Ah, but it's not the encounter system that matters! Oh, if only that was all it took... No, the problem with FF12 has nothing to do with enemy respawn rates or battlefield tactics or anything like that. It has everything to do with the fact that, when you break it all down, you are still playing what amounts to a standard RPG in terms of the interface and presentation. You still have the standard Attack/Magic/Skills/Item menu, you still have the usual "gain exp and money/loot after battles" system, you still have the "skill points to build up abilities" system...

On the surface, FF12 does not let you know that it is different. The subtle bits, like the enemy respawn rates, might tip you off... if you noticed them. But like so many, I don't pay attention to little details like when enemies finally reappear when I play an RPG; I just kill whatever I see and keep it up as long as necessary to be at the right level. Why? Because that's what I expect of an RPG that looks and plays (or at least appears to play) just like a normal RPG.

For the record, I do believe that getting further into the game forces one to recognize the difference, whether one initially understands or not. Getting a certain distance into the game without understanding that equipment is more important than level is literally impossible, especially when you start to buy decent armor.

I believe that I have exhausted my ability to speak as to whether or not Final Fantasy XII is a grindfest and how this affected or played off of one's expectations.

I am stepping out for a few hours, but let me ask you this: given your new knowledge, would you give the game another try, and if not, why not? Is the fact that your expectations subverted so grievous an offense that the game is bad for that reason alone, or would knowing the system allow one to enjoy it as many ended up doing?

 My thoughts exactly.  Mana > Evermore

As far as FF goes, IV is my favourite (on the SNES though, DS version is the suckage), then X, and XII gets third place.

All right I also want to hear why you don't like FFIV DS

OMG Epic pic !!! I agree, FFVIII is great and squall owns cloud! But I didn't like FFXII.

I see now that FF12 probably isn't as bad as it seemed to me. As I said, I expected it to be a standard RPG experience, because nothing about how it presented itself made me think otherwise. And since playing it like a standard RPG worked at least somewhat for a while, I was inclined to believe that it was just a poorly designed RPG. I probably could enjoy it if I did figure out the nuances of how to make it enjoyable, in fact. But the thing is, after suffering it as a standard RPG, I now have no desire to do that.

This is the death knell of so many games... They may well be very good experiences and have the potential to really drag you in, but it's all for naught if you don't figure out the way of playing that makes them fun. I know just how harsh it can be, as I have literally played both sides of the coin for a game before: Vagrant Story. Originally, I hated Vagrant Story. Nothing seemed to work for me in that game. I just could not figure out what I was supposed to do, and so chalked it up to bad game design and quit playing. About a year or two later, I went back and gave the game a begrudging second chance. After I discovered the depths of weapon/armor combining, and got the knack of timing reaction and chain commands, the game became very fun indeed. I practically played Vagrant Story to death after that, loving every minute of it.

Expectations are deadly things for a game. They can taint your experience and make what may well be a fantastic game seem absolutely horrible, just because you're not playing it "right". And it's not the game's fault, either; the game isn't bad or anything, it's just that the designers didn't make it clear without a shadow of a doubt which course of action was best and which was not going to work.

Sky Render, if you ever want to try again, I can tell you this:

Your heart will grow three sizes that day.

Heh. Believe me, after my Vagrant Story experience, I have no doubt that I could easily love FF12 to bits even though I loathe it like no other right now.

I watched my friend play a lot of FFXII while hanging out in our room at college. Here are some things that that struck me (and him) as odd.

He got kind of lost about where he was supposed to be going at one point (actually that happened more than once). He came to an area where the first enemy was a bat that was 5 levels higher than his strongest character. It killed several of his characters before he ran away. Several hours later, we figured out this was indeed the correct area. Since he was nowhere near as strong as he needed to be, grinding had to be done.

That big special attack that you can do when your magic meter is full is not explained well at any point. We eventually figured it out though.

The big special attack is so powerful, and your regular attacks are so weak, that battles seem unbalanced. (Most apparent in boss battles.)

Those creatures you can summon are very weak. (Maybe they level up too? He didn't use them much since they were so weak. Not well explained.)

At one point near the end of the game, you need to summon one of those creatures to break down a wall to continue. This is the only time this occurs, and we did not know it was even possible for the creature to do that. We had to look it up to figure out where to go and what to do.

Story was weak compared to FFX. (opinion)

The only thing that saved the game was that the battle system was so different. It helped keep things fresh. Otherwise, this game would have been a real stinker.

Keep in mind that my friend put in over 200 hours into FFX, and beat all of the secret bosses.

QFT!

Well, not so much XII. I hated it so much I didn't even finish it.