I've already reviewed the Priest + Bishop combo as one of my earliest 30MF models, so this is a retrospective editorial review of the Priest alone with the model line in hindsight.
The Priest uses the Silhouette 1 body as most of the others (Archer, Assassin, Knight, Lancer, Swordman) and in fact the exact same light grey color as the Liber Knight and the same blue-purple ring parts. It has the typical Liber 'mecha eyes'. The Priest is the third 30MF "Job" to be released, after the Knight and Fighter.
Aesthetic:
As mentioned the Priest uses the same grey and blue-purple color scheme, this time making the blue-purple more prominent on its vestments (skirt, loin cloth and chest pennant).
The armor itself is (like the Knight's armor) an even lighter grey, it has a plate armor look with an almost art-deco style aesthetic, due to the angular and grill-like ribbed surfaces, and jutting angles. Armored up, this would not be out of place as a statue in 1920's New York.
An interesting visual thing of note are the 3mm hard points that stand out more prominently on the Priest than most other kits, with a pattern of five holes on the front and a hole on each of the shoulder pauldrons.
While the Priest doesn't necessarily feel under geared, there's a prominent lack of armor on the feet, calves, knees, thighs, forearms and wrists, giving the silhouette a top heavy look, despite the voluminous skirt parts, due to the plates jutting out from its biceps.
The Priest wields a 'medium staff' with an octahedron (d8) shaped blue gem, which matches the blue Core on its chest. A more Western approach with a mace might have been more appropriate and as it stands, the crown holding the gem (both having 3mm pegs) looks an awful lot like the head of a flanged mace, that you can equip on a different hilt with a 3mm hard point to stick it into. Intentional or not, it's definitely an interesting opportunity and the crystal itself can also be used on all manner of other hard points.
All in all, it's a competent design that Bandai put thought into, but they focused a little too hard on the idea of visually reminding you that you can put more stuff on it, by not plugging the knees or feet and leaving a pattern of holes on the front and sides.
Compatibility:
It goes without saying that the Knight and Priest are visual companions and therefore match each other perfectly, so you can easily transfer armor pieces between them and have it look mostly consistent - In fact by marrying the pieces that are lacking, you can create a very heavily armored Priest character in all matching plastic.
The difference between this and its Rosan counterpart, besides colors, is the face mask, as the Liber Priest has a slightly different mouth guard and a separate, large forehead plate, while the Rosan Priest uses a single mask to cover everything.
From its base, you only have the Bishop Class-up with no current information to add a different Class III. As is typical of the non-box Class Up kits, the Bishop requires you to utilize the Priest as its base, while more recent Class Up kits either have a full set or include the pieces that they upgrade. You can also put the Rosan Bishop upgrade on this model without issues, though the colors obviously won't match.
Conclusion:
It's nice to build this kit again and appreciate it in its base form, without all of the pomp of the brass plastic that the Liber Bishop equips.
The 'plate priest' look is more of a Japanese high fantasy look, but it doesn't depart too far from the tastefully understated basic Knight and it passes for a D&D style cleric, if given a more blunt looking weapon and a simple shield.
I happen to have an extra Knight kit, that I will use parts from to fill out those front facing holes, as I plan to use that Silhouette for the upcoming Commander Class Up, which does not use any Knight parts (and you can use the Priest silhouette, which is the same, for the exact same purpose). Later this year the Liber Fortress is coming out, which so far states that it includes a Silhouette, but if not, then a grey Silhouette like this one is, in my opinion, a better visual match than the Lancer body.
Is it as visually interesting as the later kits, or even the kits before it? No, I think the Knights and Fighters have their own specific charm that relies on their colorless looks, while Rosan and later released kits have more interesting aesthetics and details - Plus the coolness factor of a priest or a cleric has just never been up there with the rest of medieval/fantasy characters.
It's not 'outdated' or too simple, but if you stand them all in a row, this one would likely come out as one of the bottom kits for visual interest. That being said, you can just paint or upgrade it and the Bishop, while it has more of a royal look to it, does look pretty good and has significant visual impact.
Do I like it? Yes. Did I mostly want to write this review because of the Hole-y ...
