Having recently finished Final Fantasy 12 thus ending my long drought of not having finished every non-MMO based main line Final Fantasy game I can firmly say that the major problem with that game is the fact that the story happens away from the player. Nevermind the fact that Vaan is kind of a throwaway character after about the four hour mark or that Ashe is kind of a poor leading character, the fact that every bit of important information happens in passing and while you're busy walking is kind of stupid and makes it really hard to care about the goings-on. We're just told that Vayne is bad but the only time the characters actually interact with him is right before the final battle - I honestly forgot he was the main antagonist because for the back part of the game the antagonist is someone completely different and who has more of a personal stake for the secondary lead character.
I'm not saying that the main villain should constantly be in the way of the protagonist but the central antagonist should at least be present. Half the game is spent doing random fetch quests for people who play the cryptic game. The most egregious example of the story happening in the background is when you arrive at this big sacred location and this minor character from the not evil kingdom that's at a stalemate with the supposedly evil empire shows up just to tell the main supporting character news that would and should have major ramifications for the entire continent. But it's treated as a throwaway and it's just an example of the actual plot and interesting stuff happening in the background while you go dumpster diving in old ruins.
It's not a bad game but I dunno I was kind of underwhelmed.
