That gryphon was nasty and took some leveling to beat (I hate games which make you grind levels/skills really early in the game, grinding should be reserved for optional end game content FFX style). It wasn't so much the boss battles as the actual presentation of the game, whoever they hired to do animation especially during the cutscenes should have been fired and replaced.
It just reminded me through and through of playing an inferior version of Final Fantasy X in every way from the leveling system to the story to the animation. The resolution of the graphics was better (thanks to the 360 being > the PS2) but overall I think the 7s it got were pretty generous and based largely on the production values of the cut scenes. The only good part is the text stories you unlock, those are well written and in some cases genuinely touching. If only they could have gotten whoever wrote those to write the rest of the game.
Maybe it gets better in disk 2 or 3, I'm not sure, I didn't quite make it out of disk 1 before quitting in disgust to go play something better (persona 3 which was the best RPG I've played in years to this day. Waiting for P4 with bated breath).
I didn't WANT to hate it, contrary to what some would believe after seeing my stance on the 360, I love FF games and wanted to like it since it was made by some of the people who made the FF games I love. It just had too many huge flaws to really appreciate the good, there are so many games out there slogging through a 60 hour game that isn't great isn't as appealing as it was in the mid 90s when we had to cope with stuff like beyond the beyond as the apex of console RPGs. It was a hell of a lot better then Blue Dragon though, I'll give Lost Odyssey that much.
Final Fantasy was never as blind as LO, there were always very good strategies for all the main bosses (not counting the special end game bosses that were outside the story you had to grind and power level for). With a balanced team in FFX anything was very doable. I actually found FFX too easy a lot of the time as far as story bosses went, it was all about knowing how to use the sphere grid well.
PSN ID: ChosenOne feel free to add me
