I'll preface this by saying I'm extremely biased in my enjoyment for this game. With that in mind...

Is it the best game ever? Not really, no, I could name lots of games that I think would be better, especially within the broad category of "turn-based japanese role playing game." I'd say this game has a special kind of magic though, that turned it into one of my favorite games ever.

I remember I found this game at a flea market, and picked it up on a whim because I thought the cover looked cool. I hadn't really played many RPGs which give you, the player, a role in the game, no matter how small, so I thought the idea of having you be the Guardian Spirit and playing a role in the story was unique. I thought the opening scenes and the buildup they had to be pretty interesting. I got into a battle, and thought the music was pretty cool, leading up to the first boss. I made it to the serpent guarding the end magnus, that's when something clicked in my mind- I knew then I was going to be in for one hell of a ride.

I played that game whenever I could, and it turned into something of an obsession, wondering how the plot would go, wondering just what else was around the corner. It came together beautifully in the end, and I enjoyed it greatly, and it left an effect on me even 10 years after.

I do admit that there's some... peculiar choices in the game, which do get resolved in Origins (Why is there no way to dump dead cards from your hand? Why does the decision timer diminishing get so absurdly short at the end? Why do the npcs and some of your player characters have such questionable voice work?) but even then it's still a great time if you can look past it.

Thankfully, the game was brought over to the Switch in the HD Remaster, so more people can enjoy it now. I haven't put as much time as I should unfortunately, but I'm looking forward to it when my backlog is brought down to size.