I never wanted to play this game, but then I fell in love with it.
When "The Great Gaias" was first released, it was obvious how much work the developers must have poured into this game, but I thought this game wasn't for me. Too many characters, too strongly influenced (optically and mechanically) by WRPGs, too difficult (according to early players) - I had avoided games for less. Yet, every time this game was on sale, I pondered: Should I give it a chance? Six years after its release, when I had nothing else to play, I finally bought it - and played the hell out of it (175+ hours).
The story is enjoyable in particular. The player's party has to prevent the resurfacing of an evil entity that could only be sealed (and not killed) by the "Warriors of Light" 1000 years ago. Basically, the player's party is composed of the "Children of Light", reborn souls of the "Warriors of Light", and they have to bring to an end what the heroes of old failed to do. Unfortunately, the enemy's generals are immortal and had 1000 years to prepare, stacking the deck against the player. There are a lot of plot twists, which contribute to an epic adventure journey. What's most impressive are the characters and the world-building. Everything is connected in the present and to the past (most of which can be read at any time in the game's extensive journal), every party member and enemy general has a relatable background story or plays at least a suitable role. To name a few: Protagonist Pots wants to atone for a crime he committed in the game's early hours (which is related to Virgil, another party member that tries to control and improve his magic), Elric wants to investigate his noble father's cause of death, Atrius wants revenge for having been forced to flee from his home country. All these stories play into the greater narrative, where broken countries and conflicts are prevalent, which makes the people of the free nations unable to unite against the looming threat. Much time is spent to deal with all these trouble spots while traveling around the world (per pedes in the beginning, later also via ship and airship). Many quirky characters (17 in total), like the overly righteous paladin Wein, the gluttonous dwarf Bruger (not Burger!) or the spiritual elf Kaelas, join the party along the way. Though nothing ground-breaking, story and characters are simply top-notch. It's not a completely new burger (not Bruger!), but the best indie JRPG story/characters burger I've ever tasted.
Fortunately, the gameplay is great, too. The ATB (Active Time Bar) battles (with an automatic wait function) are a lot of fun, since each party member is useful and has a wide variety of skills at their disposal. Pots can steal from enemies (especially unique stuff from bosses) and gets a lot of turns due to his high dexterity, and the physical and magical attackers are all strong and weak against particular enemies. There are three difficulty settings (only one can be chosen at the beginning, which can't be changed later), but the lower settings only offer a few minor bonuses (like being able to keep AP, a resource that is gathered during battles and can be spent to use skills, between battles). I played the game on the highest difficulty setting and didn't break a sweat most of the time. While I'm known to grind a lot and crazy-prepare, I'm sure the game's difficulty has been dumbed down over the years due to popular demand. Long story short, the game is (only) moderately difficult, apart from the hellish true ending final boss.
The game offers a lot of optional content, and only by completing certain optional tasks will the player be able to pursue the game's true ending (the normal ending pales in comparison, but contains a really cool post-credits scene). Despite featuring a few one-time-only areas, nothing of importance (in-game) is permanently missable (including the true ending), and Firefly130984 has written a great walkthrough that covers everything (including the slightly confusing city building side quest). Two achievements are permanently missable, though (both times the player needs to survive long enough against strong opponents), and some obscure things are explained in the walkthrough, but not anywhere in the game (like the opportunity to unlock stronger versions of the final bosses by completing the most difficult side quest as soon as possible). Also, it's great to know beforehand that players will gain an advantage if they level up their party members equally (at least in the beginning), since all party members must be used at some points (especially in chapters III and V). A perfect playthrough requires a bit of planning ahead, but if you've played JRPGs for decades, just do what you always do (although on a much larger scale) and you'll be fine.
You either love them or hate them: The game features a variety of mini-games. Like in earlier Final Fantasy games, you'll encounter many mini-games, but each one only once or twice. Be it "Obstacle course" (while fleeing from a falling boulder) or boulder-pushing, all the classics are there. The same is true with regards to a lot of clever (but not overly demanding) puzzles (beware, though, that two of the not so entertaining puzzles require the player to examine objects in a particular order). Dungeon/area design is fantastic, too; there's a lot to discover and the player is confronted with some decent pathfinding challenges, even when puzzles aren't involved. Dungeons could be a bit longer (the final dungeon as a mere boss rush dungeon is even particularly disappointing), but the sheer number and variety of them easily make up for this nitpick.
Beware, though, that the game can be grindy at times, especially when it comes to the extensive crafting system. Most of the good stuff is tied to achievements, so you'll probably want to craft all these equipment pieces. The problem being, though: They require a ton of money (which is hard to come by) and a lot of crafting materials, which must be gained from enemies (drop or steal items), by breaking equipment into its components and/or by buying them from expensive vendors. My guess is that most players - like me - have long reached maximum level (99) with all party members while still trying to craft everything. At least you can partially choose how much work you want to invest. Is it absolutely essential to craft Charm Bracelets (which nullify most status conditions) and Speed Shoes (which waste your precious Dragon Hides) for all party members? No, of course not. Does it feel good and make the game easier? Hell yeah!
Thanks to a lot of custom resources and decent mapping, the game looks really pretty, though the mapping isn't completely devoid of obstruction mapping errors. Speaking of which, I encountered a handful of (mostly insignificant) bugs during my playthrough, but given the game's complexity and scale, they aren't really worth mentioning. The game is in a very polished state, and thankfully, you can save anywhere, which reduces the chance of losing progress even further. A few other nitpicks come to mind, like the clunky party members change mechanic, the improvable mob enemy variety, the fact that most of the hidden items are composed of random loot, and a few orthographical/grammatical errors in the otherwise superb script, but that's it. Even when the game is only decent at some points (instead of great), it's never really bad. A lot of highlights, and even the lowlights are decent - you can't ask for anything more than that.
I had a great time playing this game, and I would even go so far and say that it's a masterpiece and one of my favorite indie JRPGs of all times. Since having played through this game, I'm having a hard time enjoying less epic JRPGs. Whether judging it by itself or comparing it to other games, I'm sure you won't regret giving "The Great Gaias" a chance. Be smarter than me, don't wait six years to give it a try.
