Despite a very obtuse, frustrating, and mind-bogglingly bad ending section (unless you're OP I guess), this is a masterpiece in every other way and is deserving of every ounce of praise it's gotten. The story is layered, emotional, exciting, and well written. The party members are all unique in their personalities, motivations, and what they offer to the game in battle. The soundtrack is nothing less than an absolute triumph in game OSTS and is peak. The designs, atmosphere, cutscenes, and everything artistically oozes with unmatched style. I loved this game so so much. The gameplay loop is addicting and the battle systems are so deep with so many different spells to cast and various options to test with. The Materia system, while tedious to navigate, is a great way to have so many of these awesome abilities to be available to you in battle. The open world is so great and is insane that this is a game from the mid nineties. There's still a few areas and hidden bosses that I haven't explored or conquered yet. I loved the different forms of transportation. I loved how in every area of the game there are secret items to uncover along with branching paths. It was really cool when the game branched off and has a one off gameplay section that was nothing like the core game. There's just so much to it. Thanks to the gorgeous pre-rendered backgrounds, the architecture and designs of each world and the story of what they are trying to convey is done impeccably. The dingy, steam-punk aesthetic of Midgar, or the extravagant, bombastic design of the Golden Saucer. It's all done in the most interesting and masterful ways. This game has so much charm to it as well. Even when I was stuck in the end and faced a lot of frustrating hurdles, I went on to grind for hours and hours to beat it despite that because I loved it so much. Please play this. I can go on and on about why this game is so special and groundbreaking. One of my favorites of all time now for sure.