Despite an utterly unforgettable story, the other aspects of the game aren't that great.
The story CC game revolves around Zack, and his story prior to Final Fantasy 7. It fits in extremely well and includes many of the characters we'll later see and love in 7. Sephiroth, Cloud, Aerith and the Turks are all here, and voiced fantastically. But even without them, the story would be awesome. There are plenty of twists, and the ending is on par with FF10 with the best endings I've ever seen. Additionally, Zack Fair is one of the greatest video game characters of all time. In my opinion, he's even a much better character then Cloud.
Without wrecking the whole story, I'll summarize it. SOLDIERs Zack Fair and Angeal are dispatched to Wutai to support Shinra in their war. In the outcome, Angeal disappears, and Zack is appointed go to find the other missing SOLDIER, Genesis. Zack and Tseng find that Genesis and Angeal have betrayed Shinra, but are forced to retreat as the village is destroyed by Shinra. Upon Wutai's war ending, Shinra's armies, as well as Zack and Sephiroth are assigned to kill Genesis and Angeal. From there, the story takes multiple twists and turns, with Zack meeting Cloud and Aerith along the way, and ends up at a fantastic ending scene.
Gameplay: 6
In gameplay you only control Zack, unlike the other final fantasies. It is more action then RPG then, though you can still use magic and abilities. It kind of reminds me of Kingdom hearts, though there will be more thinking and less button mashing and jumping. There is still lots of button mashing though, and you won't be challenged nearly as much as in the main Final Fantasy's. Simply because the game is too easy and you can win it through a combination of grinding through optional missions (many of which are the same) and button mashing. Combat would have been more fun if you could control the DMW better, but you can't.
Outside combat, there aren't many ways to customize Zack. You can add accessories to make Zacks magic or strength stronger to fit the way you play but ultimately it would have been better if they gave us more options.
Graphics: 10
The graphics of the game are amazing and the CGI cutscenes are epic. Nothing more to say here.
Value: 8
The game doesn't take that long to finish, around 15-25 hours. But then there are LOADS of sidemissions you can do. After that, there is a new game plus. Unfortunately most of the side missions you do are very similar, very boring and have very little connection to the main plot.
Tilt: 10
Despite its faults, I love this game. Not since Final Fantasy 10 has a games story and score blown me away, this ones does. The audio is beautiful and remakes of One winged angel and Aerith's themes are great to hear.
Overall, the game has all what a final fantasy fan would want. A new player looking for a tactical game will be disappointed, but a fan of Kingdom hearts or some other action game will enjoy this, even if they don't like FF much.