As much as I love FFXII's gameplay, soundtrack and like most of the characters, the story is poorly told, yes. The pacing is weird, and it's confusing - not complex you see, but confusing.
As for the characters, I think Balthier and Basch are some of the best on the series. Fran and Ashe are okay, but Penelo is worthless. And Vaan's biggest flaw is being the protagonist, he's actually a good character. I don't know what they were thinking when they made him the protagonist. The story NEVER centers around him. If he was a secondary character, I don't think people would dislike him as much.
And Final Fantasy is in a lose-lose situation really. As someone already stated here, the fanbase is one of the worst, with A LOT of double standards. I remember that when FFXII came out, it was called "THE WORST FF EVER, IT RUINED THE FRANCHISE"
Then XIII came out. Now, XIII is "the worst FF ever, it ruined the franchise" and XII is actually "a decent game".
I'm calling it now: when FFXV is released, it'll be "the worst FF ever", and XIII will be called a "decent game".
