[Suzerain of Sheol]

Well, for one thing, it isn't quite what I expected. It doesn't actually feel like an IF game that much. But I'll get to that later.

The first thing to note is... excuse plot. Seriously. At least Cross Edge had a story you could somewhat get into. This... doesn't really have a story at all. There are two different storylines, so I can't speak for the other, but the one I'm playing now has your main character (the lord of the Netheruniverse) and his fox-girl companion wandering around random dungeons and insulting each other at every opportunity.

Granted, I'm not terribly far into the game, Etna and Prinny just joined my party, but I don't see the story improving.

The gameplay is... a bit complicated to explain.

Basically, there are "objects" drifting in and out of the Netheruniverse, and you don't want them to crash into the main character's city, so you have to destabilize their gravity cores and send them drifting off into space.

You do this by going into them via random dungeons and fighting your way through to the boss. Which is actually pretty well-designed, on the whole. This is the meat of the gameplay.

First thing to note, there are items everywhere in these dungeons, just littering the rooms and hallways, and there's always more spawning while you explore. Not to mention, once you succeed in destabilizing the gravity core, you have 100 seconds to escape the dungeon, during which rare items start spawning.

Secondly, the dungeons are short, no more than a half-hour each so far, which is great for breaking up playtime into little chunks.

Third, you level up fast. My characters gain a level once every two to three random battles. I'm assuming the level cap is at least 999 because of this, since I'm level 30 already and only just finished the second chapter.

Battles are sort of like Cross Edge, though in full 3d, and you can't customize your attacks. Square is your Rush attack for multiple hits, X does a Power attack, Triangle does a Magic attack that hits all enemies, and Circle uses the special skills you equip. There are all sorts of combos and you can link chains between party members, getting special bonuses if you switch members at the right time.

It uses the AP system, and you can skip your turn to build AP for big combos, just like in Cross Edge. There's no Overkill (that I've seen so far) which I honestly prefer, just because Overkill can be stressful when you're fighting postgame bosses and need their drops.

Outside the dungeons, you have your standard shop and synthesis routine, but the synthesis seems unique to this game and I don't recognize any of the items, unlike in all of Idea Factory's other games which seem to use the same item list, more or less. It still works pretty much the same, though, and most of the stuff you pick up in dungeons are synthesis ingredients.

In addition to that, you can make Managraphics for your weapons, which add AP and give the weapon elemental properties, as well as a unique special skill.

There's also a monster fusion system that I haven't really got into yet, but at a glance, it looks like you can breed rare monsters to challenge for high-grade items.

Anyway, looking at the game on a whole, it's different than what I expected, but I'm convinced it's actually a good game, if you like this sort of thing. It's a dungeon crawler, not a story-based RPG. The crossover element is way downplayed in comparison to Cross Edge.

The basic flow of gameplay is as follows:

[Begin Chapter] > [View Event] > [Random Dungeon] > [Upgrade in town] (repeat these two as much as desired) > [Event Dungeon] > [Chapter boss fight] > [End chapter]

It's simple, but it's fun and fast-paced, and you always feel like you're getting stronger. If you like quirky anime humor, than there's really nothing bringing this game down. That's the only thing I don't like about it.

Oh, that reminds me, one other thing: the menu music. It's a J-pop song that restarts every time you open the menu. It can get kind of annoying. Again, though, if you don't mind J-pop, this probably won't be an issue. I find it easy to ignore, though.

Overall, while I'm not as blown away as I was by Cross Edge, and while i wish there were more crossover characters besides Disgaea and Aterlier people, it's still a solid game that's different from this company's other offerings.

Recommended, if you can find it for a decent price.