100% the best Final Fantasy game to this day. The cast of characters are all extremely fleshed out and interesting, the OST is amazing, the way you learn skills is a lot more streamlined than say FF7's materia or FF8's junction systems. The balance is also shockingly good, which I can't say for pretty much every other main line FF game other than maybe 12. There's not really any one gamebreaking exploit / trick that lets you cheese the game, like 8x Atma Weapon in FF6, Deathblow Tifa in FF7, earlygame LF-MAG Refine making you unkillable in FF8, Rikku's Overdrive, Vanille's Death spam, etc. Zidane's Thievery, Freya's Dragon Crest, and Quina's Frog Drop can theoretically make the endgame extremely easy, but you have to grind so much to even make those skills do actual damage, and it's honestly overkill. Endgame I had Freya hitting for like 7k, Dagger for 9.1k with Bahamut, Eiko for around 7k with Holy, and Steiner being the only one who was hitting for 9999 with Shock. I think the only complaints I have about the game are the Steal Rates, which can be fixed by using the Moguri Mod on PC which has an option to make Steal never fail, and the fact that some character's plotlines end way too early. This is mostly an issue with Freya, Steiner, and to a lesser extent, Vivi. Freya and Steiner's storylines pretty much come to a close when you leave them behind with Beatrix while Zidane, Vivi, and Dagger head to the Outer Continent, only having a couple scenes that provide anything (Freya's interactions with Amarant, and Steiner's romance with Beatrix). Vivi's plot definitely lasts longer, but by the time Vivi learns that he's going to die soon there isn't THAT much left. That being said, his monologue / letter to the others in the ending is one of the best written monologues in a video game to this day, and everything about his character is just a 10/10. Normally in FF games the thing I despise the most is the constant minigames (7 is the worst about it, why do I have to play a minigame to give a girl CPR, and then play another one right after to jump up the tower on a dolphin??), but honestly 9's minigames are way more bearable. Chocobo Hot n' Cold is actually not as obnoxious as you'd imagine it'd be, and honestly the only major rewards from that is some of the Ultimate Weapons (Freya, Steiner, Dagger, and Zidane's), but they're hardly necessary weapons to beat the game, or even beat Ozma. That being said if you're using Dagger as a main healer instead of using her and Eiko together, you definitely need her Whale Whisker because its the only way she can learn Curaga. On the flipside, the Frog Catching minigame WOULD be bearable if the frogs didn't respawn in realtime. Having to leave my PC on overnight while I slept in order to get them to respawn faster was annoying as hell. That being said if you're not going for 9999 damage Frog Drop, you only need 99 to get Quina's ultimate weapon, but it's also hardly necessary. In fact I'd argue the only actual important ultimate weapons are Mace of Zeus, Ragnarok, and Whale Whisker. Eiko benefits more from the Magic Racket, and can get Holy off of White Robes instead, Zidane can use Orichalcon, Freya's Holy Lance + Mythril Helm combo does quite a bit of damage still, Quina's weapon really doesn't matter because they only learn one skill from all of them, and Amarant doesn't do alot of damage or have an useful skills regardless. Steiner definitely needs Ragnarok or Excalibur II for Shock, Dagger needs Curaga from Whale Whisker if you're not using Eiko as a healer as well, and Vivi only learns Doomsday from MoZ.

All in all, FF9 is a masterclass in understanding how to write ensemble casts. Every character is fleshed out and interesting (even non-binary legend Quina!), the story and setting are amazing, the best combat and skill learning from the PSX trinity, a legendary OST, and the game as a whole is just a huge homage and love letter to the previous 8 games in themes, references, and more. If you're on PC playing through Steam, absolutely look into the Moguri Mod, it makes the game's visuals stunning, has some very well done orchestrated music, and the client has a lot of QoL upgrades like the 100% Steal-rate cheat (just trust me, turn that shit on), and disabling Dagger's weird skill problem in the later half of the 3rd disc.