Quote Originally Posted by Ouch! View Post
As far as their function in battle, Espers were an incredible failure. That's indisputable. Their usefulness was exceedingly limited, and because of the system described above, the MP they used could be put to infinitely more effective manners of defeating enemies.

That aside, I felt that the Espers in FFXII were among the most interesting to appear in any game in the series. Their history revealed in the bestiary entries was really interesting. I generally found the back story of Ivalice far more interesting than the actual story of FFXII, and the Espers were a good part of this. It was also nice to see a deviation from the staple summons of the series. A little break from the norm is nice every so often.
I agree with all this.
I found the espers sporadically useful at lower levels, but less helpful as my posse got harder.

Still, if the espers were as tough as the summons in previous games, then (the same) people would be complaining that they're too powerful and they make combat too easy. FFXII's espers are weaker, but far more strategic in their use.