The freedom to look and move around with a mouse instead of buttons made it really popular. And back in those days you got your reviews from the school canteen.
Gacha is addictive as hell if you grew up with Pokemon and Final Fantasy both huge in Japan. I play a few as well for boredom and yes the weird atmosphere of whales (account with thousands invested) being awkwardly silent but have a following of pretenders.
This was also my first intro to city sims. The sound was a blast, the graphics fresh. Then SimCity 4 came out followed by Simtropolis and a thriving culture of modders and cityplanners in arms it was great.
For me it’s not fanboyism more like vibing on nostalgia, Zelda, Smash Bros, Pokemon (RGBXYZ whatever), top down rpgs, Mario Party - Kart. And probably some crossovers like Metal Gear Solid. But gonna wait at least a year untill considering buying. The Steamdeck is comparable but much of it never going to use although still interested
The best part starts at the train rails all the way to the canyon level and waking up in a processing plant. It’s a huge chunk of the single player mode that was full of action.
I like both, Final Fantasy IV and Chrono Trigger are still good. Recently did some digging in the videogame history RPG’s and Mother(Earthbound) was one of the first if not the first in this style looking back it does look like a template game.