My opinion of FFXII:

Plot

The plot for FFXII is highly political, which makes some fans a bit sad. If you are a big fan of FFT, like I am, then you will really appreciate the similarities in the plot as a genre. There is no need for an epic love story to make it a good plot. FFT showed us that. That being said, I wish there was more depth to the plot. It seemed to me they could have easily added more depth to the plot, especially by adding a bit more background to the characters. As I appreciate the fact that it is not focused on characters, I found that they did not balance it out enough.

Battle System

Hands down the best thing to happen to FF. I love the new battle system! I seriously find it more engrossing and much more interactive that the old, select action->sub-menu select->target and sit and wait type deal. FFXII uses the same principles, but gives you a lot more control. Especially the fact that there are no random battles. I am sorry but sometimes I want to get the hell out of a dungeon and not fight my way out or pray that the Run command works when my HP is critical.

Gambits is an iffy topic for me. I find throughout most of the game, the gambits available are not that useful. It is only towards the end of the game where the most useful gambits come around. I like the fact that I can have my team able to revive and heal people so I do not have to always pay attention to the HP bars. It allows you to take more time to think about a battle plan. Sometimes it gets frustrating having to override your gambits because your stupid Charge Gambit is not efficient enough (I want there to be a MP<5%!). Besides that, I tend to leave my party leader (Vaan) without gambits unless he is doing a repetitive action (like stealing or using the same spell for ten times in a row). The rest of my characters have Gambits on to do the basic stuff, though I still constantly intervene, especially with Fran and her magic. Part of me wishes for more Gambit slots but then I realize if there were more, it'd become too automatic plus having only 12 (or is it 10?) allows for better planning.

Summons...make me sad. They are pretty ineffective after the first quarter of the game, aside from the normal field battles. Though I wish they were more developed within the plot, I have to say that they are not a cost effective thing. Sorry, 3 MP bars to use a summon or use the same bars for a Quickening? I'd go for the Quickenings. If they made the summons less exhausting on the MP then I think they'd be worthwhile. Since that is not magically going to happen, they can go keep dust.

Yay for magic being useful through the whole game~

Audio-Visuals

Visually this game is stunning. It has one of the best visuals to date for a FF game. It is pretty~ That aside the music is good. I get irritated by those comments where they say the music is not memorable. Sorry to burst your bubble, but most FF scores are pretty not memorable to me. Maybe it is due to some internal factor within but it is true. The only songs I know are usually the opening/game menu screen ones and the vocal theme songs and inserts. That aside Aerith's Theme and that Opera one from FFVI are the only "memorable" ones for me.

Overall

I think FFXII deserves all the critical acclaim it got. The game, with all its faults, is still one of the best FF experiences I ever had. As with any game, there is always room for improvement, but FFXII's good points make up for its bad one. The game was well thought out insofar as it has something for every player. It has plenty of content that allow the players to come back with tons of side-quests (even if I did not do half of them since I am not a completionist).