Final Fantasy XII is a lengthy RPG that is easy to be absorbed in, but it lacks what should keep you hooked.
The game's setting, history and general universe is what it does best, giving you a totally unique world to get lost in. Unfortunately, Final Fantasy XII doesn't to the best job at giving you the best grand tour of this universe. You're offered a handful of 'okay' characters with a basic personality and a brief reason to be participating in the main quest, and that's about it.
It is your job to level them up while traversing across vast continents and plains plowing through thousands of enemies. You'll watch for dozens of hours as they hack and slash through re-skinned enemies through unnecessarily large areas, with similar music tracks that repeat themselves throughout the long journey far too often. The music is a great touch, and serves a lovely atmosphere, but the repetition of tracks from earlier stages become boring and you'll be begging for something new.
The storyline, generally, is actually what you'd expect and want from a Final Fantasy game. The catch is that the characters really undermine what could be a deep and personal story, exploring their actions in the middle of a full-scale war. They come off as bland, cardboard cut-outs far too often, and completely lack development. This is mainly because we only ever hear a little over a couple hundred lines of dialogue from each of the characters throughout the entire sixty+ hour experience. The cutscenes are sparsely placed and you'll be dying for more story advancement as you cross miles of land to the other side of the continent.
The visuals are top-notch for a PlayStation 2 title and could easily be a beautiful HD remaster experience, if Square Enix wished it. The characters' high quality models look great, and their lipsync and facial expressions go along with the scene perfectly. The voice acting is pretty good, and the diverse accents you'll hear throughout the game really make it feel other-worldly.
In conclusion: This game will be great for those hardcore (J)RPG fans looking for a detailed, mature storyline experience, along with an almost endless purgatory of grinding to be done. Fortunately, once you reach the end, you'll get a sense of achievement and the ending really makes you feel like it was worth it.
The good:
-Astonishing visuals, some of the best on the PlayStation 2.
-Massive, detailed world with diverse settings and things to learn.
-A perfect difficulty and almost perfectly-polished gameplay.
-Decent voice acting give the characters a reasonable amount of life, when they show it most.
-A new style of musical score for the Final Fantasy series, but really gives the game its grand, epic scale.
-Customizable AI and tons of different ways to overcome your foes. No playthrough is the same.
The bad:
-Probably the biggest grind-fest anyone could ever experience in a single-player RPG just to complete the main storyline. Hundreds of thousands of creatures WILL be slaughtered.
-The distance you're expected to travel on foot is sometimes absolutely ridiculous, and almost every area is way bigger than it needs to be.
-The characters are cardboard cutouts with barely any personal features, giving you the sense you're controlling puppets on strings in this vastly detailed world.
-The game's story progression is extremely slow and seems it would suit a 30 hour game best.
In the end, this game gets a 7.9/10 from me (rounded to 8) because it's just not the definitive RPG experience, and is definitely only for those who are willing to cut a large chunk out of their day to play this beast.