Good fucking LOOOOOOOOOOORD
Like WOW, this game genuinely DID live up to the hype for me. I SEE why this game basically revolutionized JRPGs. Like it's so fun, every moment with it was fun I just kept wanting to play it cuz I wanted more story, I wanted more character interactions, I wanted all of FF7. And FF7 isn't just the you-know-what scene and Midgar and all that. It's SO expansive, there are so many late-game scenes that DEFINED this game, and NONE OF THEM are the you-know-what scene.
The gameplay aged so well. Like even better than 9 and that's just because 9's animations stalled too much. This one is quicker, snappier, and just as complex in the later portions. It was just so fun the entire time and even when I got absolutely screwed in the end and had to redo the entire dungeon (cuz no save point before the final boss) I still ended up having fun. It's so good. It's spectacular, and I just adore this game. A lot of these opinions are strong cuz like really there was so much riding on this especially coming off the back of FF9, my personal fav, and FF12, my fav gameplay-wise and even story-wise at times compared to 7 and 9, but man it delivered. It's so amazing, so worth the time of literally anyone willing to play it. And please buy it on PC and mod it cuz the mod I used, Satsuki Yatoshi, allows you to screw around with character level and builds even though it's primarily to up the graphical fidelity so it looks good in modern hardware. There is a strong use of A.I in it so something things look off, but overall it definitely made the experience more pleasant. I also didn't screw around with anything until post game because I wanted as much of a real experience as possible.
It was great, I highly recommend this. Everyone should play it, I think this is truly a timeless game.