Yeah, a lot of people have been ragging on Gambits, saying the game "plays itself", which is entirely untrue.
I can't see how people think the whole point about money being hard to come by being a bad thing. It forces you to play the game in a smart way; I just finished a replay of Final Fantasy VIII and cut most enemies down to size with physical attacks. The only time I really used GFs was in the event of an elemental weakness (there were several - namely Doomtrain, Tonberry, Ceberus and Pandemona - that I didn't summon at all). If you play the game right and know where to look, you can get some really rare high-end magic spells such as Ultima as early as Fisherman's Horizon (Draw Point in the mayor's house)!
I can only see buying spells and equipment as a good thing because it forces you to play smart and decide what you really need for each situation (also, I'm told that anything you miss can be purchased later on in most cases, and if not, you can backtrack). The one thing I didn't like about the series until now was that I could sit through Final Fantasy VII and IX without losing a single player to KO status over the course 40 hours of gameplay. But for some reason, players seem to be getting annoyed that monsters don't drop Gil. I always thought it odd that monsters had it in the first place, particularly the ones without opposable thumbs (because some you could explain away as pilfering dead bodies).
I think MikiRei is contradicting himself slightly when he says there's no definitive character class, but it's difficult to but spells. If the game follows on from its predecessors, individual characters level differently in terms of the stat bonuses they gain. Auron never had as many MP in Final Fantasy X as Lulu did until he got off his course on the Spheregrid, and since the end of his 'grid usually coincided with the final stages of the game ... well, you see my point. You're obviously being forced to choose not just which spells and weapons you buy, but who you equip them on. You could probably make Penelo an Auron-style warrior if you wanted to, but I daresay it's easier to do so with Basch or Balthier. Final Fantasy VIII is an example of this going the wrong way; there was nothing to prevent you from focusing on your favourite three people until Ultimecia.
And also, Miki, Tidus whining about Jecht was a lot more interesting than Zell's temper tantrums. Not as good as Zidane's womanising, though.
