Quote Originally Posted by Sophie Peithos View Post
I don't think you can really say that FFXII 'isn't an FF game' simply because the formula for the series is so diverse. Compare FFIII to FFVIII and you'll barely find a similarity between them. Stylistically the series changes almost completely every three games or so.

That being said, I agree with almost every negative comment that people have made about the game so far. The plot, characters and gameplay all have some serious issues despite being based on very good ideas. The only exception was the music which, while there is nothing particularly memorable, was more appropriate to the game style than Nobuo's compositions would have been. Nobuo's scores demand too much of the player's attention for a game where battles are fought expediently and without any kind of transition.
Uematsu's been on the decline since FF7 IMO. FF6 was his masterpiece and FF7 was his last really strong score. FF8 was a mixed bag, and after 9 & 10 I don't believe that the series's music is anything exceptional anymore unfortunately. FF12's music wasn't stellar, but by and large pretty decent, and no worse than what I heard in 10. At least it didn't have a wretched death metal song as the last boss's music.

I agree with Setzer on the storyline - I really enjoyed it, though I have problems with the presentation and I think that in some ways it doesn't work so well as a video game plot. But it probably has the least scenes out of the entire series that I'd be embarrassed to show my non-JRPG playing friends (which is most of them). I'm starting to think that the spread of the "gamplay is good, storyline and music are bad" viewpoint is becoming a herd phenomenon. I.e. it's true because "everyone knows it's true".