I'll come back and review this more thoroughly later (if I don't forget), but so far I'm hovering around 3/5 stars because it's a mix of content ranging from 0/5 to 5/5 and it mostly just kind of averages out to "okay".

The visuals are gorgeous, I love the concepts and setpieces, and the music is great. I appreciate that there's a lot of variety, even if the quality of the mechanics is also pretty variable.

Unfortunately on the less positive side, a lot of the chapters feel rushed - they're trying to fit too much story in too little time, and the difficulty curve is all over the place, not only across chapters but within as well. The game is also pretty deeply misogynistic at its core; women are almost always either absent (less than 10% of notable/major characters are women) or fall into unpleasant gendered stereotypes.

I understand why it influenced some other games, and why it was a big deal at the time, but this is one I would've personally left in the 90s I think.

this game isn't quite perfect but it gets surprisingly close for me:
- i can have turn-based combat instead of ATB (i hate ATB)
- generally really fun combat mechanics
- the 3d shaders are so gorgeous it's ridiculous i wish every game looked this good
- tiny cute final fantasy monsters

the art style for the characters is a bit more miss than hit for me unfortunately (the normal-ish-proportioned ones have really weirdly big heads and the chibi ones are just... a bit blocky for me), but i really enjoy the monster stylization, and the colors in this game are gorgeous.

this game in general is gorgeous really, it uses very realistic shaders and stylization for the environment, paired with stylized characters such that it almost feels like you're wiggling some amiibos around as your party members, but with good animations. and, you know, not actually real.

the story is... without spoiling, i'd describe it as a weird but mostly successful mix between kingdom hearts and bravely default. well-written enough that i was interested to see how things would end, but not enough that i was hungry for more after finishing the game.

of note, there's a bunch of cheat options built-in, which, even if i didn't use myself (outside encounter rate), i really appreciate, because it means that no matter how bad you are at it, or how little time you have to play it, you can still enjoy all the parts of it you'd like. or just turn off encounters because you're max level and don't feel like it, that's always a nice plus.

would love to get to play the expansion/dlc someday but i have to admit their shenanigans with how they priced it for people who already had the base game left me with a pretty sour taste.

this game is one of my childhood faves and i keep coming back to it every once in a while (current tally: 9 playthroughs). it's wonky in spots and pretty solid in others but it's also just really unique in a lot of ways.

i found the characters really likeable and fun even if they're frequently not very well-written, and the plot is... something. without spoiling, this game is kind of (in)famous for having what i've frequently seen described as "a plot aneurysm" partway through. it's really fun to experience if you're down for weird jrpg story stuff.

combat-wise, it's pretty straightforward and somewhat similar to other SO titles. the MP KO "feature" is... an interesting idea, and it at least gives a couple funny bosses as a trade-off for your healers/casters dying like flies until you figure out how to wrangle the system.

the crafting and other side mechanics are for the most part so incredibly obtuse even a guide struggles to make sense of them, but the good news is that you don't strictly need them to finish the game (even if it might make 1-2 spots a tad easier and/or trivial if you cheese stuff). the other good news is that if you do figure them out, you feel like a genius and you can trivialize everything except the post-game if you so wish.

in terms of visuals, i like most of the character design even if, again, it sometimes goes in... interesting directions. the graphics were pretty dang good for ps2 at the time and still don't hold up too bad, honestly.

as for the audio, it has the same sound effect set as other games in the series, and the usual OST by motoi sakuraba who is having the time of his life banging on his synth. i'm so happy for him.