Well, after playing IX, I got so frustrated and fed up with what I considered 'crappy' FF games that I swore if X bit the big one I would never buy another FF game again.

But it didnt. In fact it blew me away. Set aside the graphics and the somewhat annoying unskippable cut scenes and you have a great story with very deep characters. And they do my absolute favorite thing anyone in a story can do. They grow. They change. They see faults in themselves. It's a very 'human' game, not full of a lotta nonsense. It's fun as heck, and the battle and sphere system are awesome once you get used to them. Blitzball is annoying, but oh well. The voices add a deeper side to the characters as well, again it makes the game more human. You see the softer sides of the harder characters, you see the wusses get a back bone. Prejudices are revealed and changed... to me, it's all very reminiscent of VI.

So give it a chance... if you lived close enough I'd lend you my copy.