Okay, let's start this over, shall we? Clearly we have a miscommunication.
There are a few basic precepts that users have come to expect from a JRPG, and unless there is a clear, intuitive reason for why they aren't going to be that way, most users expect those things to be the case. Here's a few key ones:
1. You need to gain levels to make progress.
2. You need to buy new equipment as soon as it's available.
3. If you can't afford new equipment, you need to gain more money until you can.
4. If enemies are too difficult, level up.
5. If a boss keeps defeating you, level up.
6. When in doubt, level up.
You can argue all you like against it, but the above outlines the basic thought pattern inherent in any JRPG experience. It's the precedent set by Dragon Quest and reinforced endlessly ever since. Breaking away from these rules without any discernible reason is counter-intuitive, since the RPGamer's intuition favors those behaviors listed above. You can argue that we've surely grown past those precedents by now, but the sad truth is that we have not. There are far, far more JRPGs which follow those rules than do not.
Basically, FF12 violates all of those rules. Leveling up has almost no impact. Equipment is critical, but buying the best stuff available usually isn't the best idea; the "real" best equipment is the stuff with hidden special abilities and attributes, not the stuff with the highest attack and defense power. Stopping to level up, the option that makes the most sense, does nothing useful.
I appreciate the desire to break away from formula, I really do. But FF12 didn't do it right. It still "feels" like a standard JRPG, to the point that following the basic rules of a JRPG seems to make sense. Being punished for doing what makes sense, or even just minimally rewarded when you expect to be greatly rewarded, turns people right off to a game.
Sky Render - Sanity is for the weak.
