Honestly I played it because the combat is fun. I still pay it now because the combat is fun.

I enjoyed it a lot more once I accepted the fact that it wasn't a character driven game. I guess I went into it with lower expectations, I wasn't expecting massive character development nor the most mindblowing story as it was originally a handheld title and very few handheld titles have ever really provided me with an experience on that level.

I just took it as more of an episodic story, with certain events linking each chapter together. The story is certainly flawed, considering it took me 3 playthroughs to unlock enough of the Rubicus to finally figure out what the smurf was going on.

But eh, I just go back to it from time to time, replay missions I enjoyed. I like that I can do that. Sometimes I want to go back to FFVII and just do like... the end of disc one again, but don't want to have play through 20 hours of game to get there.

I definitely get the not wanting to go back too it. I had that during my 2nd playthrough (as my copy got delivered early so it was my weekend, so my first playthrough was pretty much a binge). There was nothing really calling me back to it until I got really bored one day and just booted it up again. It definitely doesn't have that "hook"