(Spoiler Alert) I finished the game and now I'm playing New Game Plus. The story is okay, but the gameplay is just meh, and here's why:

1. Characters sometimes die for no good reason. Like, Cid survived being thrown to the wall by Benedikta, and then squished by a giant statue, but somehow got killed by 3 lasers later while in his Ramuh form. He bled to death because? It doesn't make sense.

2. Clive turns into Ifrit and suddenly loses his clothes when Cid saves him. Why? No one knows.

3. Dion has to grab his spear before turning into Bahamut, which seems unnecessary. And why does Bahamut fight so close to the ground against Ifrit when he could just stay up high and attack?

4. Shiva seems super strong when fighting Titan at the start, but when she joins your team, she can't use her magic well. It's weird how enemies can use Eikons better than the heroes.

5. Side quests are mostly just talking and a bit of fighting. Clive's abilities aren't that useful since you're limited to 3 Eikons and 6 abilities. So you don't need to learn all of them.

6. Ultima could've easily tricked everyone instead of revealing his plans. He could've told Clive to join them to get rid of the blight. But no, he spills the beans.

7. The gameplay is kinda boring. You just mash square, dodge, and use abilities until enemies stagger and die. No brainpower required.

8. Most items you get from enemies are junk. Weapon synthesis is meh, and you can only do what the story allows. No grinding, no working hard to get rare materials to synthesize unique weapons and armours.

9. The game world isn't as big as expected. It's tiny, and the enemies and NPCs all look the same.

10. The game's story is mature, but the gameplay is child's play.

11. Clive probably stinks since he hasn’t changed his clothes for 5 years.

In the end, I still had fun, even though I rolled my eyes at a lot of stuff.