This may have been said before but did anyone else think of FF12 as an attempt to make a more realist version of FF6? An expanding empire with political in-fighting, a noble thief (Locke/Vaan), a lovable rogue with an airship (Setzer/Balthier), a flawed knight who had failed to save his king (Cyan/Basche), a dubius Cid scientist who works for the empire, and an ensemble cast rather than a star character.
Big lashings of Empire Strikes Back too!