Possibly the first truly great game in the series thus far.
I'll admit, a certain party member almost ruined the first half of the game for me, but everything else in the second half more than makes up for it. I was genuinely hooked on the story and it has the best cast if characters at this point in the series. There are LOTS of fakeout non-deaths (is that a spoiler at this point?), but I get why they happen from a gameplay perspective (it's more an excuse to swap your party members around). Has the best final boss out of the first four games, I was almost maxed out on my party members and still had to play carefully, then the ending got me surprisingly emotional (even better is the PR soundtrack). And apparently the last two of the pixel games are even better.
8/10
I'll admit, a certain party member almost ruined the first half of the game for me, but everything else in the second half more than makes up for it. I was genuinely hooked on the story and it has the best cast if characters at this point in the series. There are LOTS of fakeout non-deaths (is that a spoiler at this point?), but I get why they happen from a gameplay perspective (it's more an excuse to swap your party members around). Has the best final boss out of the first four games, I was almost maxed out on my party members and still had to play carefully, then the ending got me surprisingly emotional (even better is the PR soundtrack). And apparently the last two of the pixel games are even better.
8/10