• Yes, still stands the test of time. I skipped this in my youth, only played it for the first time.. no, wow, it's been ten years since then. Still, I played it long after the initial release and it played fine. The story and the gameplay were plenty engaging.
• I would rate this right below VI-IX (and FF7R, if we are including it).
• There was a piece of music I especially loved. I wish I knew the name. A choir piece that played right after the party collapsed under an icy lake or something like that.
• This is where they dropped the world map and the series never recovered from that. Spira did not feel like a full world the way the older ones did, just a series of corridors. I've never understood why the world map was abandoned. It's amazing how non-linear the old games felt, even when they had like 3 optional side quests, and I credit the free roaming on the world map much of that.

I loved the sphere grid, especially late game when you could break it open. The synthing thing was cool as well, although it opened up a bit late.