Why Did I Buy This?
 

Ever go out and get a game, come home and find its awful? Or at least really overrated? Or how about the time you went out and got Metal Gear Solid 2 and came home and found out that 3/4ths of the game you were playing as K_Tak?

Give some of your best stories of horrifying gaming disappointment. Win an offical GFF NO PRIZE if your story involves a major crowd pleasing game (Halo 3, Gears Of War, Asteroids, etc)

I know this isn't going to be that popular, but I have to say Space Invaders Extreme. Don't get me wrong, it's an alright game, but from what people were saying (everyone from reviewers to people on these here forums) they made it seem like this was one of the best games on the system, which it hardly is. It's Space Invaders with flashing lights and techno music, not that big a deal.

As far as the gameplay changes, some of them were good, but a lot of them were recycled from the first SI DS game, Space Invaders Revolution. Overall, I'm not saying it ain't worth playing, but it's definitely not worth rushing out to buy, even at just $20.

...I thought that was Space Giraffe?

Space Giraffe was Tempest with glittery shit, LeHah.

I'm not sure if it falls into your categorisation of 'why did I buy this?' titles, but Lost: Via Domus would be one titles anyone should question having spent money on. Thing is, I picked it up with the full intention of taking it back (we lack rental places anywhere near where I live) and exchanging it, but I certainly would have been thinking "Why the hell did I, or would anyone, buy this?" if it had been a legit purchase.

Beautiful Katamari on the 360. After having bought a HDTV, I figured I should buy an HD Katamari game as well so I could see the amazing graphics. I didn't imagine they could possibly ruin a Katamari game, right? What a fucking joke. None of the quirky humor of the first game, none of the interesting levels of the second. Even the controls were less responsive. What a Goddamn gyp.

Also the music mostly sucked, when it wasn't recycled from We Love Katamari. There was a song where a bunch of fucking Japanese girls just talk. What the hell is that about?

Beautiful Katamari was fine. It's just more of the same which is what I bought the game for. I found it perfectly acceptable and got the fun I wanted out of it.

http://g.photos.cx/1219250540091-c8.jpg

This is now a THE iDOLM@STER thread.

http://img153.imageshack.us/img153/4650/heman2el6.jpg

SILENCE!

The only thing that springs to mind is Gears of War. Yes, I know everyone loves this game, but it just didn't do anything for me. It's the first game I bought with my 360, but I sold it soon afterward.

Oh, and there's Blue Stinger. I picked that up with my Dreamcast, since there wasn't a whole lot to choose from at launch, it wasn't what you'd call a good game.

The thing is, if I buy a game I regret, I usually sell it on Ebay and recoup most of my money. In this day and age, you're unlikely to buy a game that's out and out bad, because reviews and word of mouth will clue you in.

Only if the title where Why DIDN'T I Buy This thread.

http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e1...mu/Miki018.jpg

US release WHEN

Also not so much a buy as I had a free download code, but Robotron 2084 for the XBLA is pretty much the worst shit I've played in a long time. Deleted it.

Super Smash Bros. Melee. What is this? The thing is, I've just bought Brawl, and that game entertains me hugely. Melee's a pile of shit, though.

The same thing about Metroid Prime. The first, Prime lol, was a hassle playing, while Prime 3 was more entertaining than most games I've played on Wii.

Xenosaga II. Terrible battle system. Unnecessarily long boss battles {and random encounters}. Needlessly convoluted plot. Too much focus on characters who sucked {Junior and Momo}. How the hell was the first Xenosaga good, the second one terrible, and the third one awesome? That makes no sense.

Shadow Hearts uh...three I guess. The one with the little kid being the main dude. The pacing is terrible, the characters are lame, and the story is all kinds of ::no one cares::

Gran Turismo 5 Prologue. Well, I know why I bought this: the expectation of multiplayer racing with the likes of Skills, Omagnus, and others. Too bad that you couldn't create private rooms. Stupid Jap developers don't know how to make a proper online experience I guess. Oh, and there is no parts house for tuning cars, instead you get access to numerically tune the cars after you complete the three beginning race classes. Oh, I can set my horsepower to exactly 348 if I want to, through the miracles of science I guess. But only after I've completed Classes A, B, and C. Bumper car racing again. The in-car driving view is epic though, I'll give them that.

Oh yeah. This, definitely, and that reason alone is a big enough "wha?!" feature, not even factoring in the "follow the line" racing AI.

LEAVE AND NEVER COME BACK :mad:

Animal Crossing DS. I bought this and after a week of catching fish and digging up trees I never touched it again. It's was just boring as hell. Not to mention online play seemed to be hacked items and people trying to destroy all of your stuff.

I thought I won a non price there:(

ANIMAL FUCKING CROSSING.

I bought a DS and was all "hey what should I buy?" Everyone said "ANIMAL CROSSING. NOTHING ELSE. EVER <3"

Well, I looked in to it and was horrendously upset. I wanted to fish. Okay, I fished and got a full inventory. I went to the store, hoping to sell, and it said "OH SORRY. IT'S 10PM REAL-TIME. WE'RE CLOSED :3" What.

I know you could alter the clock but that was too much of a mess. I was kinda like "soooo... Uhm... What now? When do I leave town?" "Huh? You don't. Why would you want to lol" ":mad:"

:sells on half.com:

Shadow Hearts 3 leaves a bitter taste in my mouth with how horrible it is. #2 remains one of the best games on the PS2, in my opinion, but 3 was just atrocious. Russ' comments more or less have it in a nutshell, though.

http://www.bigblah.net/upload/bulletbitch.jpg

FUCK. THIS. GAME.

Absolutely no redeeming qualities :mad:

I think it was suikoden 4...5? Idk, after three they all seem to blend into a crapfest that is that =[ All I remember were the block graphics and uninteresting storyline. Oh yeah, can't forget tactics too =[
(don't get me wrong, I loved 1 - 3)

Well, I got myself Red Steel for the Wii around Christmas of 2006, and paid near-full price at $45. It wasn't a horrible, broken game, but I really second-guessed paying that kind of money for a game I quickly put away in favor of much better titles. Hell, I probably played bowling in Wii Sports more than Red Steel. Luckily, I was able to trade it in when RE4: Wii Edition came out, and had more than enough store credit to purchase that.

Also, even though it was a gift, I should also mention Trigger Man for the PS2. I much rather enjoy not playing anything (or doing anything for that matter) than trying to crawl my way through that shit. I think even Infernal would throw that game in the fire.

Dead or Alive 4. The memories I had of this game must've been skewed by the times I had with my friends, fucking around with it. When I got this game home and played it by myself, not only did I realize they are fucking terrible single player games, but I played online and got negative achievements for losing (something I am STILL not over). I hope Team Ninja dies in the streets.

http://i1.iofferphoto.com/img/item/3...7326_front.jpg

FUCK. THIS. GAME.

Slow battle system, horrible voice overs, graphics are less then stellar, characters that just don't look right, and it cost as much as a 360/PS3 game.

I kept the poster when I sold it though. :mad:

If it's any consolation to you, they basically disbanded after being fucked with by the just recently resigned ex-President of Tecmo.

I guess I have a few like this really.

Rhapsody - PS1. I read about this in PSM and they gave it a 4 out of 5, so while I was at the EB near UNC with some friends, I saw they had this and picked it up. The guy was trying to unsell me on it but I was like "Its an RPG. I needs mah fix!" Took it home and I played 15 minutes of it and was like "WTF is this Disney shit." Little did I know at the time that the Japanese option was for the original voice acting and songs done in japenese, I might have held on to it. Didn't find that out after I sold it though.

WCW Nitro. After loving the games THQ released on the N64 I thought I'd give their PS game a shot. Massive disappointment. The game was absolute shit. It was too easy to win, even on the toughest difficulty settings. WCW Thunder didn't really improve on this either. You could just use the same move over and over and do grapple holds to drain the energy of your opponent then it was over. Was scared to pick up the Smackdown game that came out after THQ got the license but thankfully they didn't treat that like shit.

Evil Dead: Hail to the King. More liek Fail of the King. I heard about this one being a mix between Resident Evil meets Evil Dead. So of course I picked it up and came home to sheer horror. The concept of getting gas to power your chainsaw mixed in with limited ammo was bad enough, but the control scheme was just horrible.

CastleVania: Legacy of Darkness. I knew better than buying this because CastleVania 64 was absolute shit. I bought this on a binge when I picked up Perfect Dark and that expansion pak thing for the N64. The game (at least what I recall from memory) was exactly the same game CV 64 was, except you're a werewolf and not a Belmont. I traded that game in so fast but was disappointed that I didn't even get half of what I paid back for it.

So what you're saying is you liked 3 and didn't like 5? Here's an idea, Garth. Shut the fuck up and never talk again.

Heres my list

Ring Of Red: Basic concept is fantastic - WHAT IF WORLD WAR TWO DIDN'T END AND THERE WERE MECHS NOW AND THEN THERE WAS A LOT OF SHIT BLOWING UP EVERYDAY EVERYWHERE IN THE WORLD.

Basic execution was SHIT - Lets have a thinly-veiled story, presented with talking heads (ala Front Mission) about vauge territories and ideas no one can care about. Then lets give Mechs a bunch of worthless infantry units and some power-ups like a ZOOM LENS.

Colony Wars - This is still the only gave I've ever returned in my life. Jesus Fucking Christ, what an awful mess this was. YOU HAD TO PRESS AND HOLD SHOULDER BUTTONS TO GO FORWARD OR BACKWARD. Worst fucking control scheme I've ever come across, holy dumb fuck.

Homeworld 2 - While the game in and of its self isn't bad, the campaign is fucking BALLS NASTY LIKE A RUNNY SHIT. Each level is just another chain in a series of overwhelming attacks; by the third mission, you have barely put out an ion frigate and some fighters and you have to protect a station from numerous capital ships and fighter waves. Fucking STUPID.

Jedi Starfighter - WHAT. Seriously, what the fuck was I thinking when I ordered this thing? Admittedly, I had the good fortune of pre-ordering but never picking up JEDI POWER BATTLES but man almighty was Jedi Starfighter a humiliating game to play. YOU HAVE A CANYON, YOU ARE IN A CANYON, YOU CANNOT LEAVE THE CANYON, SO FLY STRAIGHT AND HIT WALLS AND THEN THERES GUNS FOR SOME REASON AND DONT HIT THEM AND SOME SPACE JEW WILL TELL YOU NOT TO HIT WALLS OVER AND OVER.

Final Fantasy XII - My all-time favorite game remains Final Fantasy Tactics, so to see that FFXII was getting similar treatment, I was geared up for the goddamned BIBLICAL EPIC to end all RPG games. So imagine my confusion and disappointment after the opening credits. Yeah, okay, I've seen airships and castle fights a billion fucking times between FFVIII and LOTR. Add to that a really annoying main character, a love interest that a dog wouldn't hump and some weird-fuck mini-quests. It's not as bad as, say, Final Fantasy VIII - but it's certainly not Final Fantasy IX either.

You know when I was dead locked on getting a 360 this was one of the games that made it the reason to get the console so it was sad to see that the game completely failed.

Anyways, I know we're suppose to post games we got personally but when I was little my parents knew I liked video games and got all sorts of things from garage sales and some of the were for me. They might have spent a few cents on this game but it was still too expensive for this type of game.
http://img377.imageshack.us/img377/7108/atetxj0.jpg
Just imagine my little head jumping from screen to screen, I honestly thought the game had a glitch or that it was ruined because it was so old.

I game I did get which I regret
http://img369.imageshack.us/img369/9...0609211ic1.jpg
I'm sorry but this game is fun for like 20 minutes, nothing in the story is actually explained until the end and even then the ending itself seemed lazy. Hell I don't even care for all the glitches this game had but when I like to roam around the city I would like to run around the streets without having to pretend to be a monk all the time and confine myself to the rooftops where nothing interesting is up there.

Y'know, I really dug Ring of Red, actually. Presentation was minimal, but I enjoyed the music and the gameplay. The whole percentage going up while you hold the shot mechanic was pretty neat.

What kills it though is just how damn hard it is. The last mission is nigh near impossible and considering how useless the infrantry and support moves you get are compared to the enemies, well...it's just so ridiculous that it drains a lot of enjoyment out of it.

Love the idea and setting though, I agree.

Actually, Eric. It does.

I love this picture so much

"Can I projectile vomit chocolate bananas directly into your mouth?"

"Sure but first let me hide my purple buttplug from my tiny siberian tiger"

"TOO LATE, BANANA TIME"

It's that needle that disturbs me. Not as much as the buttplug, though. But only because you keep wondering what it's supposed to be.

The needle is coated with a powerful animal tranquilizer, so that Tiny Siberian Tiger's inevitable rampage upon discovering the buttplug can be stopped.

What the fuck is up with the tiger's face?

"All according to plan..."

Mario and Luigi, Partners in Time.

So inferior. So linear. The first one was miles above it.

Unreal Tournament III - Damn, I love UT. It was the second FPS game I got onto for the PC. The first one was Wolfenstein way back in the early 90s, but UT and Goldeneye helped spark my interest in multiplayer FPS games. UT2003 was different and I didn't like it at first because it looked too much like Quake. Also, they brought down the power of the shock rifle and made it cost 5 ammo when you completed a shock combo. However, Bombing Run made me forget all of that quickly. When UT2004 came out, yes it was 2003 with more features but those additions made the game so much better. They brought back Assault and introduced Onslaught and Invasion, two game types that I play at every LAN party at my college along with capture the flag.

Then came word of UT3 and I was already disappointed. They were removing Bombing Run, however they were going to combine Assault and Onslaught into this one huge gametype called Warfare. I played the demo and while Deathmatch sucked, CTF turned out to be alright so I thought I'd give the game a try.

What the fuck have they done to UT?! I played multiplayer online about 5 times and haven't played since. Warfare turned out to be shit, DM still sucked ass, CTF began to get boring, and I didn't even touch the single player campaign. Immediately I went back to UT2004 and noticed that I moved a lot faster in that game than I did in UT3. UT is ruined and just the fact that the next installment is looking to be console only proves that they just said "fuck you" to the people who made it popular in the first place, the PC gamers. Yes, it was bad on the PC but it's not our fault, hell no! It's your fault for trying to make the graphics better while making the gameplay shit. The only good thing that came out of UT3 is the menu music, an updated version of the original UT's menu music. It's going to be a long time before I play a new UT game, but for now I'll stick with UT99 and UT2004.

Call of Duty 4 Multiplayer: Even though I normally don't like realism based games, I decided to give this one a try since I had read that it wasn't quite so heavy on the realism. It was even $10 off for a weekend special at Best Buy shortly after it came out, so I figured it wouldn't hurt so much if I ended up not liking it. Well, I don't know what all the magazine and website reviews were raving about when they praised this game. All it felt like to me was a quasi MMO where all the 24/7 players had all the weapon unlocks and everything, pwning all the noobs like me who had the crappy starter stuff.

Not only that it felt like the game was more spray and pray than anything else. Like someone could just start firing rapidly and they're guaranteed a kill since you know this is a realism based arcady shooter and you can only take about 2 hits before you're dead. If it wasn't that, then the maps usually dictated it as a game of sniper whack-a-mole where everyone just hides in some corner picking off people who don't have the kind of patience to sit around all day waiting for the other side to DO SOMETHING. Biggest waste of $40 EVER! ARGH I'm pissed off even thinking about it. :mad:

You bought it only for multiplayer? Seriously?

From a practical standpoint, the "crappy starter stuff" are the best weapons in the game. The M16A is ridiculous, and everything after that is merely a preference thing. But the gun is crazy powerful and accurate, and is one of the most commonly used guns due to it's insane abilities.

I can totally understand not liking the game though, the multiplayer is plagued by one of the worst communities since the original Counter Strike. It's really hard to enjoy it thanks to that.

While camping is certainly an issue, you should see the added DLC map Creek. Holy fuck, I haven't seen such failure in map design in ages. I actually hated it so much that I removed the DLC after buying it so it would never pop up in the hopper for me again.

I agree with Deni, what the hell is wrong with you. =|

I was struggling to think of something to post in this thread until I saw the post I quoted. Suikoden III. The reviews I read made this one sound absolutely fantastic, and given the awesomeness of Suikoden II my expectations were lofty as Everest. But holy shit that game was bad. The plot had some interesting sparks and some of the character graphics were OK to look at, but otherwise it was just a horrible, horrible game. It raped everything that the original two games brought to the gaming market and everything the fans had grown to love, and instead relied on fancy PS2 aesthetics to win over the fans.

Obviously the fans who were won over don't have the greatest taste. (look at the post quoted)

I bought a swap magic kit just for SIII, too. I still haven't managed to put it to good use...

Call of Duty 4.

I actually hated it so much that I completely forgot I owned it and bought it a second time to try it out after Skills threatened to come to California and kill me if I didn't. So I actually have two copies of CoD4 sitting on my shelf, both of which have been played exactly once.

You're probably gonna beat me for actually liking Suikoden III, but prior to playing it, I had never played a Suikoden game before. Perhaps when I indulge more time into Suikoden I and II, my opinion of the game will change, but I'll reserve my own personal judgment on that one.

Without any bias from the other two, the game overall didn't really bother me much at all. Managed to 100% the game within a couple weeks of playing it.

I did avoid IV though, but didn't get too far in V at all.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...Darksector.jpg

Yeeea. I was being all emo because of various circumstances at the time and ended up picking this up on a whim (a shallow attempt to cheer myself up). The first quarter of the game is neat and then it just becomes more of the same fucking zombies who aren't interesting to fight and more lame monsters. Glaive was cool though but they really should have just stuck with human enemies for the most part with monsters sprinkled throughout. I regret spending $60 on it.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...-DMC4COVER.jpg
LETDOWN TOTAL. Not a complete and utter failure like DMC2, just a disappointment. I like Nero, I like the arm, I like dante and thats pretty much where all the cool stuff ends with this. Didn't care for the character designs, bosses are completely lame compared DMC3 and hell, even DMC1. Doesn't help that you have to fight most of them at least 3 times. Couple that with the fact that the second half of the game is just the 1st half in reverse and you get a resounding MEH. Lazy Capcom.

Capcom Fighting Evolution comes to mind. I was in a serious need of a fighting game fix and could not find Street Fighter Anniversary Collection anywhere. I figured CFE was my only choice at that moment.

I should have just set the money on fire. I think I played the game for a couple of days before realizing there was no point in giving more of my time to that Mugen-like mess.

Like Skills, I liked Ring of Red. The infantry weren't toally useless and watching them get killed never stopped being funny. My main gripes would be the nonsense story and the fact that it's a bit repetitive with no new stuff ever coming along to keep you interested after you get the close combat things. I wouldn't say I regretted buying it though.

I never played Colony Wars but I played the second one and fuck me was that game difficult. I did ok right up to the level where they have you towing meteors into a big space ship only you have about 30 seconds to complete the mission, there's about twenty enemy fighters after you and once you latch onto the meteor your steering goes to shit. Of course once you fail that mission you're bumped onto the worse storyline path but rather than make those missions easier because you already failed one, they're actually harder than the good path missions. Fuck that. I never had any issues with the controls though, I found them pretty intuitive.

Homeworld 2 I agree completely. Mission 3 - Defend the broken weapons platform from five capital ships using a squadron of fighters and your main ship which will take too long to get there. I suck at RTS games at the best of times but this shit is ridiculous.

I liked FFXII quite a lot. Sure it's no IX but it's way better than VIII and X.

I'll never know what possessed me to buy Tekken V. I've never really liked Tekken all that much and none of my mates play it any more so I played through it enough to unlock most of the characters then never played it again.

That's just the skewer stick for the banana.

Wait why am I analyzing this

Actually, I haven't played the single player yet, so I didn't want to pass judgment one way or the other on it. I read in many places that it was really good yet also really short. So I'm holding off until I feel like playing a short single player game to try to at least feel like I got some value out of my purchase.

Overall though, the purchase was mainly a test to see if my multiplayer FPS tastes had changed much since as I don't like realism based FPS games, and clearly this proved that they have not. I guess it could've been worse, I could've gone all out and bought the CE.

Shhh... leave them to their imaginations. It's much better that way. =)

Ugh, ditto for me, this is really the strongest candidate. 60+ dollars, fuck.
But I still haven't sold it. I'll keep for "collector's value".

Did you ever beat it? I play, but then I quit soon after. Always. I'm not even sure I'm half way through it and had it since it came out.

I thought Suikoden 5 was supposed to be much better than 4, I haven't played anything after 3. 3 was 'meh'... fuck you Hugo. Suikoden 2 will likely always be my favorite, even if I do get 5 and enjoy it. The only reason, I think, I went through 3 was because of Luc and Yuber.

Also, I regret Grand Turismo A-Spec. My thought's were at the time: "Hey, you went to a auto mechanic school, time to get back into the game. Grand Turismo looks good." I was so stupid, game is a goddamn chore, less fun then working on actual cars.

30 minutes in and I quit. I couldn't stand the game.

The entire Halo series.

I know we're supposed to mention specific games, but I just had to mention every Halo game. I bought a 360 this month, and one of the games I had to get was Halo, due to all the hype I've been hearing in the past (I'm a PS2 and GC owner, never had an xbox). Because of the cheapness, I bought Halo and Halo 2, and I played through Halo with my brother in co-op....which, you know, is fun. The story seemed cool at first...kinda sorta like an older scifi action...or horror...flick from the 90's (I'm not sure what Halo is trying to be), I'm reminded of Alien.

The controls are pretty solid, but using the same maps over and over and over and over again should NOT be allowed. It seemed to me that they had to put arrows on the floor because everything looked the same, in some levels. An example of this is the final level....there is a vehicle section that seems pretty epic...until you drive through the same place over and over.

Okay, I thought Halo 2 would be better....the map-reuse is a tad bit better, but overall, I'm not overly impressed. Halo (the series) is not super-amazing like it's supposed to be. It's average. The fact that you can play through with someone else gives it points, but when you both get so bored that you stop playing....

...That's right, my brother and I are somewhere in the middle of Halo 2, and have stopped because we're bored.

And guess what? I bought Halo 3 with my 360.

Pikman

This was supposed to be an original game for the Gamecube....I never finished it because it bored me to death.

Animal Crossing

Same as above....once I got a decent sized house, and realized there wasn't anything much else to do, I was bored.

A gigantic chunk of my PS2 collection consisted of 'I could have bought lunch instead of this' moments with all those Simple 2000 and Phoenix Games. But I've been clearing out the really bad ones lately. EB offered me fifty cents each for a few, but I went to the pawn shop and got like, five bucks each. Now I can enjoy lunch!

Aside from that, Zone of the Enders is pretty much the biggest vidya gamin' regret ever. Jesus Christ, magazines were splashing buckets of sperm all over the place for that game, and I was hey, I like robots! Konami obviously doesn't. Actually, I think that's the game that made me stop giving a shit about reviews, previews or following hype for any game.

Zone of the Enders ruined my life.

If its any consolation Infernal, the sequel is LEAGUES better then the first.

So much so that it makes the first feel just like a really long prologue to the second game.

I actually meant the buttplug thingie and what exactly that was supposed to be for.

I have numerous games that this would apply to, but the most interesting story I have that's on-topic would be Rayman 2 for the PS2. I was missing my Dreamcast and so purchased Rayman 2 which was the biggest draw for me game-wise on Sega's system. After spending an hour with the title and realizing that it was inferior in every way (game mechanics/control, voice acting, "tone"-yeah I know but there is definitely a "tone" to the DC version that you will find sorely lacking in the PS2 version, like it was dumbed-down for American audiences or something-soundtrack, etc.), I traded it back in to Gamestop. The next week I bought a brand-new Dreamcast off Ebay and 14 games, including 2 copies of Rayman 2. It's the best pre-PS2 3D platformer hands-down (runs rings around Mario 64) and it still holds up against newer titles like Jak & Daxter. I cannot recommend the DC version of Rayman 2 enough. At used DC prices it's worth it just to purchase one for this title alone. Come to think of it, I guess I'd have to say that this is still my favorite 3D platformer even with current-gen taken into consideration...

I bought Beyond the Beyond because I didn't think it could be that bad.




:(

Easy answer here - Final Fantasy XII

I bought it because I'd always been a huge FF fan, but fell out of it when XI came around, since I lacked online gaming capabilities. It had been a real long time since X came out, and considering X is one of my favorites in the series, the hype was huge.

Boy was I let down. Lame ass characters (except for Balthier I suppose), no plot or direction, and from the beginning up until where I gave up playing, no damn story. I had no motivation to keep playing because I didn't know WHY I was playing. There was no clear villain or objective, just a bunch of fey-looking people running around.

Worse yet about the characters is how they are all clones of each other. The sphere grid was perfect, IMO. It gave you a fun and unique way to level up your characters, keep them unique, and if you had the patience to grind like hell, make them all super-powered. FFXII doesn't even give you a choice. They all start on the same grid in the same spot. BORING.

The worst thing for me, though, was the utter lack of gameplay. People raved about the new battle system, and admittedly I enjoyed it for a little while, until I realized that I was barely even playing the game. The computer did most of the work for me. Where's the fun? Where's the on-your-toes strategy? Hell, even turn-based combat had more franticness than the gambit system, which encourages you to prepare in advance so you can sit back and relax later. It made the almost-necessary grinding completely unfun and more tedious than usual.

I was very unimpressed with this game, and it pretty much put the final nail in my RPG coffin. I used to indulge on RPGs when I was younger, but fell out of them after playing Dragon Quest VIII. I was hoping FFXII would reinvigorate my love for the genre, but instead it infuriated me that people praise it as such a masterpiece. I suppose one day I may try it out again, and maybe work towards finishing it, but I have no desire to at the moment.