A quick disclaimer to start: I haven't played this in over 13 years, so obviously I can't say anything about the PC port job or the anniversary edition itself, but this is a game that I can still remember, for a few reasons. On the positive side, the English voice acting is very good, and thank goodness for that, since that was the only option on the version I played at the time. I remember almost nothing about the story, but I remember enjoying it. And the combat system is fun and allows for a lot of experimentation, and kept me hooked for most of the game. Until it didn't. I normally take a cautious and thoughtful approach to combat in these kinds of games, and this game rewarded that approach, near the end, by enabling me to take the initiative in every single non-boss combat, and not only suffer absolutely no damage from any enemies, but not even give a single enemy creature a single turn within combat. This sounds like fun, and it is... until I realized that "near the end" of the game still has 10 to 20 hours to it, and about 90 to 95 percent of that became tediously annihilating basic enemy after basic enemy, through multiple screens each with 20 or so fights, just to get to one boss fight to advance the story. I probably would have given up, but I'd already put so much time into it, and I wanted to finish the story. Which I did. And I'm glad I did, but I never intended to ever touch it again. Perhaps this "Hard Mode" is exactly what I need, but I just can't be bothered. I had a hard time choosing how many stars to give this. It gets an awful lot right, and I would easily believe that the downsides were entirely due to me defeating my own enjoyment of the game, so I do believe that your mileage may vary, and I still recommend it to anyone with an interest in the genre.
