Beloved Rapture bills itself as inspired by classic JRPGs (by which I assume they mean early Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, and Chronotrigger) but I think its very much its own thing. In a good way, for the most part. It's not even what I would really consider a JRPG, since I usually think of those as mixing magic & fantasy with advanced technology. This game is very much rooted in medieval fantasy and magic. Nevertheless, it's pixel graphics, sprites, and sort-of-turn-based combat is very much in line with the aforementioned games.

It has all of the features you expect: simple puzzles, rewards for exploration, plenty of fights, build choices, and boss battles that are just challenging enough. Where it differs is the focus on story. There are very long cutscenes where you don't control anything but advancing the narration box. In many cases, these scenes can run for up to 30 minutes. Story is clearly very important to the devs who made this game. In some ways, that becomes the game's biggest issue. The story isn't bad but it has two problems that drag it down just a bit. First is that is has elements that are somewhat trite, especially one major plot thread that runs through most of the game. Not that big of a deal. After all, there aren't that many new stories to tell. The second and bigger issue is that the story is made to feel grand and epic but the game is too short to do it justice. I feel like if this game had been 100 hours instead of 30 hours, it could have pulled off the story a bit better. There were moments, especially towards the end, where it felt like things were rushed a bit too much. And there's a deeper plotline that isn't completely explored and left me with questions. This is, of course, exacerbated when you're sitting through 30 minutes of cutscene without a place to save and put the game down.

Despite my pointing out its flaws, it's still a good story. If you like pixel RPGs with heavy story focus, you'll enjoy this. It even has a gay romance if you're looking for representation.

I played on day one and there were a few bugs but the devs are super responsive. I brought one of the few bugs I enocuntered to the Discord and it was fixed within the hour. There have been almost daily patches since launch and the game worked very well for me. It played perfectly on my Steam Deck and cloud saves gave me no trouble.

Overall, this game is worth your time if you like the genre even if it probably won't make it to anyone's GOAT list.