LOL! It was not slow paced at all. If you think FFXII is slow paced then so are games like the Assassin's Creed series and Elder Scrolls series. Heck, Skyrim is very slow paced and yet it gets barely any complaints for it. Also, seeing as FFXII had sealess battles, I don't see how grinding is even an issue. Also, it being boring is highly subjective. Somebody could find a political debate boring, while another could be keenly interested.

The battle system wasn't boring for me. It was very enjoyable due to how much you coulf customize it. Also, the story and voice acting of FFXII are some of the best to appear in a video game.

FFXII is excellent. Even with Matsuno leaving during development, the finished game is still a masterpiece.

I actually disliked FFX. It was far too linear and event scene focused. FFXII was the step in the right direction hy focusing more on gameplay and exploration. FFXIII copied the FFX approach and look where that landed it.

I actually think that it releasing this gen would have made people appreciate the story more. It's very mature, realistic, and complex. It's not anime garbage like other FF games.

i liked 12... game play was solid... they shouldve stick to sphere grid-ish level up system
the "summon" needs to be more memorable too...

It was open world. Restrictions were in place for certain areas as it would have affected the story if you arrived there to early. The prime example being Archades. As for the story being boring and slow-paced, that's purely subjective. I never found any of these as concerns. There characters were not heavily developed, but they were still great characters. You don't need loads of character development to make a great character. However, I do agree that the Espers were very weak to use. Thankfully, they improved them in the International version.

As for being a completitionist, that shouldn't alter if a game is good or not. There are games where the developers don't expect you to be able to 100% get everything. It's a respectable design choice and one that's heavily used in MMORPGs. FFXII is an offline MMORPG.

Vaan is probably the best written character in a JRPG. the fact you dislike him is a testament to that.

You're wrong. FFXII had no influence on FFXIII. Not a single thing. FFXIII was made how it was because it was made to be an evolution of FFX.

Too many of these FFXI complaints focus on the story. The story is purely subjective, so your dislike of it doesn't mean the game is bad.

Oh feel free to LOL because i have played the game. It IS grindy because if you dont grind the battles become too difficult to overcome. It is boring, just look at the regular attack bar. Lets stare at that fill up, its awesome gameplay.

The story was almost non-existant, you spent 90% more time grinding and traversing the world than getting any sort of interactivity or conversations with other characters.

The pacing was slow. To advance the story it would require hours of dungeoning and the story would hardly move at all.

I'm glad you liked it. i didnt think it was terrible like FFXIII but it was really boring. It needs a faster paced combat system. Oblivion paces faster than FFXII by far, and that is not very good, but at least it doesnt make you grind. Or you know... it can go back to turn based. Offline MMO just doesnt work for me. Its pointless.

Vaan didn't influence my opinion of Final Fantasy XII to the extent that he ruined the game for me on any level, I just didn't care that he was there. Basch and Ashe, as well as Balthier and Fran, resonated with me more. Also, why is it a good thing that I'm supposed to dislike him? I don't remember anything about him other than that he was there. I played up to getting the Sword of Kings or the fight against Cid, whichever follows the other, so I know nothing of Vaan's character beyond that point.

I didn't say the story was poor, I said it was told poorly. Two different very different things. There was a lot of potential in the story but when the main characters at the start are effectively bit parts it becomes difficult to care about the events that are happening later in the game. They should have just had Balthier or Basch as the main character from the start, telling the story from their POV from the very start of the game. Or alternatively, pulled a FFVI and presented the game as a full ensemble and shown multiple POVs in great depth.

Instead, I was left thinking "this is a pretty deep and involved storyline" but combined with "I'm completely detached from this story because the POV is removed from the core of this storyline".

I avoided the game for a long time because I was seeing so many FF fans shit on the game. Shame on those FF fans and their bad taste. Best FF.

Too bad the last half of the game isn't as good as the first half. 

So I guess you don't like Xenoblade much, eh?

There was practically no way besides grinding ridiculous amounts if I wanted to do anything besides follow the story, if I recall correctly. That's not open world to me. Most of the so-called open areas were too difficult to even run through, let alone be played. The game became truly open only once you advanced the story enough, before that there was no true openness. The story was slow-paced, that's not subjective. To get the story to advance even just a little bit, I had to fight a good hour or two, and that just screams slow pace. The story would have been interesting, had it not been prolonged for so long. Story-wise, the game would have been interesting if it would have been half or so of the game's actual length. And yes, in practice you do need more character development to make an interesting character. The characters certainly had interesting roles, they just weren't fully developed. In fact, they were barely developed at all. As for the improvements in the international version, I couldn't care less. I never got that version because they never released it outside Japan so it doesn't concern me.

That completionist thing isn't a huge thing and it certainly doesn't affect my overall opinion of the game. However, the game was definitely designed so that you could get everything so you can't use the argument you just tried to use. As far as I remember, all the other items were much easier to obtain. And in fact, it's pretty obvious they meant every item to be obtainable: The Zodiac Spear is clearly meant to be obtained by avoiding those certain containers, yet they wanted to make sure everyone has a chance so they put a container with a very low chance to spawn the spear. That is poor design, it only serves to make the game worse, and it really caught by eye as an example of bad game design when I played the game. It's the little things that matter, too, and this was one of those things.

I havent played it, but i know the combat is nothing like FFXII so your comment is a terrible atempt at a blindside that isnt there.

Stick to the topic. Dont try to lower the level.