Before the game came out I said it looked like the "MGS4 of RGG" and for the most part, that held up. It does much more than that though, and it stands on its own delivering a message about redemption and perseverance. This game tells you YOU HAVE TO LIVE. Both the mainline story and the side adventures had me emotional, many times. This might be my favorite cast in any JRPG, ever, it just happens to be a cap-off of one of my favorite series ever.

Game-wise: This is basically a 2:1 improvement of the first turn-based game. The way the combat unfolds in every battle is just SUPERB. I didn't even really expand myself on the job system either. It allows for so much diversity and creativity while also posing quite a challenge sometimes. Fantastic stuff.

Side content wise this is also the best the series has ever been, between the substories, minigames, and the incredible Dondoko island (which could be charged as a full game honestly), and the Sujimon game that runs along side everything had me hooked the whole way through.

I never played an RGG game that had its hooks in me this hard before which says a lot because I love every game in this series hard. This was a masterpiece through and through.