A fantastic experience from start to right before the end.
The pacing is some of the best I've seen in a JRPG even over two decades after its release, the characters are tropey but it feels like witnessing the beginning of those tropes, its adorable. The world and music are magical, it sells the concept of an adventure with your friends so well. Playing it for the first time in 2021, I was head over heels in love with this game.
Then in the last 3 hours it completely drops the ball with sudden forced grinding that adds absolutely nothing except unnecessary playtime to the game.
The charm is still there, and it still deserves the title of classic, it just left a sour taste in my mouth. Looking back on the experience after just beating it, I'm glad I finally played this legendary game, and over time I think ill remember the magical 30 hours I spent with it more than the slog of the last 3.
(This section of the review is dedicated to the switch port itself)
I had a total of 5 crashes with this port, 3 of which were to do with the 3x speed function, if you do use this (which I honestly do recommend for certain portions) just be careful and save frequently.
The no random encounters feature makes backtracking a lot less painful, and the godmode function does the same to grinding.
A decent port, but I haven't played on original hardware so take my opinion as that.
The pacing is some of the best I've seen in a JRPG even over two decades after its release, the characters are tropey but it feels like witnessing the beginning of those tropes, its adorable. The world and music are magical, it sells the concept of an adventure with your friends so well. Playing it for the first time in 2021, I was head over heels in love with this game.
Then in the last 3 hours it completely drops the ball with sudden forced grinding that adds absolutely nothing except unnecessary playtime to the game.
The charm is still there, and it still deserves the title of classic, it just left a sour taste in my mouth. Looking back on the experience after just beating it, I'm glad I finally played this legendary game, and over time I think ill remember the magical 30 hours I spent with it more than the slog of the last 3.
(This section of the review is dedicated to the switch port itself)
I had a total of 5 crashes with this port, 3 of which were to do with the 3x speed function, if you do use this (which I honestly do recommend for certain portions) just be careful and save frequently.
The no random encounters feature makes backtracking a lot less painful, and the godmode function does the same to grinding.
A decent port, but I haven't played on original hardware so take my opinion as that.