1: You can see traps and enemy level with Libra, which more than one character comes with, so you should never be in a situation where you are TPK'd by a trap or a Rare Monster. More than that, you can't have more than half your party out at the same time and you can run faster than any normal enemy, so you'll never be instantly killed. THis is a pretty novel worry!

2: THe mimic save points were bastards, yes, but unless I remember incorrectly they appear less than half a dozen times throughout the game and leave behind actual, real save points when they die.

Yours is a most troublesome case! I wish that I had some way to help you enjoy the game.

Take my brain, I'm not using it.

@twesterm:

Haha, yeah.

I thought the traps and mimic save points were two of the best inventions of the game :)

FF12 was awesome, however for some core FF fans like repetition it was a collosul failure. There was no anti loser hero, the villains weren't exactly the Kefka Sephiroth, the story was actually more plausible rather than some 12 year kid imagination of big meteorites or planet traveling aliens. Combat was actually fun, interactive and controllable rather than the dull stand their Active Turn Based menu choices. There was no poorly written romance or romantic tension. People were far more confident of themselves.

However politics to many can be dull. Characters were less conveyed than FF7 creating less association.

Over all it's a better game, but many found the story and direction less entertaining, but then again that comes down to matter that JRPGS are more like story books broken up by constant combat rather than an actual game.

One of the things about FF12 which players may not realize is just how steeped in history the storyline is. No, not Ivalice history, but actual, bedrock events of human history -- the history of Empires, nobility, capitalism, slavery, emancipation, industrialization, national revolution, Wall Street neoliberalism, market fundamentalism, etc. If you're not aware of that history or haven't read widely, many of the references won't make sense.

No it was just boring (my opinion though).

more like what wasnt wrong with it

Either support your argument or be dubbed a troll.

I agree, but in the end history doesn't write good stories on its own.  You have to have characters that are interesting enough, for whatever reason, that people can empathize with them or are drawn into the world in some other way, and are left with lasting emotions felt within the story.  XII was more adult I agree, but maybe SE just isn't quite as good at pulling off an involving adult drama?

      You make some interesting points -- I'm not quite sure what you're trying to say in your last sentence, but it sounds interesting too.  Characters being well conveyed is an important part of storytelling, and I do think that's a reason a lot of people were underwhelmed by the game.

The story had way too many characters, and kind of had me a bit lost to tell the truth, it wasn't as focused as others, and there wasn't really any 'love' theme in there. Admittedly I too have a short attention span. I don't want to be bored with the story, I know they tried to make it have a lot of detail, but it kind of shows how far behind videogame blockbusters can be from Hollywood as far as capturing a Western audience with the story. It seems a very tough thing to do in a video game, when you have to balance game play with story, as well as the fact that the story has to drag on to match the game length people are looking for in an RPG. Drag on is seemingly what it did.

The story was ok, just not as good as the other good games in the series. All the characters coming a long for most of the story seemed very cliche to me and kind of ruined it for me. I understand the reason they did that is so you could chose who you play with, but you shouldn't sacrifice the story for that- i'd rather had a more engaging story than more options to whom i play with. All the cg airship battles (action scenes), did nothing for me, seemed tacked on and all the same; they really overdid it in that aspect, you knew what was going to happen- I got sick of watching them at the end of the game.

The gameplay mechanics, production values, graphics, music were all outstanding. I know i definitely prefer the real-time system they used, it made the boss battles a lot more fun. I certainly prefer the MMO feel, possibly because i played FFXI for several years and loved it. Level grinding in other games can really get to you with the sheer amount of time it takes, it kind of streamlined the whole experience not having to pause for each battle.
It's still one of the best JRPGs out there, despite it's failure to live up to expectations.