So playing through XII: Zodiac Age has been a blast despite spending over seven hours already in the game and I still haven't met Fran and Balthier. "Why?" you may ask, because of all the cool side-quests and mini-games, in fact refreshing my memory with the old guide book made me remember that XII had way more than people remember it having. I mean we all know about Mark Hunts but no one ever talks about the quest to save the sick traveler in the frontier village, the Airship sisters, and several of the quests that have to be undertaken to even get access to the areas where the espers are. There's also the mini-games like making sun stones, fishing, and the Balfoheim foot races, though the last two can be forgiven since they open up rather late in the game. It's just interesting in hindsight when you think about the amount of content in the later games that came after. XIII and XV have their own takes on Mark Hunts but very little else unless you count petting sheep and exploring the map to find the royal arms as big deal quest lines.

So yeah, I feel like XII is kind of underrated in the side-content department because it actually has a lot to offer besides Mark Hunts and even those Mark Hunts are handled way better than the games that use it afterwards.