I just got to Mesa Island with the fifth character joined (awesome plot twist).. loving the game so far. Only a few critiques that are easily ignored. Some of my thoughts:
-The pacing starts off quite a slog, as others have mentioned. I stuck with it because of how much praise it's gotten. It does pick up eventually.
-Besides the obvious Chrono Trigger style, I get major Wild Arms vibes, which keeps prompting me to use the dash/run button while traveling (maybe later?)
-The humor ranges from cheesy and unecessary (4th wall jokes, references to other games) to things that actually made me laugh (First Stage of Grief Tavern, the obvious Captain Kleeshae reveal, all the musical puns among the pirates). Garl having a pressure cooker attack blew my mind. The kind of politically incorrect humor we need more of.
-It manages to check all the boxes for globetrotting locations in a RPG. Tropical, mountainous, desert, etc.. elemental, haunted, past/present/future styles. So much variety.
-Music is adequate, nothing that has gotten stuck in my head yet. Overall seems well done. I just think it lacks something.
-What I really got surprised by is the depth of the story. It started out seemingly generic but the longer you play, the deeper it gets, and I have no idea what to expect at this point. Probably outer space ala Wild Arms. The whole universal cat and mouse game between Archivist and Fleshmancer is so unexpected in a seemingly innocent game like this. I recommend reading the lore from Teaks during the campfires.
-Combat can be unforgiving sometimes, it's no wonder they gave the options for buffing your stats etc. They did an excellent job balancing all the systems involved in battle, combo building, "drawing" MP points from enemies (ff8ish?), enemy vulnerabilities and the lock breaking... and the food crafting system is good as well. I hate modern crafting systems.
-They kept the amount of loot to a severe minimum, and I love that. Not having to worry about comparing equipment all the time saves the hassle.
-The platforming keeps it interesting with jumping, swimming, grappling, etc. Almost like a 2d Tomb Raider.
-General dungeon crawling and puzzles are simple and to the point, doesn't waste too much of your time. Tedious dungeons can be a game killer for me. Although I dont mind a particularly mind-bending puzzle when it's unique.
-And as we all know, graphics are stunning. Getting to control night & day is magnificent, despite being pixel art.
I'll do a followup post when I finish the game. So far it's an instant classic. Going to recommend this to my friends who like old school RPGs.
"Mountains're nice."