Had me in a vice grip throughout. Felt compelled to chase down nearly every sidequest that didn't seem like it was meant to be post-game content. The combat system is improved in some pretty substantial ways from the previous entry, though it takes a while to figure out a build and gameplan that properly takes advantage of those changes. Some of the minigames feel tuned to be a bit too hard, and then open up to unlock an even harder mode, but that's not entirely a negative, just something to be aware of: yes, other people did find that one minigame to be really hard. A lot of the later bosses had me thinking out loud through different game plans to take them out or mitigate the damage from their attacks, something which is (in my book, at least) a sign of a pretty good "party-build-centric" RPG.
As far as the story goes, I enjoyed the ride, but I can't say I'm totally certain I understood everything that happend. Taking a month and a half to beat the game, with long stretches of sidequesting in between major story beats probably didn't help. My judgement on the story of the remake trilogy might have to remain reserved until I see if the conclusion sticks the landing.