I love Final Fantasy XII, and it is one of my favorite games ever. It was my first FF game, and the gameplay and story are both really great. Why is it that I keep hearing this game was one of the worst in the series? 

I honestly have no clue. Maybe people just don't like how the battle system is or something. Hard to tell but it was one of my favorite ff games.

i think its cause people can't get past saying "7 is the best game ever. after 7 every other game sucks"

I think it's just because the battle system was different, and people are terrified of anything new.

 

Personally, I love XII. The real-time battle takes some getting used to, but I like how it keeps you on your toes, with having to constantly adapt to new situations by swapping weapons and spells, and makes it so that everyone in your party has some use and can be influential at any given moment and time.

 

The story was fantastic, and the amount of time and effort spent in developing the characters back stories and the world itself really shows. The characters are probably the best written (for the record, in case people are getting confused by my flip-flopping: FF IX has the most emotional character quests, FF XII has the best developed characters), and I love how the villains are portrayed as having depth and justification to their motives, if not their actions.

Here are some of my personal reasons. First of all the game is based in the world of Ivalice. This is familiar to anyone who has played a FFTactics game. To be blunt, I hated any of the Tactics and found the return to the world of Ivalice, even if it's an alternate one, dreadful. Not to mention it could be considered a rehash. Next, the battle system, while seamless, isn't traditional. While this is probably the intention, it doesn't offer the same feeling that more traditional Final Fantasies do. Then we have the story, which isn't bad by itself mind you. The problem I have with it is the way it's told. It's told from Vaan's perspective while it seemingly has little to do with him or Penelo for that matter. Those two just happened to be in the right place at the right time. It seems to me that the story would be a lot better off if told from Basch or Ashe's point of view. Lastly, and this should probably go with the battle system but, there is a ginormous difficulty curve that makes me rage. 

 

Edit:

 

Just to be clear, my favorite is VIII so I can handle somewhat of an unconventional battle system.

Edited February 19, 201312 yr by TerraRedeemed

I can't stand XII because everything about XII is just so dull and plain. The government and politics storyline was not interesting in the least and the characters just felt as plain and dry as the story that they will put in. The battle system was a joke as you could just basically tell it what to do, and not even touch the controller. What's even the point in playing ? Vaan was a terrible main character and Vayne was not interesting as a villain  He was no Kefka, Sephiroth, Paramecia or Seymour. He was just completely dull and had terrible greasy hair that needed a cut. 

 

XIII and XIII-2 were so much better because the storyline was more interesting, the characters were more interesting... XII just drove me to sleep... and the horrible Shakespearian way that they talked was just so annoying. Speak like a normal character so we can understand you, what you mean all the time and not just guess or assume what you're on about.

 

I also despise Tactics it's Dad for being the same. Dull, stupid way of speaking and just being all-right bore-fest.

 

And no I don't hate the newest games just because I can't stand XII and Tactics, I did enjoy XIII and really loved XIII-2. XII however I wanted to burn into a fire. 

Well, Vaan especially got on my nerves. He was just so dimwitted and I didn't see why he was a part of the story. Then the game involved so much running around that it was easy to lose track of the story because the length of time between events. Since I play games for the sake of a good story, that was why XII frustrated me so much.