I hate having more then 2-3 rank10 review's but this one deserves it.
Gameplay:
The gameplay style in this game changed quite a bit from the previous finaly fantasy game's. It added the Junction system, which can be very hard to learn if you don't read the tutorial, and it also added a trigger system in battles to make your summon's do more damage. Basically with that, you hold I belive select and it prompts you to mash the triangle button, the higher you get the scre to go, the more damage you can do. Caution, Do Not Break Your Finger XD. Also the magic system is very different, you dont buy or fidn magic like in the previous games, you extract it from mosnter's and hold it untill you find a good time to use it in battle, ex. You steal 4 Fire spells from a bird, the next fight you steal 5 Fire's from a bird, you now have 9 total to use when you want, when you hit 0 you are out of luck though, so be picky when you use certain spells. Overall, very unique and very great gameplay, even the character special attack's take some skill, ex. Zell, when you take him into his Hyper mode, you have to hit a different combination of button's to make him use his specials in a short period of time, if your good you can slaughter monsters horribly by keeping him at low HP so he can abuse his special. I got to the point where I could get about 15 of these off and finish with a power move, it's great to learn. Anyway's thats enough on this topic, moving on.
Graphic's:
Just like FF7 I'm going to rate it a 10, here is why. I rate game's as if they just came out, and when FF8 came out, the graphics were really really good for it's time. I was almost shocked to see the character model had fingers! The map's were great as alway's, the cinematic's were outstanding at the time. I thought FF7 was great, but this really blew me away at the time.
Sound:
A very high point to this game. I say it once I'll say it again, Nobuo is possibly one of the best video game music composer's out there, and he never fails to make a great song. I don't know how he can make so many amazing song's but he somehow does... Overall, flawless music and sound.
Value:
The value on this game is great. After I beat it I found myself wanting to play it again. Collect all the card's for the addicting card game, get all the guardian force's (summons), do all the side quests etc. The story is great and executed very well, no loss in points here.
Overall this game is awsome, another masterpiece, and unfortuantely to me, it was the last Final Fantasy game I could give a 10 or even a 9, 8... I really will miss the day's when I looked forward to these game's, anymore I just look forward to being a bit disappointed. This game is great to me because it reminds me of when the FF series was in it's prime, some may argue, but that's just my opinion.
Sidenotes:
Try not to level your character to much. In this game, monster's level up as you do. They start at a base level ex. lv10, and can level to 25 if you do sometimes. Just somethin to look out for if you find the game getting harder and harder. UPGRADE YOUR WEAPONS ALWAYS!!!!! XD