I was enchanted by the game the moment I saw how it was played, I loved it as soon as I started playing, and I was captivated as soon as Ash’s plot played out. At one point, the game said my life’s philosophy in plain text, and another person said it was dumb and pointed out the flaws in that philosophy.
How good are the characters? As soon as I learned you can exhaust dialogue trees, there was not a soul I didn’t wander next to to hear more dialogue.
How good is the soundtrack? I have learned how to play I Want To Be The Hero on ukulele.
I understood you. It just sounds horrible. Sorry, no, it’s actually worse. Side stories are part of the story, so it goes without saying they should have the same designers as the rest of the story. If you think they don’t count, that’s worrying.