I love the hell out of this game.

Crystals? Check.
Underdogs versus Empire? Check.
A big, big world? Check.
Awesome music? Check.
Pretty things? Check.

Sounds like a Final Fantasy to me. XII has a lot going for it.

Areas are pretty unique and visually distinct, non-player characters are not simply background characters, music is monsters vary visually and tactically, the story is long and engaging enough, combat is almost intuitive for anyone with any experience with IV-IX and XI, and there are lots of sidequests.

Active Dimension Battle, the system behind combat, plays like a three dimension version of Active Time Battle, so it is easy to understand, and there is no transition between an area and battle screen. Beyond basic leveling up, the License Board is straight-forward and easy to understand, and allows a lot of flexibility compared to the restrictive Grid Sphere. I like how dynamic stores can be with offerings; the more and better the junk you bring in to make money, the more and better is the equipment they can sell to you.

I do not know why people hate the main cast of heroes and villains. Is Venat really that much of a storykiller? How does him shadowing a main antagonist any different than Zemus or Necron? How is Vayne any different than Golbez or Kuja? I like mad scientists, and we have had them before, as well as evil brothers. All of these things are staples of the series. What about the good guys? Vaan is an excellent way to start the story from the eyes of a person not initially in the know of all the intricacies at play, and Penelo is a great asset as a second character, unless you want to suggest that Vaan never had a friend in his life and should be unrealistically alone all of his life. How awkward would the story be if you had to take it directly from Ashe, Balthier, or Basch? All of these people, by the way, fill up time-proven classic roles in personality and initial gameplay. If they all become redundant or bland, it is because you made your characters so, and you can only blame yourself or God for that.

Locations in this game are amazing. I was excited every time I got to explore a new place, from the Zertinan Caverns to Cerobi Steppe, and pretty much everything in between. All this griping about desert? I am so appalled by this brush-aside than anything else; each desert location is unique and has a huge range of differing geographical features. Even the same desert, with different maps, offer a variety of landscapes to traverse. Are you winding through ravines, walking along a cliff, zig-zagging down a mountain path, or is everything to you genuinely like walking across a level beach devoid of detail?

Related to locations are the people populating the--you know what, this is pretty long-winded and I think I underline my point that this game is great, I love it, and people who hate this game are terrible people.

Things I hated about XII include Archades, the shallowest big city, Palings, the excuses to make battles needlessly harder and not reward a player for learning how to handle a boss, and a lack of a million more sidequests and hunts, which the game had tons of, but never enough.