Playing this for the billionth time because of the recent "The Last Hope" fan hack and I've finally realized what puts this game/series above the sum of its parts... the character interactions. Murayama just knew how to write engaging characters and dialogue. RIP.
Edit: Can't actually recommend the hack as the added scenes/dialogue make very little to no sense, in broken English, and once first arriving at Toran Castle, the game freezes. If anything it drives home how easy Murayama made it seem, but it's not. Luckily this isn't a long game and I'm glad I could revisit this world again, however so briefly this time before the remasters come out.
Edit: Can't actually recommend the hack as the added scenes/dialogue make very little to no sense, in broken English, and once first arriving at Toran Castle, the game freezes. If anything it drives home how easy Murayama made it seem, but it's not. Luckily this isn't a long game and I'm glad I could revisit this world again, however so briefly this time before the remasters come out.