I enjoyed it. I found it a little slow to start, and a few things like irksome (Or leader fell, how will we go on?!) but stuck with it because...well, it was pretty, and I was intrigued by the battle system. But a few chapters in, a feeling struck me, one I hadn't felt since FFX-2 (Yeah, yeah, grab the torches and pitchforks, I liked that one too.) I *CARED.* I cared that there was clearly more to Vanille's smiles and giggles that met the eye, I cared Snow and Lightning were both tirelessly working to save the presumably unsavable Serah, I cared that Hope was trying to reconcile his grief of losing his mother, and his own crappy fate. FFXII, five hours in, rocks could have fallen, the entire cast could have died...well, I would have missed Basch and Balthier a bit, but frankly...I don't think I would have cared. Not so here.

I dunno, others may disagree, but I thought it was an improvement after FFXII.