Honestly, though I do agree with the 2/10 rating, I'm still enjoying this game. I love these kinds of games, namely low budget, experimental Japanese games. Something about the low production values help me overlook the gameplay issues and the twenty dollar price tag makes it easier to recommend. The combat is functional (not that exciting, but not bad in any way), the dialog is awesome ("I'm as shocked as a weasel in an electric chair."), the menu system is easy to navigate, and the qte scenes aren't that bad.
The only really terrible thing is the navigation, which is pretty broken. You can bring up a map by hitting back, but it has several problems. Not only can you not see the whole world at once on the map, the part you can see is pretty small. The map rotates based on whichever way you are facing, which is confusing as hell. You are an arrow on the map, always pointing up, so when you change direction, the map rotates. There is no way to manually rotate the map. Another problem is that even though you can cycle through various hotpoints on the map with the two triggers, there is no way to connect the hotpoint with where you are. You have to look at where the point is, see what street it is on, see what major street it is near, then go back to your location on the map and try to figure out how to get to the same street from where you are. It's like trying to use a map in real life, except for the fact that the map is constantly changing direction each time you check it.
Another problem is that the game is kind of hard to get into. For the first couple of hours, you are constantly being herded along from one point to another, unable to take the time to explore the open world. Alot of the places don't even open until after the town meeting scene, which is about four hours into the game. The first four hours aren't really that bad, but it runs contrary to the rest of the spirit of the game.
However, as I have said, I'm actually enjoying this game. It is horribly outdated, but I can enjoy games from back then and I feel this game has been rewarding enough for the eight or so hours I've put into it to see it to the end. For what it is worth, the game has really short load times and a smooth frame rate, so that doesn't get in the way. I'll probably write a full size review when I beat the game, which I hope is soon, as I want to play Heavy Rain tomorrow as well
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