Flexible, tactical gameplay at its very best. The engage system a little over complicated and takes some time to get going, but it adds a lot of strategic depth and customization to the game. They've streamlined a lot of systems that used to be more cumbersome than they needed to be, so everything flowed well. I especially liked the refinement and weapon systems. You get to spend more time battling, though there are a lot of menus. I loved walking around 3D maps after a battle to really hammer home the sense of scale you lack in a top down view. There's plenty of fun cameos if you've played a ton of these, but newcomers won't miss much. The gacha for extra rings seemed pointless, but doesn't get in the way. The story is also dreadful- tropey and boring. Most of the characters are 1-dimensional and forgettable, but the voice acting is good, per usual. I really waffled between a 3 and a 4 rating, but ultimately the glaring flaws didn't prevent me from being glued to the game for nearly 65 hours. Feels like a big step in the right direction for the series overall.