If you mean a lot of effort in making it drive gamers as mad as possible, then yes, you are correct.
FFXII has no soul. It has the ingredients of a great game, one I should absolutely love, but I don't. That je ne sais quoi is absent. With IX, I don't grok the soul, but it certainly is there - I invoke Kishi;
I might like the technical elements of XII more, but I've certainly spent a lot more time playing IX and I have a much greater desire to try to finish IX than XII.FFIX is thematically charming, whimsical, fun, and doesn't always take itself completely seriously.
Final Fantasy IX is one of my favourite FF games, so my opinion is pretty clear.
To be fair, though, I haven't finished FFXII yet. I managed to play maybe 36 hours of it, before stopping (for an unknown reason) - that was over a year ago.
I've been intending to start a new Final Fantasy XII file for a long time now, and finally did it the other day.
Actually, I have this thing where I never finish a Final Fantasy game on the first playthrough. I always tend to stop playing it at one point, before finally picking up the game again later to yet again play it from the start - this time more thoroughly and extensively. It's almost like I'm half-assing it on the first playthrough, subconsciously knowing that I'll finish it at another point. Strange.
I haven't finished FFXII, I was hoping to do it before march, but it doesn't look like it's happening. There's just so many huuge empty areas in FFXII, I search them looking for secrets but most of the time there's nothing to find.
Either that, or finding whatever it is precludes you from getting something later![]()