It was the standard classic FF experience. I certainly loved the tasty job system, and the story, it just screamed "this is Final Fantasy. Go get the crystals. Defeat bad guy in outer-space crystal dungeon", and I was like "sure!" I certainly felt that the characters had depth (Krile/Cara/Klulu to a lesser extent), though if you want to compare them to later FF characters' back stories, then that really isn't fair.

(SPOILER)Although they all have problems that real-life problems pale in comparison too. I mean, did your hometown get sucked into a black hole? Didn't think so.