I also disliked the draw and summon system of 8, I agree with you on that

The story though, I though was awesome.
As for 10, I enjoyed that more than any other FF game since 7. Voices (And blitzball) aside it was a spectacular game. Sphere-grid was a breath of fresh air and the storyline was really astonishing. The Dark Aeons in FF10 international are some of the hardest battles I've had in any game ever and Auron was just pure awesome!
