It just feels like a typical hero’s journey. Kinda like Harry Potter. Feels like they wanted to keep it simple and lean more into the world, but yeah I think the lack of personalities hurt it. That’s actually a problem with all final fantasies. The characters feel flat. At least in 7 and 8 they had mysterious backgrounds and powers
9 is well known for its characters and its core is almost exclusively built around the philosophical theme of each character (Devotion, indulgence, dilemma, virtue, existentialism, solitude, dealing with despair, and so on)
Hence why it's still probably my favourite (depending on my mood)
I hardly remember the story. I just remember 7-10 being the golden years with the second half of 8 being the weakest point, and some of the side scrollery parts of 10 being redundant.
I hope they remake 9! They keep teasing about it