Just got my ass up to the Cleyra Settlement. Haven't played through the whole game in a few years (6?) so I'm going to give some updated thoughts on what's good, bad, ugly, etc:

Bad:
- Encounter rate is far too high in general. The world map is totally reasonable as far as random encounters, but in-door 'dungeon' areas are just ludicrous in spots. The worst offenders so far have been the Cleyra Trunk and Gizamaluke's Grotto. The issue is exacerbated because of the hidden treasure/"!" bubble interactions making you want to look in every non-descript corner.

- Why can't the game just tell me which items teach which skills before I buy them? Gil and buying stuff isn't necessarily a huge hassle, but seriously why is this information hidden until I've bought the damn sword?

Ugly:
- Battles are wayyyyy too slow. This has always been an issue for me with this game. It makes the a lot experience feel sluggish when it should be upbeat and energetic. Can you imagine FFIX with FFX's speedy battle system?

- The main character is a thief and yet I'm always getting "Couldn't steal anything" messages. Ughhhhhhhh.

Good:
- Everything else. The world is beautifully crafted and the amount of detail is super impressive. Square knew how to do world building back then and most companies should go back and take notes. These days world-building goes into an in-game encyclopedia which updates whenever you cross within 50 miles of the relevant object. Old FF did world building by scattering it across well-directed sequences, NPC dialogue, or wherever else fit logically within the actual game world. No talking heads spouting paragraphs of who-gives-a-trout made-up fantasy lore. Just the perfect amount of drips and drops where they need to be. Amazing.

Really looking forward to getting back to the game this week. Hoping I'll be able to polish it off before Ni no Kuni comes out at the end of Jan.