Nearly every aspect of this game is perfect. This is the true final fantasy essence in full swing.
Game play wise, it played similarly to the 3D counterparts to the series , and it does it well. The improved ATB system was a very nice addition and made the game play a lot more smoothly. The amount of side quests was good as well. There weren't too many and most of them could be done along the way of playing, and that made the game play so much smoother rather then back tracking.
Of course story is the most important aspect of the game. The cut scenes where very stylish and well done, completely expected of Square, but its still amazing to see them. My only fault with the scenes is that the backgrounds seemed a bit over-stylized, thus making them a tad pixelated but it was manageable as the game progressed.
Character/ background design was great for the game. Every thing looked like it flowed and you can easily tell what one thing was when next to something else.
The only way I felt that the game lacked was the difficulty spike in monsters towards the end of the game, on the other hand, this is common for Final Fantasy game, personally, that's something I thought square should have worked on.
In my personal opinion, this is the best final fantasy game to be released in this point in time.