FFXII is innovative and new. DQVIII is damn near the perfection of the traditional end of the Japanese RPG genre. I'll go with FFXII if only because I loved everything about it more, though the lack of Yangus is regrettable. Then again, Balthier is ten times the character any of the cast of DQVIII are so it's forgiveable.

Also, I don't know how you can only be 1/3 - 1/2 way through with that many hours on the clock. I've yet to find the time or the desire to beat DQVIII, but I'm at least half way through with far less than half that time on the clock. If most of that is side quests then I was unaware there's that much to do so early in the game. The whole thing seemed quite linear to me up until the point I'm at.