I think that FFXII was more Western than previous Final Fantasies. I got Elder Scrolls: Oblivion and I just feel that FFXII and it both have a similar feel. And the one area that I think irritates a lot of FF fans is the mechanisms around game and story progression. In XII, you're kind of told you need to find X at Y, and then you trek along some field until you reach a dungeon, fight the monsters in it, then come out and walk all the way back to where you started. And there isn't a problem with this. I enjoy Oblivion immensely. And XII has the qualities that I enjoy in Oblivion - a beautifully detailed world, where you get your characters to progress. And, as in Oblivion, the combat was quite autonomous, but there was still a bit of a challenge, and you always felt this sense of exploration.

The thing is, I buy Final Fantasy because I want its kind of experience, so when something which kind of changes the formula so drastically, I won't enjoy the new merits, because it isn't why I bought it. If that makes sense.

And I will state categorically here that I think FFXII definitely had a better story than Oblivion (because that is not hard) and there was a greater attachment to the main characters (again, not too hard). The problem is that a lot of the story gets lost because I now have to explore so far before I find out where I'm going next. For example (and this summarises it for me), why does the Dalmascan Sandsea have to be so big? And not only so big, why does it have to be so complex that it takes even longer to get to the Tomb of Raithwall? And the Sandsea wasn't particularly pretty or interesting either. So I was bored. For many hours. That by the time that I had got through to the other side, I had a lot of what I was feeling about the story at the time and had to start again.

And this happened again and again. So yeah, pacing ruined many of the elements of the story - and I think the reason the pacing was off was it became very much like a WRPG like Oblivion without realising that nobody cares about the Oblivion main story very much and doesn't mind having to spend 7 hours of pure gameplay lost in a dungeon before the story progresses.

So, that's my new view on it. I wouldn't say its the best RPG or Final Fantasy ever (mine I think is Vagrant Story), but it is a good RPG. Unfortunately, its target audience was expecting something different and as such measured it by a very specific set of criteria.