It's split in episodes though, so you'll get 3 FF VII games.

Square should focus on getting KH 3 done and try some new franchises for a change.

As big of a fan of Yasumi Matsuno's work, Ogre Battle, Vagrant Story, and FF Tactics, FF12 is something he should have been ashamed of. This is akin to how disappointing San Mendes's 007 SPECTRE film was. Such a capable artist in his field, well proven after such great hits, given a huge budget, and producing some of the worst crap in the franchise history.

If you ever played Xenoblade, a similar, but far more advanced game, FF12 will feel unrefined, unengaging, and disappointing. Ultimately, FF12 was clearly rushed and unfinished on the content side. There were huge areas that should have had more to them, people, objects to interact with, anything. It is likely they got cut due to time constraint, so it was bad budgeting on scope as far as Square's part.

As far as original, it was hardly such. The game was pretty much lifting mechanics from online RPGs and not doing a lot to make them feel engaging compared to other RPGs at the time. Rewarding the player with more flexibility in the mandatory auto-battle system as they leveled up was dumb. Very sloppy design.

The story was derivative, and the characters were dull. Vaan was pretty much a remake of the monkey-kid from FF9, except somehow even shallower of a main character; easily the most shallow FF main since the NES. The closest thing to good character in the game was Blather, a very poor attempt ripoff of Skies of Arcadia's Gilder.

The Final Fantasy series is great, but FF12 is simply not up to par; even FF13 was substantially better. It somehow managed to feel both bloated and lacking in substance at the same time. In my opinion, the worst FF game since FF2 on NES.

not my favorite ff, but happy about the good reviews

Tfw FF15 runs at a higher resolution on the Pro than a PS2 remaster

damnit, I wont get my copy in the mail until Thursday :/

that's what i get for super saver delivery.

You're right, FF13 was more enjoyable than 12. But I think what he means is that FF12 was the first FF game of the current trend of FF games being noticeably worse than mostly everything before it in the franchise. FF12-15 have not been as good as FF4-X. Mostly due to the worse battle systems, the heavy reduction in story, and the overall dullness of the experience with all the walking and fighting/grindyness. The world's of the older Final Fantasy games were much richer and more interesting. FF12 and onward were big, empty, and boring.

FF12 is such an amazing game, it really deserves all the good scores. My second favorite Final Fantasy. I wish Ito/Matsuno worked on FFXVI. Also, Balthier is da leading man.

I think you know pretty well thats not what he means and I just dont know of you are serious or trolling... 

Here's the thing, I love FF12, it's a superb game, one of my favourites of all time but I kind of agree with the statement of it being the start of the decline of Final Fantasy. We had 6-9, all ATB superb storied games, then X, which was good in my view just not on the level of those before it. Then came FF12, it changed how you battled and it changed FFs style. Many didn't like this and consider we had to wait 5 years for this, many were disappointed.

I'd say if they made another game called FF12 but was closer to gameplay and aesthetic to 7, 8 and 9, while keeping 12 as an Ivalice game and releasing it as well. There could have been a great FF game that people were happy with and a second game (FF12) which would have been seen in fresh eyes as a different game and people would have loved it because it wasn't tied to the expectation of what FF is/should be.

Keep it mind, it was the first FF true single player game made since SquEnix became a thing. Since then what have we got? FF13 and a massively delay KH-like FF game?.... great. 13 which is the worst I've played and FF15, which I'm not buying out of principle.

15hours lateron, and another 15 or so reviews.. and look, score went from 81 -> 87.

If Wccftech hadnt given it a 70 almost troll score, it would probably be 88.