While being an excellent RPG, it is not up to the caliber of the originals, especially III(US)/VI.  There is definaltely lots of eye candy with the excellent graphics and awesome FMV. Where this game really lacks is in its replay value.  Its a onetimer.  I don't think I could bear to go though the whole thing again.  There were too many things that were too tedious in the game, namely the materia and chocobo development (which they drastically improve with IX).  Developing materia is an endless task that requires ungodly hours of play and the payoff, ie. master materia, just isn't worth it.  As for the Chocobo development while interesting at first it proved to be highly redundant as the game consistantly had a habit of birthing the wrong chocos and the races became more of a chore than a fun little sidequest.  Overall though a good game not to terribly difficult if your not interested in finding all the secrets, but only really worth playing once.