I like FF9 quite a lot, or else I wouldn't have rated it as high as 7.5. The art design, FMVs, and soundtrack of FF9 are great, and the story, while unprofound, is at least fun and unpredictable to play through. But I think that the frequency and redundancy of the battles drag the game down, coupled with the fact that, in comparison to FF7, 8, and 10, the game provides very few opportunities for the player to vary his strategic approach to battle.

Even my favorite games in the series, I didn't give anywhere close to a ten. If if would make you guys happy, you can pretend that I gave FF Tactics a 9.8/10 and FF9 a 9.0/10, instead of giving tactics a 9.5/10 and FF9 a 7.5/10. In such an alternate ranking system, the ratio of each game's distance from a "perfect 10" ranking would remain the same, but I don't like such "curved upwards" rating systems, because they leave the reviewer little opportunity to differentiate between very good and great games.