Quote Originally Posted by Bolivar View Post
As a Final Fantasy, you might be dissappointed. There's maybe 30 hours of actual story whereas there's probably up to 100 hours in sidequests and mark hunting. Don't get me wrong - this game has an amazing story. But the storytelling is amatuer at best. If you're expecting a deep plot with references to mythology and philosophy, and alot of effort put into developing characters, this game might let you down a little bit. To me it abandoned many of the mechanics that have made the series stand out among its competitors, especially the recent advances made in storytelling in the last few installments.

The music is good (some really great pieces) but it gets repetitive and al ittle boring about halfway through the game. The graphics are probably the best we're gonna get with PS2, the FMV's rivaling XBOX360 IMO. I spent more time on 1 file than any other final fantasy, so be prepared to get addicted if you can get into it.
First of all, I totally agree with everything Bolivar said here, and you certainly hit the nail in the coffin. Like I've said before, Final Fantasy XII had one of the best story-lines to this day, but ultimately wasted it. I was disappointed with how brief and short it was, and how they didn't even attempt to lengthen any of the more crucial parts, like experiencing times in cutscenes, of the party members emotions. They just really left out the good stuff in it. I'm still a little miffed at how much culture, mythology, philosophy and other features of history in Ivalice weren't thoroughly explained. Although the bestiary provided a reasonably satisfying amount of information, it would of been fun to explore Ivalice. Not the terrain, but the characters, Rozzarian areas, and other things.

The music was too repetitive, and I was aggrieved to find that the final boss music wasn't exactly unique, like the other FF's were. It was just another track to me. They could of spiced it up a bit more, but instead they left it unfinished, incomplete, and hardly on the status of other FF tracks.