Finishing the main story

[Disco Potato]

In my opinion... you should just play the game at a relaxed pace, enjoying and exploring as you go.
Sure, you won't get to finish it for a couple of months, but you'll appreciate it much more if you don't just rush through in order to complete it as fast as possible.
It'd be worth the wait, to be able to appreciate the story properly

I was thinking about doing that, but I've already been playing the game since April (school kept coming in the way of playing more), and I'm kind of tired of dragging it out

You need to face the champion in order to continue the story.

Yeah, that part was annoying. I'm not a big fan of card games, so I think I would've preferred another boss fight, with the auto-life ring as a reward

[Xurts]

In my opinion... you should just play the game at a relaxed pace, enjoying and exploring as you go.
Sure, you won't get to finish it for a couple of months, but you'll appreciate it much more if you don't just rush through in order to complete it as fast as possible.
It'd be worth the wait, to be able to appreciate the story properly

I was thinking about doing that, but I've already been playing the game since April (school kept coming in the way of playing more), and I'm kind of tired of dragging it out

Yeah, I know how you feel. When it comes to that point, I usually look at all of the things I can do and pick the ones that look the best. Then I fight the final boss. In FF12's case I didn't feel motivated to do anything else with it, but I finally forced myself to beat it just to be done with it.