I'm finally working my way towards beating XII for the first time. The furthest I've gotten before is just before Phon Coast (I may have gotten to Phon Coast, but it's not familiar to me at all). Every time I try to play this game again, I find myself having more and more fun with it. I do think my issue when I first played it was that it felt very different from other FF games, and it just wasn't what I was looking for at the time.

That being said, it's an extremely pretty game, and I love the soundtrack. The soundtrack doesn't have the emotional punch that I get from other FF games, but it's always fitting and fun to listen to. I like most of the monster and character designs. I liked that the world felt alive as well. This is not just because of the populated towns/camps/cities, but also the fact that you could see other hunters occasionally roaming the world or monsters that have no desire to attack you unless you fight first.

Now some things I don't like (and keep in mind, I have no experience with the IZJS version)... My main issue is the license board. I would have preferred something a little more akin to the Sphere Grid where you are focusing more both on stat upgrades and abilities. I didn't really like having armor and weapons tied to it. It doesn't really hinder me that much when I play, but it creates a sometimes unnecessary grind for License Points when wanting to equip certain things. I also would have preferred to have licenses unlock abilities rather than having to buy those as well. The game is kind of stingy when it comes to money.

Another thing I don't like: The treasure system. Chests usually give me pretty pointless things like extremely small amounts of gil. I would prefer a smaller number of chests with useful things than a large number of useless chests. I also don't like the thing with the Zodiac Spear. That design just feels like something made to sell strategy guides more than anything. I don't necessarily have an issue with setting something up where you should avoid certain chests or have to weigh the risks and rewards of getting a pretty good thing now to miss out on something great later on. That's fine... but the game does nothing to even hint that you should avoid opening some chests. This is particularly annoying considering you start getting these chests right at the beginning of the game right by places you go to to progress the story.

I like the story and characters, but I do think the pacing is a bit odd at times to where it feels a bit too much like you aren't getting much story or development at all. I think this could have been vastly improved upon were the game made for the PS3/PS4. Higher specs and more disc space I think could have created more opportunities for the characters to have some banter while you are exploring places like the Yensa Sandsea or during battles. I think that just that little extra push for interaction in those sections could have gone a long way towards both making sure the player doesn't forget what they are doing and to help build the characterization of the characters. I also think that more development throughout the game would have been nice in general. There are some nuggets of Vaan or Balthier or Ash's past that I think should have had more prevalence throughout the game. Most of the characters feel like they just kind of appear and that's it for much of the game outside of a few scenes for each. I just want more for each of the characters as I genuinely like everyone that appears in the party.