Personally, I think the hatred for the game is WAY out of proportion and has more to do with frustration over a falling franchise than the actual game itself. You have to remember that a large chunk of the modern FF fanbase entered with FF7. However, although FF7 was good, in my opinion, its success was more due to the right game at the right time aimed at the right (mainstream) market than actual quality of the game itself. FF7 is easily the most mainstream, accessble and "casual" of the FF games - although to be fair, it DOES have a lot of really deep elements to appeal to more hardcore fans, but primarily the main features of the game are extemely mainstream/casual in my view.
But having said that, FF12 does have a number of problems that kept people from really connecting with it. First off, the shared teching meant every single character felt exactly the same. They were literally interchangeable in battle which made them boring and you didn't really care about most of them. The combat system was interesting in concept, but I never even bothered using it. I still just issued commands in real time to everyone. So what is the reward/benefit/purpose of the new battle engine if you can easily play the game without it?
I also had a huge issue with the story. I really liked the start of the story and the war between two countries. That was awesome. But then in my game, that story seemed to get completely lost mid game. So much so, in fact, that I actually forgot what was going on and had to force myself to keep playing until something happened that helped me remember. And the WORST part of the story is how quickly they try to wrap everything up in a neat bow at the end. ALmost as if they KNEW they had gotten lost and off track and should just wrap it up as quickly as possible. The ending of the game has you fighting through a maze like building where every floor looks the same and every enemy is the same. After that goes on for seemingly forever, they literally explain the whole point of the story in one scene, then you have to fight all the major characters you've encountered in the game one right after another then the game ends.
So while I really liked the story, I really disliked how the pacing and the plotting of it. That ending explanation and string of plot based battles was just sloppy storytelling.
But other than that, I liked the graphics, I liked the characters and I usually don't like most FF characters, liked the world, etc.
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