everyone's arcs with an epilogue.

    The main characters all have their own backstory and personality. They have a lot of conversations at plot points that make their individual traits shine. My only criticism is how Mina is more of just the typical Girl Character and doesn't have much else going for her. Ai is the other female playable character who is rowdy and I really like her. It's a shame she leaves the party a few dungeons after she joins. The protagonist, despite being silent, has a lot of personality observable from reading the diary entries he writes when you save your game. You can even observe more about their individual personalities based on their battle sprites and how they change when afflicted with different status ailments or when they use specific skills. As for NPCs, Michael is very interesting in concept but I feel his execution was poor. And the way Fahren is treated feels bad.

    The main mechanic of chakra is based on the myth that humans only utilize 30% of their brain. As you find more God Stones, you unlock more powers and an additional 10% of your brain. You can choose what kind of build you want for your characters based on the chakras you focus your stats on. Obviously you can't change the base stats, but their utility can be easily modified based on what chakra you level up.

    You obtain extra skills through NPC dialogue such as letters from your sword coach for the main character. I missed a lot of the ones for the non-protagonist characters due to not using a guide but the game isn't so hard that you need them.

    The enemy difficulty is consistently easy but not easy in the sense that it's a cakewalk, but rather it doesn't disrupt the flow of the game. The difficulty is comparable to Final Fantasy games of the time and it made me really nostalgic for the ones I grew up playing. The bosses are not hard either but they're not so easy it's mind numbing. It's just fun! Additionally a lot of the bosses have some sort of gimmick to them which I find enjoyable. Again, very Final Fantasy-esque in difficulty.

    Dungeons are short and easy to pick up, making this an ideal game to run on a phone emulator on the bus or train. Save points fully heal you and are scattered across so you don't have to worry about using too much MP all the time. None of the puzzles feel hard and you will likely not need to use a guide save for maybe 1 or 2 points.

    The only genuine complaints I have are: