As it is, the game is horridly unbalanced (aka way too easy thanks to the broken battle engine), but it's okay, I think. I did enjoy it most of the time because it felt a lot like playing a mid-90s era RPG and Toppi and Morte are amusing characters. It's also not exactly long, I think it took me ~20h gametime including getting the best equipment (which you don't need anyway). It's also nowhere near as boring as, say, Nostalgio no kaze, so less than 1,000 yen wouldn't be exactly wasted. But it's not one of the games you'll get an urge to replay years later, or whose story will make a big impression on you.

The US-version seems to address the broken battle difficulty though, which could surely be pretty significant for some people. But I have no idea what else they changed, except the title of course XD

I don't know how much changes they've made to the US version, would you still recommend getting the Jpn game? Every time I wanted to buy it, then I looked at it being sold for 749 yen on Amazon Jpn (Sigma Harmonic 1000 yen and that's generous), that's very discouraging, like saying the game is absolute garbage, a waste of time and money…

As it is, the game is horridly unbalanced (aka way too easy thanks to the broken battle engine), but it's okay, I think. I did enjoy it most of the time because it felt a lot like playing a mid-90s era RPG and Toppi and Morte are amusing characters. It's also not exactly long, I think it took me ~20h gametime including getting the best equipment (which you don't need anyway). It's also nowhere near as boring as, say, Nostalgio no kaze, so less than 1,000 yen wouldn't be exactly wasted. But it's not one of the games you'll get an urge to replay years later, or whose story will make a big impression on you.

The US-version seems to address the broken battle difficulty though, which could surely be pretty significant for some people. But I have no idea what else they changed, except the title of course XD

I don't know how much changes they've made to the US version, would you still recommend getting the Jpn game? Every time I wanted to buy it, then I looked at it being sold for 749 yen on Amazon Jpn (Sigma Harmonic 1000 yen and that's generous), that's very discouraging, like saying the game is absolute garbage, a waste of time and money…

Well, like they sort of mention, it's much much easier to make a profitable franchise out of something that's kid- (or, rather, parent-)friendly.

Despite me liking Jpn dub most of the time, I can't stand Miyano Mamoru's voice as Kyrie (does he sound as whiny as in the anime?), and they should never use actors who are amateurs to do voice acting (Mizushima Hiro), since its sounds like they are just reading from the script. I only like Sakamoto Maya and Furuya Tooru as Toppi. I don't know how similar the anime is to the game, but after watching 4 episodes of the show, it dampens my interest in the game to zero, and the feeling still lingers..

BTW, thanks for your suggestion w/ Sakura Note, I just started the 2nd chapter, I like the down to earth story so far and the animal dialogue is hilarious, and Uematsu's light hearted soundtrack reminds me of FF IX, but I'm not going to listen to the bonus soundtrack yet until I finish the game.

In the anime, the only ones who can fight is Morte and Toppi and they only use physical attacks, which is quite contradictory since the plot is Morte wanting to destroy the world. Can you destroy the world using only physical attacks? That's why the anime feels rushed and they don't give special effects like spells or something that would be much much suitable with the world destruction theme.