Wait, wouldn't comparing something to SaGa be an insult? Last I heard, that series wasn't well respected. But then again, that was 10 or 20 years ago.I don't think it was mediocre, but it was safe with gorgeous visuals + amazing music carrying it. The second part is pure unfiltered stuff that elevates to SaGa tier.
My main problem with part 1 was that it was a pastiche of 90's JRPGs (especially Sakaguchi's) with some weird pacing and narrative issues. For example, the opening which starts off like the FFVII bombing run in the CGI, only to stop dead in it's tracks as soon as you get control of the player. Almost felt machine generated. And I was thinking that before chat GPT came out. On top of that, they never really went anywhere with the battle system in part 1.
The second half was a wonderful surprise though. It really felt like the writers had just wrote filler for part one just so they could get to part 2. That's where it grabbed me. The gameplay suddenly became inspired. The OST started kicking. It was great!
Honestly, I kind of hope that they don't do a straight port of Fantasian to consoles or PC. Rather, I hope they use a potential port as an excuse to redevelop the game and fix up the 1st half. video games, especially JRPGs, can't really be developed properly in halves like a tv show can. I think the 1st half ended up underbaked because of the weird release scheme.
If they can bring up the 1st half to the same quality as the second half, I think we'd possible have the best turn-based JRPG in over a decade. It'd be a perfect swan song for Sakaguchi, whose in his 60's now and half-retired in Hawaii.
Sorry if I come of as a big too negative of the 1st part of the game.