I agree regarding the music, but Nobuo is his own man and he wanted to change company. You can only accept that, really.

I also agree regarding random battles. Surely there is a way to mix in random battles without needing a swirly screen a la FFVII, but I do think they're still needed. Maybe have them come from 'invisible' to visible at a very late moment, so you can't really plot your way around the enemies -you just go straight into the fight. Random battles were also great in that when I went into a battle, I'd be like "Oh, crap." Whereas in XII, you see the enemy from a distance. You go up to it. It's like you're volunteering to battle and that's just boring. When you play other FF's, it's like you didn't intend on battling and they just appeared while you were camping or something. I like that. None of this "Oh, there's that enemy. Well, I'll just heal myself, put on the appropriate commands and then go over."

I certainly missed having a massive world that you could explore on a global level. I know that people say "but you can, it's just broken down" - I just don't like the breaking down bit. I prefer walking around on a COMPLETE world, where you can grab a boat or an airship and watch it spin beneath you.

Love interests are nice. I don't mind that this one was missing it, but I'll be eagerly looking forward to the return of one in a future Final Fantasy, I have to admit. Preferrably where you can choose who your character falls for. That would be neato.

What else was there? Hmm. Oh, the plot. The plot was okay. Not bad, not good. Not good enough to make me want to end the game to see how it went, sadly, but whatyagonnado. Only a very small percentage of games ever get finished by me, nothing tends to hold my interest long enough. I've finished two FF's, though. :P