The story is hilariously convoluted and quite a bit cliche (at least by today's standards), and the number of deaths in this game would make George R. R. Martin weep, but overall it's not a bad game. There's a lot of customization you can do with the job system, depending on what you need at a given time. I would recommend having a second character get a few levels into jobs you have maxed with another character, just for an extra bit of wiggle room as far as abilities go, but even if you keep it one job per character, it won't be too much of an inconvenience. I'm currently 45 hours into a game, and I'd estimate that I'm about 2/3 through the story, so for those who enjoy a longer playthrough, this is perfect. Compared to other FF titles, it isn't even that grindy. Level progression is handled very well, and I haven't really had to grind levels to keep up with the mobs/bosses. I did grind out all of the jobs once I had all of them, but I did it in an area with high AP low XP, so my levels barely increased. Unlike, say, FFIV where I had to grind for about four hours to reach the level 70 achievement requirement, I'm confident that I'll reach the level 50 achievement requirement for this game just through natural game play. So yeah, if you're a fan of JRPGs and/or FF in particular, I'd highly recommend playing this game.

I enjoyed this one a lot, I think the story is really fleshed out and I think they perfected the jobs system over III. My biggest gripe is that a lot of bosses have nonsense gimmicks that feel like they're in place to counter over-grinding. The three freaks is a good example. I played the whole thing with a 4x exp boost because I struggled with bosses 3 hours in so take this review as you wish.

What a long epic journey. This one really steps it up in every way compared to the first four. The job system is fantastic here.