I've had FFXII for a while now, but between work, the rest of my life, and other games I haven't gotten very far. But there's a specific reason I haven't in FFXII as opposed to the other games I own.
See, when I played FFIX I was loathe to find out at the end of the game that I had missed a lot of mundane once-in-a-lifetime items that powered very key abilities my characters needed. That was incredibly annoying.
Obviously with the way FFIX's system works, that's not a worry, really, but I AM incredibly into the monster hunting side-quests, and that's what I'm hung up on; sometimes those guys are tough! I've been trying to beat them as I see them so I don't miss the opportunity or anything, and I don't want to look at a FAQ to find out whether or not I can go do some storyline things before coming back to beat those monsters later for fear of spoilers.
So please, can somebody tell me without spoilers if I can play through the main story of the game and not miss the opportunity to do the monster hunting sidequests or anything else that's equally important or interesting? Thank you.