As an avid fan of SRPGs like Fire Emblem and FFT, I would have to say this game is very, very solid. For its price, you get a very big game with a story that is unfortunately a bit of a slow burn- but when it really kicks off, gets very engaging. The Characters are likable while not being as quirky as FE characters tend to be.

Now, in terms of gameplay, the easiest way to think about it is an evolution of the general combat of Fire Emblem 3 Houses- Your units are Malleable and unlock classes based on weapon rankings which leads to a lot of replay-ability and lets you try weird builds. There is some Character individualism, but it only, unfortunately, comes in the way of singular passive, unlockable passives/actives through 2 specific final tier classes, and lastly their own ability as a "pair up" for lack of a better word, not really comparable to the pair-ups of FE fates or awakening. I kinda wish there was some other ability that let characters from your original party members shine at around chapter 13, but that might be a little much to ask for. I really like all of the different types of magic, and had used all of them throughout my whole campaign, but kinda wished there might have been to some extent, personalized spellbooks like how it was in Fire Emblem Shadows of Valentia, but obviously, there are way too many characters to have that.

Now, I will stop with the multiple comparisons to fire emblem games and talk about the Difficulty. Currently, I am on chapter 20. I'm playing on Hard, Manic, and limited turns. I did this because of all the FE I have played and figured it wouldn't be so bad to get through and boy am I pleasantly surprised. The game isn't super evil, It is quite fun! Now, I would admit that it did take me longer than I would like to admit to understand the zone of control mechanic, but I feel like it is a very welcome fit. The multiple damage reduction effects on bosses initially seem unfair before you understand how to play around them, and then you feel really powerful with how you can bend the game to your will, especially with the 3 x 3 fog that slows your enemies down that the Dark Mages get, it is really fun to use and play around with. Speaking of Dark Mages, I felt like they were a staple on my teams. All of the massive amounts of support they provide along with specialized offense really helped me pull through.

Now, here are my actual gripes about the game: Most of these vary from actual issues to nit picks, but here they are.
-On the steam deck, it runs REALLY well, but when you are at camp and you move through menus, the lag is unbearable.
-On the controller/steam deck, the same button that toggles ranges is an end turn button for a unit when selected- Not a major gripe, I would just like to state it because I used a few too many turn mulligan's to take back a fat-fingered turn end.
-Battle Preparations is kinda clunky. The unit selection list would benefit from being a 5 x 3 box of multiple names so that more names can be on the screen as the list gets pretty long in the late game. Whenever you are looking at the map, you cannot select units on the map and swap places around on the map itself, you have to specifically select whichever units you want to reposition, and hit the position option. I honestly would just never set my positioning myself because of this, it was really aggravating
-I'm really glad that there is a "danger zone", but I really wish you could highlight certain units, say, a boss, to make it to that their movement and attack range is more specified while showing the others. aka, I kinda wish the danger zone was a Lil bit like Awakenings.
-Aggro lines, their inclusion is very, very nice, I just think it would be cool if it showed the damage that unit would do so I wouldn't have to go in the opponent unit menus and look through all of their skills and abilities make sure that placing a unit there isn't a reset.- minor nit-pick
-Maps. The map designs are pretty great, especially with all of the elemental integration, but I wish there was a way to pull back and see the whole map, or quickly move through it with your camera.
-The camera. Because when you rotate the camera, it bugs the inputs you put in for moving on the map, this is the most minor of nitpicks, I just felt like it was important to the state.

I love this game. This is a promising debut for Ocean Drive, and a great 35 bucks spent, buy it. NOW!