I think that FF changing is a good thing. It's nice to not get into a battle every five seconds for a change. Squeenix was just experimenting with new gameplay styles to see how the fans would react before deciding what to do for the next game.

One thing bugs me, however. Just like champagne supernova said, sometimes there would be hours at a time before the story progressed. Then, by the time you got to wherever you were meant to be going, you'd forget why you were there in the first place. But I still think FFXII was a step in the right direction.