Something definitely worth experiencing!
Gameplay:
FFX uses a turn based fighting system based upon your character's statistics. I've read that some people prefer a system with an active timer; I personally couldn't disagree more. The timer bar always makes me feel rushed, which is something that doesn't particularly add to my enjoyment of a game. The turn based system allows you to think about each move, and in my opinion allows them to create more complex bosses. It seems kind of unfair to expect the player to think outside the box in terms of strategy when they are rushed all of the time.
You fight with 3 characters from your party out at a time, but with a twist: you can swap party members in and out at any time. This works so unbelievably well that I can't believe that I've never played another game that used this system. In other RPGs you seem to always have to leave some members behind, so they fall behind the rest of your party in terms of experience and are also left out of the story elements at times. Not in FFX. Just press the L1 button and you can bring out Lulu to unleash some magic on a monster with physical resistance, or bring out Auron to pierce an armored fiend.
FFX allows you to build your character through the use of the Sphere Grid. I'll admit, when I first saw this system, it made no sense to me whatsoever. However, now I look back and fail to see what was so confusing about it in the first place. Each character starts out at a different part of the grid, which means that they generally start out with a particular skill set. As you gain experience, you get levels that allow you to make your way across the grid, choosing your path depending on what type of character you want a particular party member to become. For instance, Yuna will start out closer to a part of the grid that contains healing magic and more stat boosters towards magic than physical strength. By the same token, Auron starts out near physical skills and more physical strength boosting nodes. The same type of thing holds true for each character. The ability to mold your characters into the fighting style of your choice works out pretty well.
Playing through the main storyline is pretty linear (as it should be, in my opinion), but it does give you some opportunities to branch off and do mini-quests at various points. Spira, the world in which the game takes place, revolves largely around a game called Blitzball: a game similar to hockey but played underwater. There is a point in the story where you have to play a game, but after that, you will always have the ability to play whenever you want. You also have the ability to search the world for new players to sign to your team. I never really messed with Blitzball much until my second play through of the game, but it's actually pretty fun when you figure it out a little bit. There are also lots of other sidequests to do, I'm just using Blitzball as an example.
Sound/Music:
The game is scored by Nobuo Uematsu, as well as two newcomers to the FF series: Masashi Hamauzu and Junya Nakano. Almost immediately in the game, players are likely shocked to hear a heavy metal song play through the first cutscene. Fans of the oldest FF games probably cringed, but if you are willing to give the new style a chance, it actually works amazingly well with the world. The rest of the score contains a style that would probably be closer to what old FF fans would expect, but still has a few surprises here and there. There are a few songs that stand out as probable favorites, but I feel that pretty much all of the music was extremely well done. Some of it contains a subtle beauty that doesn't jump out at you, but rather creates the atmosphere extremely well. In my opinion, music is the most important aspect of creating the "feel" of an area, even more so than graphics. Other times the music is very emotional, or triumphant if the situation requires it. No matter what is going on, the music significantly increases the dramatic effect.
This was apparently the first RPG to utilize voice actors throughout the entire game. This works wonders in terms of allowing the player to really get to know the characters. I felt that the best piece of voice acting was done by Wakka, whose accent is some sort of hybrid Hawaiian or some other type of island accent. (Hard to explain, ya?) If I had just read the text of what he was saying, I don't think that I would have imagined him being anywhere in the ballpark of what he actually sounds like; so the voice really added another dimension to his character. All of the characters have voices that match up with their personality very well: Tidus with the smug, cocky tone, Rikku with the upbeat, peppy sound, etc. The only real gripe I can come up with is that sometimes when the characters utter a one-word response, it comes out sounding really choppy and forced, and doesn't go with the rhythm of the conversation at all. Overall, the voice acting was superb and almost always matches up with the characters expressions.
Graphics:
The game is 8 years old now, and I can't say that it looks bad at all, even for this generation. I'm sure that when it was first released, the graphics would've been considered jaw-dropping. That being said, even now you can't say that they look bad at all. Some of the areas look cool even by today's standards. The graphical detail won't blow you away, but the game still looks pretty good overall.
As far as the cutscenes go, they are top notch. There are tons of them (50+ actual cutscenes) and they are as good as you could really envision them to be. Even with the technology of today, I'm not sure if they would really be able to do much to make them look sharper while still maintaining the artistic style of the game. The only downside I could find was that in the cutscenes, some of the characters (Yuna, Tidus, Rikku) don't quite look the same as in the rest of the game. It's almost as though they somehow switch from being Caucasian to Asian whenever a cutscene comes on. It's not really a bad thing, just a little inconsistent and shouldn't bother you at all.
Story:
This is the part of the game that really pushed it over the top for me. If you handed me the script of the game and I read it, I don't know how much I would like it, but the way it is presented in the game with voice actors and dramatic music and all, results in complete immersion. The characters' expressions and dialogue really humanizes their struggle and what's going on. I'm not going to actually tell you what the story is, (experience it yourself!) but there were multiple occasions where I would play until 3 AM before forcing myself to finally turn it off, but then wouldn't be able to sleep because I was so anxious to see what was going to happen in the game. It is definitely a JRPG style plot; it's quite complex. However, the story is revealed to you bit by bit in a manner that is not overwhelming. If you feel confused after something is revealed, that's how Tidus feels too; it's not going to be something where you just don't get it, it'll be that you don't understand because you're not to that point in the story yet. I could blab on and on about how much I loved the story, but I'll just sum it up by saying this was definitely the most I've ever been drawn in to a game's story.
Summary:
I said in my first paragraph that the game wasn't perfect, which it isn't. It has a few flaws here and there, but I gave it a perfect score because of how much I enjoyed it. A game doesn't have to be perfect to get a 10, I rated it based on how much I enjoyed it, and I enjoyed this game more than any other I've ever played. New technology doesn't make a game great, but I think that Square definitely utilized the technology to create a more intriguing environment than it had on earlier systems. I've had the game less than a month, and I've already beaten it twice while doing almost every side quest I can find (over 100 hours) and I'm feeling the urge to start a new file and play through it again. I've made this review way too long and I still feel that I left out a lot of what I had to say about the game, so if you like RPGs, please just go check this out... I got it for like $10, and that's by far the best $10 I've ever spent.