Just like with pokemon I didn't really play any games in this franchise outside the first game long time ago.

Now, I wouldn't say I like 2d platformers, but this game is 100% perfection. I can't think of any way to make it better.

The price though, is way too high. In terms of scope this is basically an indie game, priced like god of war or final fantasy xvi, with little to no discounts ever.

I only ever played Pokemon red for about 5 hours, enough to know these games are not for me.

I decided to pick up this one to give the series another chance and oh boy, the core game loop is so so good.

Almost all things that annoyed me in the first game are fixed here.

Honestly this game is a patch away from being 9/10.

Not a fan of the story and characters tho.

+
Lore
Plot
Art style
Characters
Cypher class
Soulbound items
-
Limited and sometimes bad voice acting
Combat
Character building
Way too much exposition not enough substance in most dialogues
Pacing
Act 2 bloat
Bugs, Bugs, bugs
Memory leaking = long loadings
Lack of resolution or satisfaction for some of the quests
Graphics are below avarage
Annoying Kickstarter npcs
Sneaking
Resting
D&D itemization and magic
Bare minimum party AI

Mid playthrough notes:
Gameplay loop is fun
Crashes frequently on Ps4 (wtf)
Dialogue writers should be fired, chatgpt would write better dialogue.
Transmog is cool but artificially bloated.
The cult mechanic is poorly implemented.
Romance really doesn't make sense and feels out of place, plus it's just fade to black, witcher 1 did it better, honestly.

So you play as a mammut.
Does it make sense?
Hard no.
Is it fun?
Nope.
What the point?
No idea.

Since the release of this game I've been hearing about how bad it is, that's it's just a corridor walking simulator, that the combat is just mashing one button all the time and how it's the worst final fantasy and the downfall of the series.

Then I tried it.
While it is not perfect none of the final fantasy games were perfect, even VI.
Honestly either this game is the most underrated videogame I know of or my taste is horrible but I absolutely loved it.
The graphics are beautiful even by today's standard and this is a ps3 game.
The combat is honestly probably my favourite in the series, very unique and fun, I just wish there was more to it, like meteor or ultima spells (it might still be there in the last dungeon I'm still yet to play).
I love the world and monster designs, not your typical final fantasy but it doesn't have to be, there were more than 12 titles in the series by that time.
The story i can't comment about to the fullest since i haven't seen the ending yet, but so far I loved it, though it's quite sad so might not be for everybody. Oh and while the game tells you to read the datalog (ingame encyclopedia) and it explains all the terms the game throws at you at the beginning well, I wish it would be explained during the dialogue or cutscenes but that's a minor thing, do yourself a favor and read entries on all those strange terms sometime doing the first act.
The characters... Hmm... I like Sazh and Fang. Lightning and Snow I like about 50% of the time and I don't really care for Vanille and Hope.
The music is as good as always, with some real bangers like the battle theme.

Overall, if not for xiv this would be my favourite final fantasy, not objectively the best but the one I like the most.

High hopes for ffxiii-2,3 and xv

Positives:
The final scene is one of the best in the series

Negatives:
It's placed right before the finale of the game.
Adds a district of Firenze... With nothing in it, well maybe like 1 or 2 important buildings but that's it, no content to do in that part of the map.
90% of it consist of basically the assassination side quests from the base game but much, much more annoying, honestly it's ac2 at its lowest.
That one mission with the ship, easily the worst part of the whole game.

Didn't get too far before they shut it down.
The graphics and music were good, gameplay too. They made pixel models for he newer characters like lightning etc.
Gatcha wasn't that bad but it was still mobile tier game so, it had annoying bottlenecks that you could solve with real money.
Overall it was worth it for me personally, I'm sad that they closed the servers.
Only tells me to not invest much effort into the other mobile games, you never know when they will shut it down.