I kinda like the uncertainty and dread. It might be the same one

Because it's cool. It's surreal and conveys time compressing into one single point like the narrative says is happening. You're fighting all sorts of sorceresses from across time, all of which were likely hated and persecuted and have become vengeful just like Ultimicia. It's a melancholy but extremely dramatic moment in which all those who support Ultimicia's plan as they too feel her anger come together in an attempt to stop you(or, maybe she's actually controlling all of them, which is equally sad and horrifying), it lends a sense of finality, scope, and the breaking of the cycle in regards to Rinoa to the climax of the game, I think. Plus it's just artsily directed and the music really sets the tone perfectly. And the way they come one after the other, each one getting replaced when you kill one, gives it the sense of an ordeal and like it's not going to end(even if it's really easy to kill them if you're as OP as I was lol). It's like "just look at how many you're up against" both in terms of an obstacle and how many support or are controlled by Ultimicia. You wouldn't have been able to tell why it was so good as a kid but some part of you probably felt it.

I wouldn't say that, it'd say it's just very polarizing. Pretty evenly split between people who love it and people who hate it.

The writing fell off past disc 1.

I mean, I had to live in the shadow of Final Fantasy seven. Also, the story was pretty all over the place. But if you take it as a genuine individual experience, it’s one of the best of all time.

@@ElectricBarrier the battle system and music are definitely top notch.

Quality is sometimes seen as an offense.

Final Fantasy back then had a lot of body horror design. Amano and Nomura always liked a fusion between classical painting/sculpture such as Michaelangelo and body horror such as HR Giger. That, combined by the "jagged" animation from those times, giving a sensation of creepyness.

I don't think so, I mean maybe Uematsu got a little lazy and took bits from an unused 7 song, but it includes parts of a recurring leitmotif in it so at the very least the song as we know it was made for this game.

Edea was supposed to be in FF7 too.

Edea was a design intended for FF7, but they couldn't fit her in. The 'sorceress' songs such as this one(Premonition) and Succession Of Witches were made using the same motifs found in FF7. But the songs themselves were not intended for FF7, only Edea was. But since Edea was designed around the concept of "7", so was the motifs of songs relating to her.