Just finished the main story in NG+. Thoughts on it since it has been 4 years since I played this. Granted wasn't going to do a NG, that would have been a nightmare. Did it on Bringer of Chaos.
First thing BoC is an awful difficulty setting IMO. Mostly cause of rage strike that can deplete the party gauge. Which limits your options and makes fights more tedious rather than makes them more difficult. Avoid it unless you just want to beat it on max difficulty.
Normally I am the type that doesn't like telling people to wait till it will gets good. Ch. 1 -4 can be a mixed bag in all honesty. Ch 1 starts great. Ch 2 is meh for the most part. Ch. 3 is really good. Ch. 4 really feels underwhelming. But once you get to ch. 5, the game and the story become classic JRPG status to me. The writing takes a huge step up and the game's main story takes itself seriously. I don't blame anyone for dropping it within the first 4 chapters, but just say if you can make it to ch. 5 you are set for a ride.
Altho this game's humor can be hit or miss. Granted I prefer when it takes itself seriously, but some of the shyt they put into the side quests and Heart 2 Hearts is so ridiculous.
It mostly has to do with the smaller cast, but each of the 5 members of the main cast is pretty well developed. Even Morag and Tora. People shyt on the dub, but Malos, Morag, Bridgid, and Poppi VA's were outstanding. (Why does Poppi make me so emotional
). Villains are all great. The only great villain in 1 was Egil. And we got 3 villains on that level. Kind of crazy to me since so many JRPG's end up having mid villains.
Combat is great. Altho my setups were kind of OP, so the only way I could get a challenge was to do challenge mode. And wasn't really interested in doing that. Music was
frame one of it turning on.
One thing I do gotta shyt this game on is the navigation. It is fukking trash and I am surprised I never realized that in my first playthrough. You got these massive areas. But you don't get a line tracker on the map as you do in XC DE. do in DE. But what is even worse is the fact that the compass only tells you with respect for the mark on the map. Meaning it will only tell you the distance from it and whether you are above, below, or at the level of the destination point. Exploration is neat in this game, but there are points in Gormatt and Tantal where it becomes so confusing, and it's so easy to get lost. Thank god it got fixed in DE.
Honestly, the only new JRPG's I could put above this in the PS4/Switch era would be DQ 11, Ys Viii, and Automata. Still stands as one of my favorites despite its flaws.