The first two discs are my favorite even if Disc 2 does have that one silly plot twist. The game takes a step into bizarro territory once you get to disc 3, and the plot has a really bad tendency to create plot elements that serve as a basis for one of the games many plot twists but then the story completely ignores it afterwards despite it never actually being resolved. Squall also loses his luster by Disc 3 and don't expect the cast to have anymore character development beyond Disc 1. Laguna is still awesome though.

Gameplay mostly comes down to how well you learn to exploit the Junction system and I do mean exploit. It's incredibly easy to break the game so don't expect too much challenge unless you can't figure out how the system works, or consciously don't use exploitative abilities like Mag 60% or Str 40% which grant huge damage bonuses to a character.

Beyond that, I feel the game is worth checking out, maybe not go out of your way but if you want to see the full gambit of the series this entry is not so bad as it's reputation would imply.