This game may be my ultimate guilty pleasure. It is undoubtedly a mess, but the strong points really hold me and I honestly can't bring myself to dislike this game even though it is a bit of a failure. I think this game is aesthetically fantastic. Everyone always talks about how good the graphics and music are in this game, but it really is true. The battle system is pretty hated, but I honestly enjoy it quite a bit. It is too slow (something the sequel improves on), but I think the Auto-Battle and Paradigm systems themselves are right for this game, and I enjoyed crafting new paradigms to suit the challenge that was put in front of me. The story here is not amazing, but it takes the characters to interesting places, and having the party members so at odds with each other for a large part of the game is an interesting dynamic that makes their uncertain journey hit harder. The characters range from mediocre to good, with Sazh being my favorite. The world-building is great in my opinion, which is honestly a bit of a double-edged sword, considering the ways this game fails. The linearity of the game is not ideal to say the least, but it allows each area to be beautiful. The areas may have my favorite aesthetic of any FF game I've played. The contrast between the unique futuristic urban areas and the immense and unknown wilds are very well-balanced. The hand-holding until halfway through the game is infuriating, and probably its worst aspect. If this game allowed any sort of free movement near the end (i.e. the ability to return to Pulse before the final dungeon), then I think it would fare much better. Despite all the drawbacks, I still enjoy this game a lot. I don't know if I can call it a good game, but every time I boot it up to play it, I personally enjoy it.