I've been playing through Hat World: New Testament. Apparently it's inspired by Romancing SaGa or something, which I've never played, but this game is so cool that I kinda feel the need to play that next too.

To give an overall picture of it, I think the best parts are definitely the combat system and the bosses. The game engine is extremely fast, meaning that combat isn't slow and annoying like most other RPGs save stuff like Etrian Odyssey. And some of the bosses, including many of the final bosses of each route, are my favorite final bosses in all of RPGs due to their story significance, mechanics, or coolness factor. Some others are okay, too, and I haven't seen any that are just terrible. The visuals and music are great too, despite much of it being taken from free libraries.

The worst part is probably the fact that in order to unlock the secret, final route to tie up everyone's stories, you need to complete the 6 routes. That wouldn't be so bad except for the fact that there's recycled content between them, with each route still having two unique worlds and at least two unique bosses. But that means that if you use NG+ to blaze through all the recycled content after your first route, then you're WAY too powerful for the unique content! It's frustrating, because some fights that are supposed to be hard yet awesome become too easy.

In short, I recommend you play through one route (choosing Dora, Lavie, or Natalie as your starting character), and if you like it, then keep going. If you want to do them all, then spread them out over a long while so you don't get burnt out.

Anyway, Hat World is freeware, so you can just download it at https://mega.nz/folder/09FRHYSR#VKxBWy9oTNffPNJlnvsEBA

And while it doesn't really get much discussion anywhere, some of the 4chan threads are archived
https://arch.b4k.dev/vrpg/search/text/hat%20world/type/op/