>>3836174
Optional bloat is good. Chocobo Hot & Cold was comfy.
>>3836163
AUTISM WARNING:
For me it mainly fails in its cast dynamics/interactions beyond what the MC and his relationships offer (a lot of jrpgs do, however). It's a metric I personally put a lot of value into and therefore even beloved games can fall short. They had something really nice going with ATEs and it was painfully underutilized. When people praise the game they usually are talking about the story/characters and I'm always puzzled because I played the same game and don't feel that strongly about it. For me what I loved was the setting, gameplay, and like you said the "polish" on the idea of FF. But for the story itself I really only liked Vivi's arc and not much else after Brahne's death.