Played this because everyone on the game forum I used to post in praised it to hell and back for being a hidden gem. I found it to be mostly alright.
It looks nice, the timed attacks mechanic is cool and the plot is solid, but it doesn't really do anything outstanding.
Maybe for hardcore jrpg fans this might be pretty good comfort food (not every game has to reinvent the wheel), but for someone like me who isn't all that much into rpgs in general this is pretty much the poster child for "generic PS1 rpg" to me.