Chrono Gear: Warden of Time

With regards to the story and its characters, the game does a stellar job of getting you to care and feel sympathy for all the main parties involved, even for the antagonist who you would assume would be one-dimensional, but later on, you find out that even she has a method to her madness.

It's smooth, sweet, and most importantly it informs the actual gameplay pretty well.

Each character has unique sound effects (akin to those in Undertale) for when they speak in-game and fit their respective speakers.

In terms of graphics, it's quite good. there is a shader included if you want a retro shader. in terms of difficulty, I found it pretty challenging near the end, and I am someone who cleared Mega Man 11 in 1 hour, for it's achievement.

Every time it makes me think of Rabi-Ribi, I'm reminded "I'd rather play Rabi-Ribi right now, the combat dynamics are much more thorough and engaging, most characters have animal-features despite being anime, and everyone's lack of pants is an acceptable level of fanservice."