I personally don't think its too short, infact I personally believe its a little longer than most in the series. But your right this is definitately one of the more straight forward stories in the series. It's very much like a typical fantasy adventure movie, like Star Wars or The Lord of the Rings. XII has a very straight forward plot with a few twists and turns, but they are infrequent and far inbetween. Also some of the twists were pretty big, but they never derailed the main plot. This can be a good or a bad thing depending on what you like. This type of story telling is right up my alley, so I welcomed it with open arms and love it, but not everyone is going to feel the same.