Tbh, I dont give a flying about the battle systems in Final Fantasy. Except for FFXII's.

Thats not strictly true but most important by far for me in FF games is the story, the music and the overall presentation.

I also have to say that it's unreasonable for all of you to jump on Super Sepiroth for saying that it's child-like. FFIX is undoubtedly the corniest game in the series (again, it's one of, and on some days, my favorite). Zidane is a warm and fuzzy main character accompanied by warm and fuzzy sidekicks, the only time his personality changes is in pandemonium, which was actually pretty unbelievable because he unexplainably buys into Garland's logic after being so defiant against it. He's almost the definition of 2 dimensional. Also, VII and VIII in many cases "show" you the themes they're trying to convey, whereas IX has to "tell" you, such as Garland's lengthy monologue on societies. In visual storytelling, this is a very poor technique, and a huge mistake.
Oh, hell no! Have you played FFVIII? The 'love' in that is ridiculously corny. Sure, FFIX felt corny, but it also felt inspired. FFVII lacked that feeling to some extent IMO.

I disagree strongly with Zidane being two-dimensional. You say that he 'unexplainably buys into Garland's logic after being so defiant.' But actually, it was quite natural. The follows sort of what the natural progression of feelings are when you hear bad news which you know in your heart is true.

Disbelief/Denial ------> Defiance/Anger------> Bargaining -------> Depression-------> Acceptance

Stages of Grief

Zidane follows those 5 stages of grief pretty much text book style. First he doesn't believe what Garland says, then he aggressively shouts at him saying how he is wrong. He skips out bargaining, but then thinks through all the things that happened to him. After a while of thinking (and getting knocked out) he begins to get depressed. Then you're not alone happens. I thought it was a pretty convincing performance - much better than Squall and Rinoa's performance! The you're not alone tune makes it that much more powerful.

About the last part - Garland only has one monologue! And it isnt even that lengthy. Here it is. I think its quite good tbh:

Voice of Garland: ...Do not limit memory to just one individual's
experiences from birth. That is only the surface. Every life born into
this world, whether natural or artificial, requires a parent. And that
parent also requires a parent. Life is connected, one to another... If
you trace the root of all life, there exists one source. The same can
be said for memory. All life constitutes an intelligence that holds
memory beyond experience. Memory is not isolated within individuals. It
is an accumulation of generations of memories that continues to evolve.
You can say that memory and evolution go hand in hand. But most life-
forms do not understand the true nature of memories...
...which explains why most memories never cross paths.
That was his only monologue.
It reminds me a bit of memetic theory. Final Fantasy VII uses that as well - at least Advent Children did.