This game is just peak. It's cinema. Best soundtrack since Final Fantasy VIII, best story told in a JRPG, they refuse to pull any punches when it comes to making you feel some of the most uncomfortable emotions a human can experience. The characters feel real, flawed, lovable, hateable, human. The story beats are jawdropping from the first 10 minutes all the way to the end with some of the most well thought out and brilliantly foreshadowed plot twists in a narrative game I've ever seen.

The combat system is fantastic, a mix of real time parrying and dodging with turn-based combat inspired by Persona. However it is where my very very few criticisms of this game come in. The majority of enemy attacks have a very specific sound cue for when you need to parry, on normal and hard mode this is a 6 frame window for you to not take damage. However, on about 10% of enemy attacks, this sound cue flat out does not exist, and even on some attacks that have the cue, there are other sound effects for the attack happening near simultaneously so that your ear cannot reliably differentiate the sound because of the interval between the two. This makes certain boss fights a slog if you're insane like me and are playing nothing but glass cannons and trying to be a parry lord.

The game is breathtakingly gorgeous, the landscapes in this game belong in a museum of fine art. The last boss fights are in some of the most incredible locations you could ever put into a game.

This game is a work of art, a true once in a generation masterpiece that stands toe-to-toe with some of the giants of its genre and holds its own. This is the Final Fantasy IV, the Chrono Trigger, the Final Fantasy VII of this generation. It wears its influences on its sleeves while taking only the best parts of each and transforming it into something wholly unique and beautiful. I honestly cannot believe this game got made in the age that we're in but here we are.