Incredible design and artwork; fighting system and area design too much like XI, so didn't care for it whatsoever. Fair to say Squenix hasn't made anything good since X. 

i have to say this game was great and really did shine through as a classic the only real gripe i had with it was .. well Vaan, i just hated him with a passion, and the fact that he was really so irrelevant to the main story but yet he was the main character, i mean his best friend Panelo had more to do with the main story then him. Anyways that is literally the only problem i had with the game, thanx for the thread op goin to replay it now
FRAN BASCH AND PANELO REPRESENT o/,

also quick side note if no one knew this but FFXII is set in the same world as Tactics, just a hidden gem that i thought everyone would enjoy, its really the only FF to do that if you don't count the sequels like X-2
:P

It did have fantasy, loads and loads. About a third into the game you obtain the Dusk Shard or something like that, then slowly the fantasy trickles in until you get very late into the game.

I admit it was heavy on politics, but the problem was the weak character driven story that allowed the politics to overshadow the the characters for the first half of the game.

The thing with Final Fantasy is, its fine to reinvent some things, but the game has to be an RPG at its core.

FF12 was an RPG, but not enough JRPG. The problem with the game really was the story. While it was brilliant at some parts, for the beginning of the game it was very difficult to feel the characters were important. I remember Basch was meant to be the main character, and he should've been.

The game was very good in terms of RPG elements; exploration, customisation, weapons, armour. monster hunting. This aspect was nearly perfect.

The problem with the game was really the lack of a character driven story until the half way point.

By the way the story was very intelligently written, because the events taking place within the game are a reference to the events of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In the same way Matsuno designed Final Fantasy Tactics after the War of the Roses, and Tactics Ogre over ethnic cleansing in Bosnia during the 20th century. Shame he didn't get to complete the story his way, instead of Square Enix interfering to appeal to their kiddy demographic.

Loved everything about this game except the characters. I really liked the political intrigue and the epic scale of the story, but most of the characters were not interesting. While not my favorite FF battle system, the gambit system was was still great. The best part of the game was the actual size of the game.

Not quite sure what people had against the characters, they are no more filled out than any proceding FF games. Ignoring Vaan and Penelo who seemed out of place, most characters fitted their roles well. Voice acting was superb and story intriguing.

Gameplay was great, if not at times just a case of pressing forward and letting the game do the work, which in itself it a bit weird. They took this idea further with FFXIII and just it a 'press X and go' gameplay.

While a fantastic game, it didn't feel that Final Fantasy to me at the time, traditional summons were not there, self contained battles, stuff like that, but looking at it now, it doesn't matter.

i put more hours into this game than any other jrpg (excluding pokemon). the open world, large number of side quests, the story, the soundtrack and the battle system, it was all so amazing.

I applaud it for doing some new stuff but thought it was so boring. I finished it because it was a FF game but it is a JRPG I would not recommend to someone.

Wasn't quite up there amongst the best Final Fantasies IMO but still good. Had a great story but I felt it wasn't told very well.

9,8,7,10,12,6,4,5------------------------->13 for me :P

it's a pretty good finalfantasy game, though the lack of romance kills it for me

it doesn't compare to the godlike game finalfantasy ix was though ;)