Second time's the charm! I had played some of this game when it came out, but I became frustrated and gave up. I couldn't let go of the idea, though, so I had it sit on my backlog until the time felt right. And it did, and it was! There is so much to do in this game, even if you're interested in only the JRPG stuff. It's got only a few puzzles scattered around, but you can make the combat as simple or as complex as you like, and there is a lot of optional stuff. So much that you're liable to find some of it accidentally!

Oh, and it's beautiful! The art is gorgeous, cleanly shifting between pacific and horrifying, or even downgrading the graphics to 8-bit for a story beat. The music that accompanies all of it is fitting. I don't think I had any songs or sound effects that stuck with me, but I felt compelled to keep my headphones on because it adds so much to the ambiance.

For better or worse, all of the above sits on a more complex story. Jimmy is an 8-year-old boy and this is explicitly a dream that he's having. However, the dream becomes corrupted over time. Maybe someone could dismiss the early signs as either being off-tone or superficial random weirdness showing up in a kid's dreams. But sooner or later, it becomes clear that Jimmy is struggling with something that nobody should have to go through, and a lot of the game is about him trying to make sense of it all. I'd love to say more, but I'll stop there out of concern that I'm teetering on the edge of what I can share without outright spoiling it.

The game's final moments didn't do as much for me as I'd hoped. I expected some difficult emotional beats. We do get one of those if you do a certain action that becomes available in the end-game, and I've heard it's likewise if you fully explore one special dungeon, but all of this is after the credit roll and has to be initiated after the emotional beat of the climax has waned. I would've been happier if we got just a little more. To hear the final thoughts Jimmy has on the whole situation.

In any case, fantastic game and worth picking it up. I spent almost 27 hours on it and that's with leaving the post-game content untouched. You'll get your money's worth.