Wandering Sword

The story was exceptional and the world felt shockingly alive, with so much attention to detail.

The gameplay is fun, and the ability to customize skills for each character really made it feel like assembling a team of companions.

Being able to choose between turn-based and real-time combat is useful, while the variety of swords, sabers, spears, hidden weapons, internal arts, and movement techniques allows for considerable experimentation.

It's growth and progression systems are entirely different, the way it handles it's story and characters is closer to a SaGa game in feel, the graphics are very Octopath like in design but with it's own flair, the music is pretty damn good, and it's quests and their end states have more layers than an onion varying.

While the roster is huge, the result is a "shallow ocean".

The soundtrack complements the quieter character moments and the larger confrontations particularly well.