[Attention] Why Did I Buy This?

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.

Jam it back in, in the dark.