Well, not bad, but disappointing for a remake of an all-time classic. 87 for now, but based on how metacritic is more often than not front-loaded, that could easily drop to 86 or lower within the next week or two. People can say that's an improvement on FFXV (if you ignore the far more complete Windows Edition which scored 85), but I'd argue the jump from 81 to 86/87, is not as significant as the jump from 86/87 to 91+, based on the amount of perfect reviews and unanimous acclaim it requires.
Now we try comparing it to other remakes of classics, like Resident Evil 2 or Shadow of the Colossus which both scored 91; or in just a couple months Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition which is another JRPG that will likely score deep in the 90s, and while it won't have the production value it will have 3-5x the content for the same price. Then if we branch outside of JRPGs to RPGs in general, Cyberpunk 2077 releases this year, will have similar production value, and will also have 2-3x the content, not including the inherent replay value with it's character creation and choices.
So far, I haven't seen much to argue against the view that they should've lowered expectations by selling it cheaper (maybe US$40). I'm also seeing a lot of frustration and confusion about whether we'll be waiting 6 years for the next installment, whether it'll take until the PS6 to finish the story, whether progress will transfer over between games. But this is the kind of screwing around we should honestly expect from Squeenix by now, especially when Nomura is at the helm of anything.
Overall, still pretty good if not great, but not ideal. For anyone trying to ask people how they would've handled this project, I'd remind you that it's not our job to create their games, and that no one asked them to split it into parts in the first place. If Square and Nomura are gonna keep coming up with these grand ideas which require an inordinate amount of dev time and ridiculously bloated budgets, they're the ones that actually have to justify it at some point. If they could actually deliver on the expectations they keep setting for themselves, people wouldn't have to keep coming to their defense every time they release one of these games.
Anyway, that's about all I can say until I actually get to play the game. Score is about where I thought it'd be, which is also about the bare minimum for me to lean towards buying a digital copy, as opposed to waiting a couple weeks in hopes that we'll be out of lockdown at the earliest possible time. So I'm honestly still on the fence right now, and the price is my biggest issue.