PixlBit

First, here's what you get in the demo

You have your choice between 7 characters to use as your protagonist.

While there is spoken narration there is no voice acting for the characters. I chose to play as the frog Filmia because frogs are cool. :)

After a short story portion you start at the forest ruins. You fill in the map on the bottom as you explore the dungeon. Unlike Etrian Odyssey you don't have to draw anything. The map completes as you move. Completed maps can be sold in town. Scenery pops in as you explore. Funny thing is that scenery always pops in as you move even if you've already been there. Looking at the bottom screen is the only way to know what areas you still need to cover.

Enemies are visible on the map as dark shadow type things (where have I seen that before?) so you don't get to see what the enemy looks like or how many enemies there are until the battle begins.

Battles are turn based and attacks are based on weapons you are carrying or your bare hands. You seem to be able to equip most weapons and armour on any team member you like. Each team member can wield two weapons or a weapon and a shield 

Your team is made up of 3 characters. You start with your chosen protagonist and the other two are chosen for you. I don't know if it's random or you always get the same two but I got a female healer with sword skills (Bianca) and a dude with a bow (Liber). I've also recruited Owen, Garnet and Eloise. You can switch them out at the inn. Yes all this is in the demo. There's a 7th character Meure who I could not find anywhere.

Weapons control the type of attack you get. Attacks power up with use and new attacks are added for weapons after a while. Basic attacks can be used over and over but the additional attacks cost SP which is finite and you don't get a lot of it.

There's no levelling up as such but you gain HP/SP as you go plus the attacks and other abilities get stronger as you use them.

The towns aren't all that detailed but the hand drawn graphics are kind of quaint and if you stand still in town the camera pulls back like Bravely Default.

You get 2 dungeons and a bit of story in the demo. I initially thought there was a third dungeon because you can buy a map from the shop in town. However while the dungeon appears on the map after purchase attempting to access it result in a "Thank you for playing" so it's a waste of your hard earned loot. 

You can also hire a ship and send it out looking for loot. The more you pay the better the loot and apparently through street pass you can speed up the process. I wound up with some decent weapons for the 1000 whateveritis I spent. Much better than the fake dungeon :(

I enjoyed the demo but I'm worried that the full game won't have much of a story. Once you complete the first dungeon the story grinds to a stop.The second dungeon while much bigger than the first had no bosses to fight and involved collecting Whispering Shards from 4 statues. Those shards apparently allow you to form contracts with spirits but damned if I could figure out how to do that. Turns out I didn't need to. Once I got my team powered up we were unstoppable.

Anyway, this is definitely a game I would play but I'm not as excited about it as I thought I would be.