Nah, I just think you tend to gloss over the ho-hum parts.

For instance after that fight with Baku and the plan gets told you are then whisked away as Vivi who spends his time just wandering around Alexandria until he can carelessly slip into the play which was all hardly exciting, not to mention the part where you are wandering the castle as Steiner looking for Dagger and the other Pluto knights. VIII ends their kick ass opening with you just wandering around Garden until you finish a qualification test that is presented so routinely it sucks the "epic-ness" from it and the game really doesn't get kick ass until you do the Dollet Mission which is a good few hours into the game. Hell, I feel VIII constantly goes back and forth between boring parts to exciting parts.

Even VI and VII have a few moments, which while having a few interesting moments could hardly be called "edge of your seats, excitement" such as the time between escaping Figaro Castle to when you make it to the Returners base in VI or the time between leaving Kalm to when you get to Junon in VII.

With XII, you can spend your time seeing how human the NPCs are and learn of the whole story of what's been going on since Nalbina. Not to mention before even taking control of Reks you get a kickass fight scene with Basch cutting down a small group of soldiers single-handedly and then your party gets attacked by a flying craft which ends with Basch finishing it off with a Quickening. I can't fathom how you would be bored, especially spending time in the early parts to really experiment with the combat system.