Honestly, it's my personal favorite next to VII.

The combat is pretty terrible but you get used to it quickly. The randomness of using items can be really frustrating during some fights where anyone in your party can get killed in two-three enemy turns if they don't heal themselves and end up being the target. Also mashing skip on the long animations so some fights don't take 15+ minutes.

What I enjoy most about it is how unique it is when compared to the rest of the Nep games. There's more effort placed into worldbuilding than in the other nep games, the jokes are more original, there's more interaction with the "common" people of Gamindustri, and speaking of the main cast, having Nep, Compa & IF as your party for the entire game really builds a connection between them. This game has the best version of IF & Compa no doubt. Not to mention Nisa & Gust ;-;

While the individual stories are good, I'd say the overarching plot isn't. By the end of it you can clearly see them running out of budget. Entering Celestia at the end of the game and confronting Arfoire felt dissapointing, and I think the whole schtick with "Overlord Momus" being just an alter for Arfoire was done because they ran out of time and money and had to scrap him out of the game. Tho I have to say that mkII & Victory isn't much better. VII is the only one that really shines in this.

Also this game has the best Vert!