The game's story initially had some really interesting themes of political strife and vigilantism that end up getting thrown to the side for the jrpg classic ancient evil bullshit in the 3rd act. Combat system was also not very fun, despite how much hype i had heard about it beforehand. The characters are all unique and charming, but estellise can be annoying at times. Having a dog as a playable character in a jrpg is also always a plus. The sudden appearance of the "big bad" at the end was really lame aa he had absolutely no build up to his character whatsoever, causing the final battle to lack any weight at all.

this game is beyond fucking terrible in every single way. the story is incoherent monkey drivel to the point its hilarious. you will never know what is going on this game thanks to its terrible nonchronological storytelling. the game also does far more damage to the narrative of the trilogy than anything else. the new zero is easily one of the most nonsensical and convoluted villains i have ever seen in my life and it never stops being funny. i played this game over a year ago and i still realise more bullshit about the story every time i think about it. the 3d models are also fucking hideous. overall probably one of the worst games i have ever played and the most fun thing about this game is complaining about it.

Gameplay is miserable. Encounter rate is sky high and the combat is not very strategic. The grid system pretty much boils down to physical attackers at front and everyone else at back. The story is pretty barebones too with a cartoonish villain, which is a shame because there is the foundations of an interesting story to be built from this. The dungeon crawling is absolutely painful as well, especially in the latter half of the game. You'll soon learn tht turning down encounter rates with skills isn't much of an option as you'll find yourself underlevelled for the next boss. The best parts of this game are the charming characters and fun music. Unfortunately, you can only bring a max of 4 of the many different characters in the game with you, and one of them is always the same. I would love to go back and see what the other characters had to offer but i don't think I have the willpower to stomach another playthrough of this game any time soon.

Game is overall fun and the graphics are an incredible feat for a ps1 game, but the story, characters and gameplay unfortunately felt a bit of a step down from 7.

Most of the cast get very little real development and squall is famously quiet, even compared to cloud, though i have heard this is partially a translation thing so who knows. The story as a whole however can feel a bit bizarre and things sometimes just seem to happen without explanation. The ending is famously cryptic and an interestingly experimental way for a game series as mainstream as final fantasy to conclude a story. It's been scrutinised and theorised about for over 20 years now with no real conclusion, but it has produced many fun theories(e.g. "Squall is Dead").

The gameplay is of course based on the same template as every other final fantasy, but the gimmick of this game is the Junction system, which is pretty shit. I didnt appreciate it much, especially compared to materia and other mechanics in the series. Magic drawing was also very not fun. Besides this the same basic template is here and it is still fun enough to mess around with and see what breaks it.