It could've been better, and I think the story could've been more fleshed out. However, for being so uniquely political and radically different than your traditional JRPG, it was very, very good. People don't like it because it's not Japanese enough, and they hold silly opinions like "It's not Final Fantasy, it doesn't have this and this and this!"

All it needs is a title. Good series die if they stay the same for too long, and XII did an extremely good job of departing from the last several games, and I think it largely succeeded.