Don't forget that its usually the characters and story that makes a game great. At least for me. The only FF's I did not enjoy were the ones that had stupid characters. Basically only FFX-2. I hated the girly popstar princess theme of the game and I refuse to play it more than 15 minutes into it. I've watched my little brother play it and I despise it... Other than that my only complaint for the whole series was FFIX, which wasn't that bad of a game, but the silly stupid characters made it hard to get into.

Think FFVII (cloud, sephiroth), FFVIII (squall, seifer), FFX (seymour, auron), et cetera where the characters were awesome and you got totally into the story. So far FFXII looks to have the same immersing story and the same dark yet cool characters. I preordered mine and I can't wait.

As for the battle systems, they've changed every time. Even if this one is the farthest its ever been- so what? Assume for 10 seconds that the game coming out right now wasn't a FF game at all. You guys wouldn't be b1tching and whining! you'd be like "CRAP WHAT AN AWESOME GAME I CANT WAIT TO GET IT", but because its a FF game, there's a stigma, that it has to be a "certain way" for it to be acceptable and any change to the essential core of the game is highly unwelcome.

Anyways I can't wait.