mainline final fantasy game that is less about the characters and their interaction with the world and more about the world and its interaction with the characters. shows that a game doesn't need immense dialogue to be well-written because few-but-well-put-words and good cutscene direction (jun akiyama is amazing) can do a very good job - i also love the voice acting, gideon emery's balthier is really good.

the gameplay is perfect. i've spent more than 100 hours doing most of the content and exploring the gambit and the job system. of course you have Certain Characters with faster speed animations with especific weapons (basch is better with spears than penelo, for example), but you can try any job combo that'll work as long as you can understand and dominate the gambit system.

it's a phenomenal videogame. my favorite final fantasy so far (and probably gonna be for a long time).