What's up with FFXII?  Every person I've met who's actually played the game either loves it or hates it.  It has to be one of the most divisive games I've ever come across, and I can't help but wonder if it deserves all the hate it's getting, or if it actually is the worst FF ever made.  Because of all the confusion this has caused me, I've decided to make this thread. 

So, if you wouldn't mind, post whether you liked/disliked FFXII, why you liked/disliked FFXII, and then provide a brief history of your RPG background.  What games you've played, what your favorites are, what you look for in an RPG, etc. so I can judge what type of RPG gamer you are.

See, I'm still pretty new to JRPGs, and I've never played a Final Fantasy before, and when I see this game sitting on the shelf for only $20, I can't help but feel tempted to buy it.  Should I?  Would I love it?  Would I hate it?  This thread is to help me (and any others who have yet to play the game) determine this.

Note: Please, PLEASE, do not turn this into a pre/post-FFVII flame fest.

heard it sucked, never played it.

x was amazing though.

The persons who played and loved FFI till FFVI HATE FFVII.
The persons who played and loved FFVII till FFX HATE FFXII

Fascinating isn't it?

I am kind of special I loved almost every FF except FFVII and FFXII.

In my opinion FFXII IS NOT A BAD GAME but people were dissapointed in it especially about the Story.

If this game was not a FF game people would probably say 'Hey try that game out it is not the best RPG ever but it is quite okay.

The game is great.

It lacks character development until the last 10 hours.

It's still got one of the coolest battle systems in a FF game, imo.

I give it 9/10, just slightly worse than The World Ends With You.

It was okay. The combat system was cool, but the story sucked badly. X was better in every way.

Hmm, I liked it quite a bit (maybe not the story, but I'm more gameplay oriented anyway.) I think I liked it because I was really into FFXI, and it has the same kind of battle system, just without having to get a party of annoying people. (some were awesome of course)

 I've played a lot of RPG's in my life (at least I think so), I've played every final fantasy, haven't beat them all, (working on that) but I liked most of them, My favorite RPG (and favorite game over all) was definitely Earthbound, I loved the quirkiness, battle HP system, characters, music, and more. but I really like Chrono Trigger, Super Mario RPG, Secret of Mana and the like.

but yeah, I'd recommend it to try if you haven't played any other ones, I don't see why not at least try it^^

Edit: oh! and the Hunts in FFXII were cool, definitely one of the best parts^^

I disliked FF12, i found the story and the characters very bad, the battles system was ok at best. But the worst part of the game was the midget he/she kid thing, i have no idea what it was. I put 130hours into the game.

I have not played many RPG's, one on the N64, FF9, FF10, FF10-2, FF12 and Star ocean on the PS2. I then went back and played FF3 on the DS and FF4 or FF6 on the SNES, the one that all the fanboys love.

My favorite RPG is FFX  i played it for over 330 hours, great story, good weapons and fun battles and great CG scenes, i loved Blitzball, and FF12 had no good mini games. I never liked the older FF games i played, no voice work, which i grew to like with modern RPG games, along with the CG scenes.

FFXII is by no means a bad game. But it is alot different than what I think ppl were expecting and thats where u get the polar opposite opinions from.For those of us who play ffxi it almost feels like an offline version of it. I do agree with most that the story isnt on par with previous ff's but the gameplay is good and the game is HUGE. There is a massive amount of content and extras to complete.

FF 10 and 12 are both great buys at $20. I thought 12 was pretty good, but there is too much time in between story sequences. Other than that, it was fun. Get it.

As long as you don't take the story into account of being important and occassionally remind yourself that FFXII is sort of like an MMORPG, you will love this game. FFXII just goes in a very different direction from the previous FF's.