your picture rules
Been playing the Japanese version since the release and just got the US version. It's great.
Mained Zidane, he's my only lv100, and currently using Firion.
The amount of stuff to do is insane, and the gameplay is really cool (most people attribute it to playing Advent Children). Once you get really used to it, battles become downright epic and fun.
A heads-up about the US version: beating one story now unlocks Shade Impulse (the final part of the story mode that's supposed to be unlocked after collecting all ten crystals) to give players a faster way of beating the game/unlocking Duel Colosseum. There's a number of other changes with the US version, like extra cutscenes for the two unlockable characters, a bonus scene with a... moogle? And there's been a lot of tweaks since the Japanese release to make it more balanced (everyone has Air Dash from the get-go, some chain HP attacks aren't chain attacks anymore, etc).