- Worth a play through if you've got a lot of free timeI finished playing through this game my senior year of high school after having abandoned it in 8th grade. I can safely say that, despite some rather large flaws, it's a game worth playing.
THE GOOD:
This game is huge. Huge on a scale you can't imagine. The story is pretty deep and epic with some nifty twists and turns. There's plenty of story, great music (although by no means the series' best) and pretty graphics to keep your interest if you can deal with...
THE BAD:
this game has a few damning flaws that keep it out of the better ranks among Final Fantasy games. One of these is its battle system and by extension, the horrid Junction System. Sure, it's complex on a level comparable to playing D & D, but is it fun? No, it in fact, is not fun to spend endless hours in menus equipping various magics to various attributes (magic you have to 'draw', one or two spells at a time, out of your enemies). The Junction system makes your traditional leveling-up pretty much useless. Your characters can be at level 100 and it does you no better off than being at level 30 unless everything is junctioned right.
Also, upgrading your weapons does not increase battle power, it merely changes your limit breaks. I wasn't sure whether I liked this or not, but at least Squall's Lion Heart weapon had a groovy lightsaber glow.
Another problem: Summons last around as long as it takes the average person to slow-cook a turkey, so you'd best have a book ready after the first two or three times you watch them.
The card game is more or less a waste of time, I'd rather have things like VII's snowboarding and motorcycle minigames. Unlike either of those, it is neither fun nor easy to get into. If you want to commit even more time to this game then by all means master the card game. Don't say I didn't warn you though.
MORE GOOD:
There's plenty to discover in this game, and perseverance and inquisition are well-rewarded with nifty little tidbits of character history and cool bonuses. The real reward of this game, for me, though, was the final area of Ultimecia's Castle- the music and graphics just come together so perfectly that it makes it all seem worthwhile, and your victory is also well rewarded with a lengthy FMV.
By all means play this game. It's worth it for the story. Just don't expect to play it more than once.
- 
- 
- 