A game that's too big for it's own good. You can build unique decks, you can socialize, you can do research, you can do wave battles, you can do deployment missions; but none of it seems to matter. It all feeds into doing a series of missions in small circles with a couple of the same intractable objects strewn about.

The base of card battling in a 3D space never gets old, but the ultimately thin and samey decks of the various heroes begin to blend together over time.

The dialog and social elements have some fun moments, but the writing becomes grating rather quickly. The story itself doesn't offer much interest. I found myself really wishing the hub area was just a menu instead of wandering a boring, far too large compound looking for mushrooms and orbs.

The game began to fall apart in performance as it went on as well, animations began not playing at all, damage numbers not appearing, dead enemies not going away, invisible physics objects and prolonged loading screens.

Still overall a good game, but with how strongly I liked the opening hours I can't help but feel disappointed when all is said and done. Just a dozen half-baked concepts when there was a clear and strong core that should have just been honed.

The game that set the bar for future Final Fantasy's. Both in pushing the genre forward onto new hardware and improving on the groundwork the previous games in the series have, this game in a lot of ways still feels modern in design.

You never stick with one group of characters for long, and each dungeon in the game provides a unique twist that keeps the game engaging. You're constantly moving from one interesting objective and set piece to the next, sometimes to the detriment of the characters and story but never failing to keep you hooked.

A great game and probably the oldest Final Fantasy I'd recommend to people who aren't hardcore rpg or retro game fans.