The story of FF12 starts picking up after a while (a looong while). Before that, it was nonexistent. I still don't think the story is anything special, but it is better than my original opinion (which was "crap"). Or maybe it's just because I've played the Suikoden series, who does the "deep, political plot" oh so much better. FF12's story is a poor man's Suikoden V. Also, the character development is still crap.

However, you don't play this game for the character development. The gameplay is still great.