How's the game? I haven't played a Japanese RPG extensively since FFVII. I played a little of VIII but quit quickly and retired the franchise after that. I'm hearing decent things about this game.
It's good, but flawed. FFVII was the last JRPG I played to completion as well (I dabbled in a few since, but never completed). They make you walk far more than you should, but once you open up the map, you can fast travel to found locations. You definitely need patience, but I've had fun regardless. I thought the whole road trip thing was dumb at first, but now I find it endearing.
The voice acting is (as always with JRPGs and Anime) hit or miss and the dialogue is a tad unnatural, but the characters are growing on me regardless, so that says something. I actually enjoy the food and camping mechanics. The game is just
different, and that's a good thing.
The combat is very different too, and I actually really like it. It feels like teamwork and has a lot of cool camerawork and animations while fighting. It's actually viable to scan targets and find their weaknesses. It keeps me changing weapons, spells, special moves, etc. Spells are basically magic bombs you make and throw, but can be extremely large and powerful (very cool making a fire bomb that turns to a blizzard that covers the area). Just don't give them to your teammates, as they tend to use them when you are too close. You can change weapons on the fly too, as well as change slots and specials mid-fight. Very cool.
The downside is while there is some fantastic design, animation, and lighting, it's very blurry (on the X1, at least, with frame pacing issues on PS4 and Pro). There is a LOT of (imo) unnecessary walking/ waiting to park/ long drives/ etc. There are times when the game ignores my inputs. Lots of filler (though I don't mind) side quests and the like. The imperial troops dropping in in the middle of a battle, while kinda cool in throwing you off guard, can be annoying if it's a hard fight already.
I bought it not expecting to love it, but I can't put it down, lol. Hope that helps.