Been playing this series since chapter one. So far, I have never been disappointed. The story, the battles, the humor, the characters, the blood and gore, they have always been engrossing, captivating and hilariously intriguing. Damn, I wish I was as good at writing stories and designing games as you. Despite bugs appear now and then, they do not interfere with the gameplay much. Once again, great work!
My rating is four stars but not five due to the how annoying the last battle is. The other battles are sometimes a breeze and sometimes somewhat challenging. Occasionally I would feel frustrated when I failed to figure out a breakthrough. Always striving for no item usage, no skills-learning and no deaths in battles, I time to time found myself in tough spots, which actually made the game interesting nonetheless. However, the last battle was, dare I say, not exactly difficult, but in fact annoying. Not wanting to abuse the "restart turn" button, I found hitting the Obscured Aizu with a <50% hit rate to be extremely frustrating. Duriken spamming his life and SP stealing blasts was a trouble, but not as infuriating as attempting to hit Aizu, as those attacks can be evaded with appropriate strategizing. Unlike battling with Duriken, fighting Aizu was more dependant on luck and "praying that she will not use Obscure so that I could overwhelm her with my Encouraged members". When I finished off Aizu (finally!) I turned to attack Duriken, whose first phase was quite easy to defeat. But when Duriken knelt down because of low HP in the second phase, that smartass, of course, used his turn ignoring all my full health party members EXCEPT Vera, unleashing his strongest attacks on her, inevitably leading to her demise and consequently, my exasperation as I had to start everything all over again. Yet I know that I am whining and my poor gaming skills should maybe take the blame for this situation. I do not ask you to nerf the battle, as the last battle was supposed to be HARD. Still, the fight was more annoying than challenging, in my honest opinion.
Nevertheless, I look forward to the final chapter. Keep up the excellent work!