Yeah this really isn't for me, sorry

And I hate saying that since this is one of the most unique, creative, and beautiful games I've played in a while. There's layers upon layers of micro-systems and game tech that makes progression far more surprising then any AAA game on the market. It's character and world design is timeless, and incredibly imaginative with captivating portraits and sprite work. Literally anything and everything can be it's own fantasy race in this world. Yet this game asks a lot from the player, but not in time nor difficulty.
This is a PS1 game, which are well known for being experimental and unorthodox (compliment). Seriously, anything goes during that era of gaming. Nowadays there are a lot of "rules" on how to do things. What is considered "good design" or "bad design" feels established and settled, at least when speaking about the big studios. Despite the many, many issues of modern game design, there is some precedent on why games are the way they are now, and that's convenience and clarity. You're almost never lost on where you can go, what you can do, and how to do it. And I feel you need a certain level of tolerance to truly get the most out of this game in particular, if you aren't one to play the more unconventional games often (Hi that's me). If you aren't paying attention, you can skip text directing you on where to go for your current quest and there isn't a way to replay what you missed. Entire sub-systems are locked due to specific quests you may or may not ever complete. Systems and tutorials are explained in text monologues, again sometimes just once, but are also just not the way I learn the best in any context. That isn't to say it's impossible to proceed if you weren't paying attention, but it'll involve a lot of backtracking, repeatedly talking to the same NPC till you exhausted their dialouge, hugging the wall on these beautiful backgrounds to scroll the screen over and find a new area you would've missed otherwise... I hope you don't mind getting lost. And not just with figuring out what to do but also where you are since these dungeons, unfortunately, reuse room layouts within the very same dungeon. It's genuinely disorienting to me, and apart from maybe the first area I could not for the life of me create a mental map of any of these places. Enemies also respawn the instant you leave a room, but thankfully you can disable encounters. However, that actually messes me up even more with my sense of direction because enemy encounters are fixed; so I would walk in a room, see a familiar formation, and realized I've been here before. Not all dungeons are this bad with the issue, but despite the gorgeous art direction, exploring these places grew pretty tiring. What, I felt, tried to be wonderous yet daunting with its winding dungeons, grew to be annoying and directionless. But "directionless" I feel is kind of the point. (EDIT: Not a fan of using the word "directionless" in this context, but for a lack of a better word I guess it works).
Here's the thing, the game's progression is RNG... well sort of. It's technically consistent, but you sure as Hell ain't figuring that out on a first playthrough so it might as well be random. The world map is created by you, and by placing artifacts found by completing quests in different areas onto the map, you can create whatever layout you desire. The placement of these locations influences a lot of things, including what artifacts you receive from a quest and even the availability of quests. I think, without a extremely specific setup, it isn't feasible to find everything on one playthrough (EDIT: It seems straight up impossible actually, game isn't too long for one playthrough so they took that into account ar least According to @moschidae, it is possible to do it all in one playthrough, just have be careful to not softlock any quests. My mistake). Assuming you weren't copying exactly what I did in where I placed my artifacts, your playthrough of this game will be different from mine.
But if that's the case, then how does the main story proceed? It doesn't. That's the crux and, arguably, the main attraction of this game. There isn't a strong central goal other then "explore and adventure". There is a ending, but more than most other games is this a "It's about the journey" game. Annnnd... that's why I didn't jive with this game. I couldn't find a hook to latch onto to keep me engaged the whole way through. That isn't to say there isn't any story to be found. Faaaaaar from it. There's heaps of characters, quests, and lore to sink your teeth into. But everything is more bite-sized. Some quests are multi-parter that carries a more intricate plot, but there's no real central thread connecting them altogether. No not counting your player character, whose more of an observer than someone integral to the world (until someone decides to pull you into the story). That isn't a bad thing, many games do that, but bottom-line my interest in continuing was waning only three hours in since I couldn't find anything that really caught my attention enough for the entire runtime. There were so many neat tidbits, but they weren't enough.
And then there's the gameplay. As mentioned it has tons of mechanics from learning movement and weapon skills, to crafting magic instruments, raising monsters from when they were eggs, creating your own golem with a massively intricate system, and so much more... but this game was way too easy to care about any of that. It comes off as superfluous when I almost never needed the extra help since store-bought weapons and armor was all I really needed. OK, learning skills from how you fight during combat was neat, but stun-locking foes and bosses are way too easy. With the fists especially, you can jab so many things from 100% to death. Plus you have a lot of health and deal a crapload of damage. Why should I invest myself in these systems if the game doesn't put much of a fight? OK, there was one boss that had a shockwave attack that killed me from full health, but after learning it's generous tell I never got hit by it again. I had to look this up as I was scripting this part, and there is a hardmode, but only after beating the game once. Yeah I don't like that. The first playthrough was confusing and unchallenging, I don't have any desire to try it again. While the combat feedback was nice (being able to throw even the biggest of bosses is admittedly pretty cool), it just wasn't enough to make me care about it overall.

I hate writing these reviews since I see the audience for this kind of game. It's a game the gives back the more you put into it. It rewards multiple playthroughs exponentially with new scenarios and surprises. It has a superb soundtrack that I'll probably be listening to for a long time. It's sense of discovery can be infectious for those who love to dive deep into a game. And I normally loves games like those, but man this just didn't do it for me. I didn't enjoy myself much with the initial run, sad to say.

Best advice I can give is to give it a look to see if it looks interesting, but beware as the surprises and secrets are part of its charm. I've seen people absolutely adore this game, this has the potential to be one of your favorite games ever. While yes, that can be said about practically every game, you also won't find a game like this anywhere else.