I held a lot of excitement for this game in the past, and once I got it, I played it a lot and walked away very satisfied. The game is a return to the roots for the JRPG genre, and while this means that it doesn't set the world on fire in terms of innovative and unique storytelling (though I did enjoy the story for what it was, as it had a clear goal in sight and focused on it), the gameplay, which is the main focus of the game, is very well polished. The combat mechanics are as basic as they can get, but they are done very well, especially in terms of character progression thanks to the Character Builder system, where each characters can specialize in using different weapons and unlock related skills. This has the potential to give each playthrough a different feeling, as there's always the itch of trying a new build and trading something off for something else. The replayability is further amped up by the Draconian Quest system, where the player can add limitations to their playthrough for more challenge (these go from restricting level grinding, to increasing the power of enemies and restricting what the player has access to), and even past that, there is a sizeable amount of content (especially in the Definitive Edition, which introduces a lot of new stuff). The world is fun to explore, and the towns all feel unique, not least thanks to the vibrant colour palette and the art style, resembling a mix of Japanese anime and a modern 3D animated movie. While the characters are mostly static, I did end up caring for their friendship and their quest by the end of the game, thanks to their simple yet effective characterization.
There were some flaws with the game, primarily the fact that the story slows down near the end of the first half of the game, but it picks right back up afterwards; the sidequests are also fairly simplistic, but they are easy to unlock and are completed rather quickly, so they don't slow down the pacing of the story too much (in addition, it is possible to continue playing after beating the main game - a whole lot of new content is unlocked in the postgame), and the world is not an actual open world like it may seem at first glance, but rather an array of interconnected areas connected by a linear story, which can be offputting to some who would prefer an overworld map like in the days of old, or those who would rather have a full-fledged open world experience. Overall, though, I couldn't help but enjoy the game and look forward to a second playthrough in the future when I have the time.
8/10
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