Game gives off a vibe.
The plot does a good job at holding your attention throughout most of the game, but there are weaker parts of the story. There is an infamous twist around disc three, where things start to get pretty weird and much different from the previous discs, something that does distract you for a while, but the ending is really, really intense and catches your attention with a pretty difficult battle with the final boss. The final boss is a very long battle with many different phases, so the intensity keeps on growing until the battle is over, and you can let out a huge sigh of relief. Then you are rewarded with an ending movie that is quite satisfying. The end battle was actually so intense that I kept on wondering if the producers would be sadistic enough to throw yet another battle phase at me. Overall I would describe the story as being "passionate." Also the developers took a lot of time on the character development, and there is a dialogue box to tell you what Squall is thinking so you can relate to him more.
I can tell they composers took their time with every track, you can completely rule out the possibility of any boring or atmospheric tracks on this game. I think they could have made different tracks for different battles though because I got pretty tired of hearing the battle theme over and over again. If you want a good example of a song, listen to "Balamb Garden Theme," "Under Her Control," and "Breezy."
The junction battle system has mixed opinions, but I think it is one of the better systems I've seen because it allows for more customization. Any character can fight any way you want them to fight. The guardian force summons are great at first, but they do get old after a while. The addition of new guardian forces fix the problem a little bit but not enough to actually demolish the problem. It's frustrating but not enough to pull out any hair over.
As I said before, my main thing about this game is it's vibe. There's a strong feeling associated with this game. The plot has a lot of twists and turns but the world is uniform and paints a consistent picture. I'll also add that the game is quite dazzling really, it has excellent scenery and the flashes and colors of battle brand a permanent mark on your brain. The music is excellent, the graphics are excellent, the characters are excellent. And last but not least, the game is excellent.