This game to me seemingly is what the last of us to a lot of people, lol.

My love for this game goes beyond anything i've ever experienced i think. The thing is, i don't like jrpgs mechanically. I don't find the combat or movement fun. I don't like pixel art. I don't care for wrestling or anything like that. i found gameplay frustrating: manual saves in locations that force you replay some sections over and over, random encounters that don't jam with balance, without guides quite confusing as to where to go.
This was the story that won me over. I did not expect that depth, i did not expect that i'd relate that much. I understand the motivations of main characters and i even love some of them. Also, this is probably the best games covering addiction: it shows motivations that make you sympathize and relate with the person suffering. And it is a suffering. This game doesn't glorify addiction.
The elegant mix of humor and dead inside soul crushing story... This is very hard to pull off. When people do that, they usually produce cringe that kills the player-game relationships and makes it hard to care about the game (Y2K hellooooo). The setting is also quite rarely done right esp in modern gaming, and i think in this one the game author gave just enough detail to make it believable, but not enough to overburden the player.
The soundtrack is gold, although it's quite rough, it's has a unique sound and instrument arrangement, hits the themes of the game well.

God i want more games from this dude. They are art so far.