I just finished The World Next Door, and god am I disappointed.
The combat is fun, being a match-three kinda thing where you run around dodging enemy attacks and trying to arrange things just right to make the largest combo without certain enemy types fucking you over - but this system makes boss encounters trivial, all of the standard encounters are far, far harder due to how many enemies you have to keep track of.
The story and characters are fun, but everything feels rushed and unfinished. Two characters are stated to be missing throughout the whole game - they have a little memorial in the hub area - and they just come back in the credits, despite Liza stating that there was something nefarious going on. You can solve puzzles in the ruins but as far as I'm aware there's no point to this, the items don't serve a use. You can go back to two of the ruins and see what's behind the doors but as of writing this, I haven't found a way to go back to the third. One of the characters starts to get sick and it's tied to the shrines but he just. Gets better. Jun stats numerous times that she feels a deep connection to Emrys like how one of the characters feels a deep connection to the shrines and this is never elaborated, like how her natural knack for magic is never touched on and is just used as an excuse for the player being able to use magic. Two later party members are angry as shit at Liza because they suspect her involvement in the previously mentioned disappearance but WHY DO THEY CARE? WHY DO THEY SUSPECT HER? Magic is mentioned as being toxic to humans but no one gives a shit that Jun is just flinging around fireballs willy-nilly, and it seems it's toxic to Emryans too. Is Earth also toxic to Emryans? Emrys doesn't have a sun yet has a day-night cycle. If a human were to have a solar lamp and a UV light would that help in alleviating some of the effects? THIS GAME IS FRUSTRATING TO ME ON A LEVEL NEVER SEEN BEFORE.
Positives: the art is nice, and if you can get it on sale it's nearly worth it.
