Yeah OFF's gameplay is by far it's most debilitating part, the story, themes, music, and atmosphere are all handled wonderfully however. But yeah OFF is just a little too basic for an RPG (edit: in terms of gameplay).
At this point whenever I go back to OFF I just go for easy combat because yeah I agree the battles are nothing interesting.
It doesn't help when bosses feel like damage sponges, I've always felt 'when does it end?'.
@Mint Felt the same until I started using status effects. Expected Bracket for ez win
@ColdCallerLoopy It definitely left its impression on me. Also game me a good soundtrack to listen back to. As far as combat goes, I'll give it a pass since it's been such a long time since I've played an RPG. Felt good to press a button and have something happen.
Been a while since I've played any game really. Gotta go back to Cave Story at some point and see how I feel about it.