Final Fantasy XII

If spending 15-20 minutes in menus and then putting down the controller to watch the game play itself for several hours sounds appealing to you, you'll probably like this game. While the programming in the gambit system is interesting, the fact you can design simple algorithms and go through the game so easily is a testament to how shallow this game's combat and encounter design is. The plot doesn't salvage it either - the world design is cool, but its characters and its politics aren't.

Never really got into this one, though it seems to be a fan favourite in recent years. The level progression made absolutely no sense, and in general was far to grindy for its own good. Neither the story nor the characters impressed me either. I liked the open world though, and the ability to skip cutscenes was a welcome addition.

8 for the re-release from the 2010s. 4 for the original.

This bored the hell out of me.

Best FF ever, mostly thanks to throwing away boring outdated fighting system from previous versions.

An enjoyable enough gameplay with a decent twist on the standard JRPG mechanics, but I found the story and characters generally boring, and those are important elements in a JRPG to me.

I hated the main character, while the rest of the cast remained solid. I loved that this took place in Ivalice, though I am still confused on how this game ties into FF Tactics. The way the characters leveled up was also really neat, with the table/grid system. A real improvement over FFX. This game largely eliminates "random" encounters, and I loved programming the characters to take certain actions. Still, I hated the main characters, and the plot was dull.

Open World + Combat Automation + Star Wars Aesthetic = Off-Putting

Final Fantasy XII is without a doubt a very slow game. It encourages way more grinding than even the bulkiest titles in the series have before. That being said. It's beautiful to look at, the world is enormous and the battle system is fun and strategic (it's just not all that exciting)