I don't know how spoiler sensitive I should be in a game this old, but I'll tread lightly in case.
I've gotten to what seems to be the next set of big story beats 5 hours in, and while I'm enjoying the general thrust of the story, the dialogue and some of the characters are just awful. Zidane comes off as particularly awful at times, especially when something fairly serious happens in the story like when Vivi comes across all the dolls and the Black Waltz #3 obliterates them all in front of him, and Zidane basically walks up and tells him to cheer up. Princess Garnet (or Dagger, I guess) has a more interesting story arc, but is kind of bland (and apparently has a singing voice of a 30 year old when she's 16), Steiner is funny in a way a clown is, and Vivi is interesting solely because of the questions that have arisen by virtue of the story. Everyone feels awfully underdeveloped as a character, which is grating against the contrast of an interesting world and the things set in motion in the background.
Maybe I'm just too early in, but I'm thinking the reason the game is lauded as one of the best is because a lot of us were pre-teens when this came out and the nostalgia is strong with the 7,8,9s of the series. I'm going to keep going and complete it because I'm interested in the overall narrative, just having some gripes with what's going on right now.