Quote Originally Posted by Vincent Valentine 007 View Post
the licence board was just like that other thing in X
No it wasn't. The sphere grid was almost totally linear. The only time you really got to choose what to do next as far as character development was when you reached the end of a characters pre-determined path late in the game. Right from the start of FFXII though you were able to choose any direction on the license board to have your character learn abilities, and you didn't have to worry about running across something you couldn't unlock and moving on, then having to waste time later by back tracking on the board, or even worse, wait until you could unlock it, thereby leaving your character underpowered for a while.

The license board was all about giving the player options. The sphere grid was all about making the player think they had options when, really, they never had any choice to begin with.