Holy smokes that beginning!

[Jinx]

If I wanted to watch Star Wars, I'd just watch Star Wars.

[Edge7]

I think that's an unfair criticism against FFXII's plot. Yes, of all of the FFs, this one does have the strongest allusions to Star Wars, but The Archadian Empire =/= The Galactic Empire. There's a lot more nuance and political strife in Ivalice, not to mention that Vayne, Venat, Professor Al-Cid, Larsa Marquess Ondore, and the rest of the Judges outside of Gabranth lack any parallels to Star Wars, to name a few. Hell, if Basch was to be the main character like originally planned, we wouldn't even have a "Luke Skywalker".

[Formalhaut]

However, it picks up quite well later on.

Sadly not. Even if anything as interesting as the opening did happen again, you have no idea how it relates to anything else because you have forgotten what's going on because too much mark hunting. xD

For me, the game hits it's drive from the Dreadnought Leviathan to The Raithwall Tomb, and then again from Archades onwards to the end.

And there wasn't that many mark hunts! They spaced them out quite well between story events. I do concede though, the overall pacing of the game isn't the best I've seen in the series.