This is my personal favorite game of all time, so keep that in mind as you read. This game is a perfect example of when something as a sum of it's parts ends up being something so much greater than the individual elements. Most of what is here isn't the best of the franchise, much less the parent genre. The story isn't even among the top 5 just considering Final Fantasy's, much less RPG's in general. The character design isn't in the upper echelon either. The pacing can be a mess and the difficulty curve feels at times like it's a mess. But when it all comes together with the combat and class system somehow everything just feels right to me. As someone who put over 200+ hours on their original save file and more than I care to remember over the years total in revisiting it, I feel that for me it is the most enjoyable grind I've been presented with in a game. This was the game that showed me that SRPG's are my favorite type of RPG, and my favorite of the bunch will always be this one. For most, this title is likely middling at best, and that is absolutely understandable because unless you really love this type of combat the pacing alone is probably going to drive you nuts.