It's really about how you approach it. I'm with most people here for the system. I've finished the game and I've reached the point where characters are finally becoming supposed "clones". But you see, I still relagate my party based on how I want them to be used. Penelo is still my "white mage", Basch is my warrior, and even though he can cast Flare and Scathe, I don't let him, mostly cause he sucks at magic and I don't want to cater his equipment to make him good.

I came into the game with a set idea of how I wanted my party. I have had to change a few of my convictions (cause white magic is too useful) but interestingly enough. Even though alot of my characters share similiar skills, my party is equipped differently and used differently. The characters actually have distinctions from each other. It's suttle but it is there. I've also found that the game actually punishes you for trying to create "omni-characters". The combat system is designed around using a greater level of strategy than earlier FF's, and I have found that creating "omni-characters" destroys anyway of using strategy effectively. Now granted, your whole party is interchangeable but as I've stated before, there are slight stat differences that become blatanly obvious as the game goes along.

Besides the point of the system is to build the characters you want to build, from scratch. If you feel it "cheapens" the experience because you lack any discipline and will power, that is your fault, not the games.

I prefer the job class systems used in FFT but I don't feel the license board makes the game easier, rather it grants the player the greatest amount of freedom in an FF without being overly annoying about it like FFII was. I can build whatever I really want. When I decide to start my second game, I'm going to create even more defined characters wirth little overlap. One to make the game more challenging but also cause I really want to push the gambit system and enjoy the games finer mechanics.