This game is so incredibly miserably grind reliant and will punish the player for any misstep they weren't even aware could be made.

Yet it's honestly still not that bad. I have a strange soft spot for this game in spite of my lack of nostalgia for it. I would wager it's due to being the franchise's first attempt at a character-driven story and for just being different. In fact, the story was actually surprisingly bleak and well-told. Characters die and their deaths have real weight. The game does not end in a picture perfect fairy tale.