#!@$%^@#% I typed the whole thing up and then accidentally hit a hotkey erasing everything with no hope of recovery. Here I go again.

In regards to the ‘ATB-ness’ of FFXII, it wasn’t in regards to any specific comments in this thread, just the general attitude that FFXIIs system is a departure from traditional FF mechanics. If we take away gambits, (which aren’t really mechanics so much as bots on top of the existing mechanics) it really reminds me of a SNES era system more than a PS1 era system.

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As for setting up gambits, I simply automated all the tasks in the game I found repetitive and thoughtless, and I wasn’t left with anything else. I could have taken some control away from the gambits but I wouldn’t have enjoyed doing it manually myself any more. (Think if you had a computer controlling FFX for you and you were told that you would enjoy it more if you controlled it yourself.)

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FFXII was the last straw in me deciding I didn’t like side quests mid game. I wasn’t high on them to begin with, but with Mark Hunts (and FFXII in general) being a great new paradigm in game development I decided to give it an honest go. As you can see it did not end amicably.

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For me one of the most enjoyable parts of any video game is trying to min/max my party to the best of my ability. So when I make something at the start of the game and feel no need to change it as I play though, you can understand how I am a little disappointed. In a game, such as FFT, the first time I play through I am constantly trying to make my party as powerful as possible, and am constantly having to adapt and think of new things as new enemies/abilities are introduced, not to mention my knowledge of the game increasing as I go along. FFXII never had that for me in the least.

In regards to handicapping, if you have to handicap yourself on your first play through to make it enjoyable it is a broken game. Subsequent play throughs it is a given, but the first time is inexcusable. Even in FFT when I handicap myself to try out new classes and strategies I lay the ground rules at the start of the play through and then try and tweak and max out my party as much as I can within those rules.

As you can probably guess I’m not a fan of sandboxy titles in general.

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One problem with the weaknesses of party members (I agree with it as a game mechanic whole heartedly) is that you are then forced to chose between play style and favorite characters. I generally try and build my party of my favorite characters first and foremost (this is the one constraint that overrides the min/maxing I mentioned above), mainly because I know if I pick a party of people I don’t like as characters I will probably lose interest in the title and stop playing. And generally I don’t fell like having a good section of a games characters in my party (I’m a fairly misanthropic person). Now, in some games where there is virtually no difference game play wise I am free to do what I want. In others this can lead me to into a choice between choosing characters I won’t enjoy playing as, or a play style I won’t enjoy. Something like FFXII where anyone can be anything isn’t a bad design paradigm, but the fact everyone can be everything kind of smurfs it up. (I prefer the FFT idea where you can learn everything but still have to be highly selective as to what you can actually be.)
Of course this has been marginalized by the proliferation (Is it a good or bad day when I have to stop myself from using paradigm too many times in an argument?) of cutscenes and voice acting, forcing every character to be in every plot scene.