Some time ago I wrote a summary of my impressions over Grimoire here, and that summary had a continuation over the PM conversation, I haven't published it anywhere and do currently think it is somewhat of a waste. I'll quote parts of both my initial post and its continuation here for posterity.
Part of the initial post:
I will offer my personal interpretation of what I have experienced in Grimoire so far, for no other reason, than to try to make it apparent, that your image of what this game should be, whatever that image might actually be, is not the only possible one. Power progression in Grimoire, in my opinion, is almost entirely ability-driven, and those abilities are primarily unlocked NOT through leveling, but via items (or, in some cases, as unlocks at specific places on specific maps, which is almost the same as finding an item there) the majority of which also have certain plot-related uses. A lot of times, this game feels almost like metroidvania (yes, that "term" is cringeworthy, but I hope that the meaning, nevertheless, gets through). Each, well, not each, but a lot - and certainly a lot of the *Critical* ones - item is designed in such a specific way, so that after finding it, you, meaning either your party as a whole or maybe just a single specific character in it, are able to do something, something specific, you weren't able to do before. After each such an item, the rules of the game, as a whole, or rather the very way you perceive them, bend slightly - but noticeably. With every item that matters, the game itself, the essence of the very process of playing the game, morphs in small, but very definite bits. And the best part of it is, that it morphs in completely unpredictable ways. Meaning, that you don't, really don't, have the foggiest idea about how you would play the game after the next 3-5 hours (other than "100% maps using Detect Secrets" maybe), because you just don't know what you'll find in the next 3-5 hours, and you definitely don't know, how and in what ways will that something change the very, ahem, I think that's called "gameplay loop" or something? And you just know, that you'll find something, that you won't be able to predict, what you'll find, and that it'll change your playstyle in some definite - and completely unforeseen - way. Because the entirety of the game BEFORE this very, current, moment, worked exactly like that. The gameworld is DELIBERATELY designed as being nonsensical, "anything goes". The items and abilities are DELIBERATELY designed to be overpowered. The combat is DELIBERATELY "Oneshot or be oneshotted" sometimes. Because, ultimately, this is a game about omnipotence, about the illusion it - about the world constantly finding new ways to remind you, that you are not - and about you finding the way to patch those weaknesses up - and finding the way to pull through something you haven't been able to pull through before. That, I think, sums up my own impressions about what this game, the portion of it I have actually seen, could be all about.
And I will repeat. I voiced my opinion regarding this game not in order to make anyone think that I am unconditionally right about it, and you all should just agree with me. I voiced my opinion in order to make it apparent that I have the right to have and express my own opinion about, in particular, this very game - and that that opinion can very well mismatch yours. And even if I'm missing something, or misinterpreting something, or I am just plain mistaken or even deluded, you spotting it doesn't mean YOU are not missing something else, YOU are not misinterpreting something else, YOU are not mistaken, and YOU are not deluded, whoever you, reader, might be.
Continuation:
...toy as opposed to a game... I think Grimoire deliberately frames itself as a toy.., moreover, it's a different toy after each major critical item and each major development update. It more or less deliberately brings to the forefront the very way you imagine yourself interacting with this game. It is neither Wizardry 7.5, nor "le oldeskoole RPG", nor "Metroidvania". It's un-everything. Its identity is that of something that has as little identity as possible, an almost perfect shapeshifter. There is no Grimoire in itself. There is Grimoire 1.0.0.1 and Grimoire 1.0.0.22. There is Grimoire in Aquavia and Grimoire in that part in the vicinity of Zephyr Isles or whatever. Its claim for being unique comes from its attempt to be made completely and utterly uncharactarizable, since characterization is an act of comparison, and it doesn't really work all that well, when you are constantly reminded of completely different things with each new location and each new update (and utterly stopped being reminded of the things you were once reminded of). Its only point seems to me to be that however you might imagine that game to play out being at any part of it (prior to playing the game included), has nothing to do with the parts of the game you haven't seen yet (future updates included). I'd say that it's less of a toy and less of a game and much more of some endless postmodernist performance by you know who.
It's INCONSISTENT, that's the word. Seemingly deliberately inconsistent on a very fundamental level. Not the content one, the medium one.
At least, that's my current take on it.
Conclusion:
Prancing through the world of cheese.