I totally get why people love this so much. At the time it was absolutely revolutionary, and a lot of that passion and ambition is still super apparent today. The story that I played was interesting, and the characters all had distinct and fun personalities, but man, actually playing this game feels like a chore nowadays. I generally like turn-based combat in older rpgs like Chrono Trigger and Earthbound, but the 3D graphics make everything so slow and clunky and the lack of distinct character classes make it feel like it doesn't matter which characters you have in your party. Plus the sheer amount of random encounters is absolutely insane, and I found myself constantly turning them off in the Switch version. Even in the overworld the game feels clunky, with the limited movement and stiff character models being so hopelessly outclassed by the pixel rpgs it came after. I can absolutely understand why so many love this game, but it's really hard to find that love for it nowadays.

What a wild fucking game from start to finish. Act 1 is obviously phenomenal and could (and maybe should) have been its own thing, and has easily the best gameplay and atmosphere. Act 2 isn't nearly as good from either a gameplay or atmosphere perspective, but it's over pretty quick and moves you on to the batshit crazy final act. I'm still not entirely sure what actually happens in this game, but it's so insane and ends with such a cool last half hour that I didn't really care. This game is super close to being amazing if it wasn't dragged down by Act 2 and a slightly unfocused story, but I really enjoy what's here.