What exactly was wrong with Final Fantasy 12?

[Bitmap Frogs]

Khuutra said:

Sky Render said:
The Dustia trick is where you keep tossing Phoenix Downs on the Dustia in the Westersand and leaving before the Exp/LP notice pops up to keep it respawning. The reason I'm doing that is because your party's initial levels are determined by Vaan's level. Ergo if he's level 40 before the rest of the party joins up, they'll all be level 41 and 42 when they join up. And getting to level 40 against Dustia doesn't really take much; probably all of 10 hours gameplay overall if you're also doing other things, which is still 4 times faster than I was expecting. And I've managed to collect a fair few decent weapons in the process too, and most of the Forbidden Grimoires.

Holy Hell.

I can honestly say that I never had to grind that way. When it took me a while to level, it meant I was strong enough to move into the next area. Which was better for me anyway, because it meant bettter loot.

Spending that much time leveling up Vaan will take away the need to level up later, sure, but it also robs the game of all challenge, is hideously repetitive, and breaks the flow of the game considerably. I just can't figure out why you would do it.

 

While I have no way to find out where it is true or not, I've always thought the poor impression left upon many fans by XII is a byproduct of overusing faqs/guides/tricks like these. Overpowered characters combined with gambits are building block of the auto-play for which FFXII was lambasted.