EDIT: This review was my first time playing this game(or any FF).

This is quite possibly THE best game I've ever played in my life, as well as(technically) the first and only Final Fantasy I've ever played. I'm not too knowledgable on the "Final Fantasy politics" but what I do know is that this game is, still to this day, known as one of the best Final Fantasy games ever and boy are there a lot of reasons to love this game beyond "just to kill time". Do note that, like all reviews, this is my opinion and facts mixed e.g. discuss the gameplay, give my opinion. So, let's get on with this review, goof ball!

STORY

The story is, to put it bluntly, ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ AMAZING. From the screenshots, you should immedietally get a medieval-fantasy vibe to it, and you're not wrong at all. That's basically what 90% of the game is. Similar to previous FF games, it also has eidolon / summoner magic, and steam-themed stuff, such as airships(specifically this, to be honest). The story, for the most part, focuses on two main characters(emotional romance relationship rather than physical), one sub-main character, and the rest being side characters / not as important as the others. The story's overall point also doesn't boil down to "bad guy is bad, must save world". It has some legitimate morals and ideas in the story, regardless of whethernot you've heard them before. An example is a character who feels "out of place" because of who they are, but finds strength in the friends they are with as a reason to continue living.

It took me about 50~ hours, with the fast-forwarding feature(will explain this later) to bypass grinding and monotony in the minigame(s), while not getting *everything*, but most of it. So, if you don't use the fast-forwarding feature, I'd say about 60-70 hours of a single playthrough. That's pretty lengthy for a $23.99 game and guess what? The pacing of the game? I'd say it was nearly perfect(nothing is ever perfect), so much so that I never felt bored or annoyed at any point of the game. It all flowed very nicely. In reality, there is a lot I can't(won't) say about the story itself without spoiling anything, so unfortunately you have to experience it yourself. The FF series is a series of quality and experience. All I can personally say is it involves eidolons(basically summoning titan-like creatures, such as the Leviathan, Bahamut(King of Dragons), and an Ifrit(fire spirit)) and a lot of bad stuff happening. The ending is FANTASTIC. It's worth it to sit through the credits and just get this big wave of amazement thrown at you. It was a great feel and it's probably going to stick around for a while.

GAMEPLAY

The gameplay is your standard JRPG - turnbased. There's two combat options. Active, and Wait. Active means that the battle is in real-time(the action bar that fills up, when full a person's turn is then ready to be queued) all the time, so be careful when choosing that. I had some annoying moments because of it. Wait, on the other hand, pauses time when you open up a menu e.g. Attack menu, item menu, etc. I personally prefer Active as it puts you on edge, especially with many of the bosses, given that you don't over-grind earlier on like me. The "Limit Break" or "Powered Up" system in this game is built up by being hurt and the gained abilities last about 3~ turns with varying abilities depending on the character. Mages get 2 spell casts per turn, and the rest get improved versions of an ability or "limit break" abilities.

The minigames are pretty straight forward. There's a digging minigame with a chocobo, a 99% irrelevant and entirely-for-fun card minigame, an auction house, a frog-catching minigame, an annoying skip-rope minigame, and a very tiring race minigame. Only 3 of those are required to get beneficial items(with exception of the auction house which lets you get certain items earlier than usual, if you can afford it). Hint : It doesn't include the last two, so skip them if you become frustrated, it's not worth it. At all.

GRAPHICS

The graphics are PS1-era graphics but sort-of-kind-of improved slightly. They don't look a whole lot different from the PS1 version's graphics but the backgrounds... Now that's where people were annoyed when this game was originally ported. From what I recall, the backgrounds, at the very least besides everything else, weren't able to be recovered. So, essentially what they did was take picture of the backgrounds and use those. That's why they have a pastel-esque look to them on some(most in my opinion) of the backgrounds. Now all of that out of the way, I think what is specifically amazing is the animation cinematics. They easily still hold up today and they look AMAZING. There are a few moments in the game where they have the in-game character model with the animated cinematics playing around it, and it looks amazing, but the cinematics themselves are just fascinatingly beautiful to look at, and they still hold up today.

MUSIC

I feel like JRPGs(asian-made games in general, I guess?) specifically put in the time and effort to focus on the music because music adds to context, provides atmosphere, and overall just sets the mood/emotion of anything. It's never a bad thing to have music alongside a narrative. Is the music good in this game? Yes, it's amazing, just like my terrible ability to create suspense in my overall point. The battle music and fanfare fit together nicely, and the different music used for different types of scenes (e.g. heartfelt scenes never had unfitting music) and, best of all, the boss music for specific battles was amazing, specifically the pivotal villain's theme/boss music. I loved it. Overall, the music was great. Think how Chrono Cross did it music, and you'll get the idea. Everything fit perfectly. The music was like the cherry-on-top of the amazing game-cake, ESPECIALLY the credits music, again similar to Chrono Cross in how amazing it was.

OTHER STUFF

Other stuff that I'm not confidently able to fit into anywhere else

Synthesis is basically an item-creation system in which you synthesise(combine) two items to create one. Chemistry, everyone! Except with solid objects, and not necessarily with chemicals.

Lots of secrets(Example being two secret bosses that I found, but there's a couple more I think, depending on whether not you do everything in the game, e.g. a side-quest at the end of the game).

Achievements, which is a nice addition.

You DO NOT need to be max level to beat the game. I beat it with a level 60~ party, and beat the secret optional boss at around the same level. Most of the game is about tactics / knowing how to deal with status effects, certain abilities, etc.

There are certain features(7 "Game Boosters") that were added to this port, that mainly serve to allow you to enjoy the story and not worry about grinding, difficulty, etc. I'm going to speed-fire them.

Toggle on / off : 9999 damage, fast forward(double speed(I think, possibly more) but doesn't affect the in-game's clock, which means timed sequences are unaffected), full Trance(limit break), no encounters.

Permanent on save : master all skills upon equipping respective item, max ability stones & level, max GIL.

If you find a golden toad and don't have the achievement yet, save then catch it, and reload. It is very much a benefit to having it in a swamp and there's no actual benefit to catching it. The benefit also only applies to the current swamp it resides in, the mentioned benefit being faster frog respawn/growth rates.

Feedback on the review would be nice. I like writing reviews and I'm trying to finding more games I'm passionate about. This game was amazing and all of this came from the heart/mind/etc. Tried to be genuine in what I thought about the game. It truly is THE best game I've ever played in my whole life to-date and I love games with an amazing story, so check this out if you want a good story as well as a good JRPG.

Cheers!