I've always said this game has a great story. As far as Ashe and Vaan not having anything to do, not true - they were orphans who decided to step up for their homeland, just like the rebels in II.

It's the storytelling in this game that flat out sucks and they should have spent alot more time thinking about how to present it. To me, the storytelling was a huge step back for the FF series. At any point where there's character interaction, the game shuts off and a movie commences, and at times it's a very boring movie. In the rest of the series, alot of action and dialogue happens on the regular field screen - in FFXII this is an impossibility. I consider that to be very embarrassing for the XII team.

This is also a departure in that unlike every other FF, this game is not in an apocalyptic/post-apocalyptic setting - it's about the events in a specific region (surrounding Dalmasca) within a specific region (Ivalice) of the world. This game could've been done in a spin-off. But overall it's still a pretty good game.