It sucked because they forgot to emphasize the playable characters and did a half-assed job of the Gambit system.

The gambit system was nothing more than an extra to allow the players some ease in grinding, or a facilitator for newcomers to the series.

Once again, I fail to see how the gambit system can be anyone's excuse for claiming that FFXII sucked. It wasn't even forced on you, unlike most battle/gameplay systems on most JRPG's.

You always had a choice whether to use it, or to play FFXII like any other FF game. It's simple as that. 

i dont think this game is as bad as everyone says, yes the battle system is auto but i dont see a lots more problems, i did got bored, but the game is not the as bad as people say.

No, it's not auto. You can turn off the gambits. 

Seriously, as anyone, other than me, actually tried to play the game without gambits? >_> 

I didn't use Gambits!

But I liked Gambits :(

I liked programming my character to be studly! or hot! or uh. Yeah.

I can see people's gripes with the game and yes, Vaan was the most pointless lead character ever created and I do feel this game would have been better if it was called Final Fantasy Tactics *insert extra tag line* and not an official FF game but other then that, I do feel it was a great game in it's own right.

And if you were sensible you took control of your characters during battles as the 2 other Gambitted ones are idiots.

I tried and got really bored and I always felt "I am not playing this game properly"

so I restarted the game & used gambits & loved it.

@radha

What do you mean "not as bad as everyone says"....everyone doesn't say its bad.....heck most people in this thread agree its an excellent game, stop insinuating lies.

I actually didn't use the gambits much.  They gave you such pitiful ones at the start of the game and continued to give you terrible ones for the next 10 or so hours that I just got use to using the bare minimum.

Gambits were an excellent idea, they just would have had to try hard to execute them worse.  Why is it fun to start out with gambits so awful that they just make me not want to use the system?

I understand them wanting me to work towards something, but I'm already working towards leveling my characters and moving them throughout the license grid, that's plenty.  I shouldn't have to fight with bad gambits.  I'm sorry, but cast heal when <90% health is near worthless.

Dragon Age did great by giving you the full range of options, their flaw was they went a little too in depth so their interface was a little funny and could be confusing and daunting at first.  FFXII had a great interface, they just made it so bad I didn't want to use it.

I agree that the gambits system wasn't very well implemented. The real potential of the system is only unlocked when you get all the 12 slots and all the gambit options, with some of the most useful ones being located on side-quest areas like the Necrohol of Nabudis.

I'm just not a fan of putting any game on Auto, even with Dragon Age, I just used manual outputs to my party, even when playing on Nightmare difficulty.

What sometimes ticks me off, is when people use gambits to say that the game played itself, when the game can be perfectly played without them. Heck, I even got through Zodiark, Yiazmat and Omega without using the gambits, and those were some trully insane battles xD