not a bad game, the gameplay itself is simplistic in nature but the mix up of the airship streaming system adds a bit of depth to it. The best part of the game is definitely the Visual Novel aspect, the characters are fun and the VA work is great for each of the character. 10/10 Yuri romance, would read again.

The gameplay part though can either be good or really bad depending on what section of the game you're at. The difficulty spikes can be insane especially at the endgame zone, often times situations can get so difficult that it often feels like you only really have 1 viable strategy path instead of having multiple ways out. Personally i think that's a death sentence for any strategy game, forcing the players into one set path simply because you couldn't think of a fairer difficulty level.

There's also smaller negatives like being unable to cancel an troop transfer after a succesful attack and *NEEDING* to actually commit to it, not being able to undo at least one bad turn and being forced to slog through the reload save menu just to undo one damaging move.

Overall, it's an ok strategy game that holds a solid Yuri Visual Novel. If you're only interested in the VN aspect, maybe just look up cutscenes on youtube, if you're willing to slog through the difficulty spikes though then get this on a sale.

I just beat the Capture ending, and honestly, im so ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ scared of the KIll everyone ending since only a third of the people who did Capture have beat that.

Great game though, absolutely reccomend, hyperfixated very hard

The story and characters are good enough to keep the game interesting, but I'm going to focus on the gameplay.

This is a turn-based tactics game, but the real gameplay is at the strategic level. You move characters along a board of interconnected bases. You only heal on fully captured bases that have an unconnected supply line to your HQ. Most bases take multiple turns to capture and you cannot move further into enemy territory while capturing a base. In other words, if there are 2 enemy bases in front of you in a straight line, you can't just skip the first one to attack the one behind it. The individual engagements are turn-based tactical battles that last 3 turns. If one team isn't wiped out, the battle ends and both teams go back to where they started. The enemy follows the exact same rules as the play with the except of the streaming system that allows you to apply certain buffs and debufs to bases (e.g. enemies can't move from a position or you get extra movement.

The core gameplay loop is not actually grinding to increase your level and bulldozing through enemies. In fact, the majority of enemies are not a serious threat and only the bosses and mid-bosses have any serious chance of going against a typical grouping of 3 of your units. Instead, you are going to spend most of your time looking at the map and trying to find ways to cut off the supply line to bosses while maintaining your own. This is actually a major challenge as the enemy spawn infinitely, your units are finite, and you lose if either of your two protagonist units dies.

Unless you do a particular kind of run that drastically increases your power in exchange for fewer units and locking you out of the best ending, you aren't going to take out any of the bosses or midbosses in a single engagement. In fact, the first engagement with any boss usually involves you trying to take out any of their lackies while desperately trying to survive the 3 turns. Then you keep attacking each turn, whittling the boss down until you can capture or kill them. Finding ways to create this situation, in which you can safely attack the boss while avoiding counterattacks, heal yourself without the boss healing itself, and avoid letting the boss get reinforcement, is the core gameplay loop. The tactical gameplay is important for making sure you can deal damage without dying, but strategy is what will actually let you progress in the game as no amount of grinding will let you beat most of these bosses with brute force.

Another interesting thing is that there is a single persistent map. Normally games like this are split into multiple separate levels win which you start from scratch, but in this game every choice you make from the very start carries on. If you ignore an enemy base in one act, it could allow enemies to more easily sever your supply line in the next act. There is one point in the game where spending the extra time to secure a secondary supply line during a previous act will be the difference between being able to maintain your offensive or having to scramble home to avoid being cut off.

Personally, I really enjoyed it. I beat the game on both spectrums of difficulty with both the highest number of available units and the lowest number. The save system is very generous so you can never soft-lock yourself and you can always go back and try a different strategy. Even seemingly overwhelmingly powerful enemies can be beaten with a bit of thinking. If I can manage to beat the entire game with literally one unit that can attack, one that plays support, and never letting either one die, I think it is balanced enough.