Final Fantasy Just Isn't All That Great Anymore
First and foremost, I like Ivalice as a fantasy world, especially with moogles, mogs, and chocobo. There are only very few problems with Ivalice, mostly in its over-simplification of its sentient denizen: the cultures are so oversimplified as to exhibit a certain humorless xenophobia or as to insult the player. Of course, one must not expect grand originality in theme with Final Fantasy titles -- it's not Empire of the Petal Throne nor Middle Earth by a long shot. It might be said that Final Fantasy en large has always resembled a grammar school version of Empire of the Petal Throne, a version which gathers from sources as wide as Warhammer Fantasy, Blackmoor, and a little known fantasy game that featured ostrich riders. And also the addition of Jorune from which two non-human peoples are stolen wholesale.
Now, that out of the way, this Final Fantasy is considerably less fantastic than Final Fantasy at its xenith and does not grow with the local computing industry. It does not, for instance, have extensively creative airship use -- and with the plethora of Sims and Air Battle games, it could've easily learned from these to produce a spectacular set of mini-games. When the player obtains their own airship, they cannot wander the decks and examine it -- it exists as merely a link between points in the world and an animated sequence.
The primary playable characters were unappealing -- as others have noted before me. Larsa Solidor, Reddas, and Al-Cid were quite a bit more interesting than any other character in the game. Several people have mentioned to me (and I agree) that there should have been three "books" to this game, one with the initial character, Reks and his companions, another with those playable in the main game, and a third starring Reddas, Larsa, Al-Cid, and Montblanc as well as perhaps other deeper and more lovely personalities.
This Final Fantasy doesn't show off nor offer vast creative fun. It seems depressed and sad, but one could see the game series weakening since Final Fantasy X. Hopefully, it will become as vastly open and enjoyable as prior Final Fantasies have been, except in a new way.
Furthermore, for those fans of chocobo who were hoping that Final Fatnasy XII would have mounted battles featuring chocobo -- only the FMV, the animated sequences have these. A player can only watch.
Finally, despite the ability to roam at will and take hunting missions, the story progresses in a linear manner without much reason to go wandering nor many sidelong ventures to enjoy, unexpected optional cities, characters that might join if you play your cards right, etc.
And while imaginative and intelligent players of Final Fantasy who saw the Game Boy Advance version of Final Fantasy Tactics might hope that this game holds minigames that permit large scale tactical features or a chance to play politician, they will be dissapointed. The pretty graphics here do not save this game in the least. Nor does the voice acting. Nor is it helpful that this game lacks privately owned airships, privately owned chocobo, and wide open world to explore.
Perhaps Final Fantasy XIV will be a vast improvement over what seems to be the sad decline of this star that once trembled visibly at the horizon.