A frustrating experience. Frustrating because what's good here is really great close to masterful even. But it's always marred by the issues the game has in design and execution that drags the experience into mediocrity.

The great:

- Combat and vocations. The combat is a lot of fun and the abilities are varied and all feel useful. I tried few vocations and they all were more fun than what I imagined them to be.

- The Pawn system. They legit felt like a party alongside you on the journey. using strangers or friends pawns was really cool to see what they are using. The pawns AI was mostly great as well. Catching you as you fall, offering hints to quest and fights.

- Some of the quests were brilliant. The quests were obtuse and vague but I felt in a good way. It lead to experimentation and once you figure things out, you feel pretty good about yourself. Some really creative quests that allowed multiple solutions. Many quests had choices that led to drastic results.

- Some of the game friction is actually great and unique. Missable quests for example. I liked a game having many quests that get missed either because you ignored them for too long or you progressed the main story. It makes the game more unique and choosing your time on the quests feels meaningful.

The bad:

- Enemy variety and density. There is a lot of talk about the friction this games offer, like the lack of easy fast travel. Itsuno said "if traveling is boring you would have to use fast ravel then your game is boring" Well Itsuno, you made the most boring game to travel in. Because the game lacks enemy variety you would have to go through the same enemies through the whole journey back and forth. Skipping and using easier fast travel option would have been less boring. The game doesn't have good traversal system either. Just walk on foot with stamina gauge all the time. Many games that offered fast travel I didn't use because traversing those world were fun. Not here..

-Many of the quests were just fetch quests going through the same locations over and over to grab flowers or some rocks.. Other quests were escort missions with the classic NPCs slower than the player. Just tedium designs really.

- Lack of location variety. Really mostly just two locations through the whole game.

- Terrible performance and frame pacing. The game looks great but horrible performance in cities that has most of the quests anyways.
- The game is quiet buggy. Many quests bugged, many enemies died in glitches, many of my pawns just died by getting stuck to the ground.
- The plot and story lol...

I came out feeling the game is undercooked and unfinished. From the quests, locales, enemy variety, and story. Even the great combat could have used extra abilities. Just another wasted potential game.

7/10

Great adventure. The game is one of the biggest jumps in a sequel I've seen.
There is a lot to love here.

Things I loved:
- The cast is a amazing and definitely the game's biggest strength. So many standout moments and they all got moments to shine.
- The combat has evolved and it remains super engaging through out most of the playthrough.
- The amount of gameplay mechanics here are astonishing. So many mini games and tailored segments. Not all of them work but they swung for the fences so I appreciate they tried.
- The maps feel hand crafted and they all have unique sense of presence.
- Many traversal options, combat style and nice battles and side quests in the world. Towns were a highlight especially missed in so many recent games.

Things I didn't like:
- Execution of the story. I felt it was clunky and not impactful. Most of the game didn't have a moving main arch for the story.
- Many side activities were filler like the rocks, chocobo sniffing, etc
- We didn't get many new Materia or cool ones. I feel that's because of Remake used most of them. Also wish summon fights were in the world.
- Chadley and MAI.

Score: 9/10