http://www.atlus.com/izuna/
Has anyone else gotten or played this game yet? Zeta, I know you were planning on it. What's the news?
I'm about midway through it. I've been playing it for about an hour, sometimes two, a day. It doesn't hold my attention very long and it has become more of a chore to defeat it and move on to the next game instead of an enjoyment. At first it looked promising, but the extreme difficulty and repetition just gets dreary and takes away motivation. It doesn't move smoothly, but instead it drags on slowly and uninterestingly.
The characters and dungeon enemies are the best part, but even they're insipid. Izuna herself is too ordinary for her kind. A typical pinked-haired, looked-down-upon, cute girl with gumption and an attitude that makes encounters with bosses the most interesting part of the game. My biggest motivator is getting to the next boss to enjoy the small, not-so-clever dialogue that transpires.
The game's way too hard and with infinite lives and the need to constantly level up in order to defeat a dungeon you just find yourself simply reentering a dungeon to gain as much experience as you possibly can before you die (you keep what you gain). Then you start this process over again until you can finally make it deep enough into the dungeon to reach the boss and defeat him/her. Shopping and actually collecting items isn't even worth it.
Anyway, just thought I'd share some criticism for those who are interested. Maybe someone else has played it and would like to disagree or add some thoughts.
I defeated it. Way too hard. I had to level up about 25 times just to defeat a dungeon. I started to use the items more and they help but it is too much wasted time on them when you know you're going to die about 50 and lose all your items anyway. Just keep leveling up until nothing can stand in your way.