I don't post/read GameFAQs unless I'm playing a game. I glanced over the forum once or twice back then - when I put 100 hours into FFXII. The majority of the posters agreed that FFXII was lacking on the story and character fronts, although there were some hardcore, 20 paragraph post people who defended it to the death. Every game has obsessive 'tards.
I'm aware that Basch was originally planned to be the lead but, because the people in charge didn't think kids would be able to connect with a grizzly older man, they made a boygirl with very little to do with anything the main character. But, in truth, the entire cast were bad anyway thanks to the poor writing and the lack of time given to the support cast preventing them from coming into their own; breaking away from the cliches and becoming real people. I only liked the Han Solo guy - he looked cool, had a decent voice actor and had a catgirlthing follow him.
When I first started FFXII, I thought it was awesome because of the gameplay. It was only after I'd put a lot of time into it and realized that I didn't give a toss about what was going on, why I was killing things and who the characters were, and that's not a good way to be be thinking about something that's supposed to pull you into its world. The only thing that kept me playing was the gameplay, which for a long time was different enough to keep me enjoying the game, despite its serious story/character issues. But I eventually reached a point where the gameplay had become so familiar that it bored me, and at that point I didn't know or care what was going on in terms of the story, so I quit.
FFXII is a lot like Wild Arms 5 - horrible as a story, cliched and generally poor dialogue...yet, because of the gameplay, I played it for more hours than I should have. Neither are great RPGs because they failed to make me care.
Anyway, FFXIII. Like I said, I don't care a great deal about it and won't start to until/if I ever get a PS3. I'd say I'll be interested to see the reviews but, regardless of its quality, it'll get close to top marks by every pro-reviewer. FFX-2 did, FFXIII will. The only way I'll ever know for sure if its good or bad is if, like with FFX and FFXII, I play it for myself.
Anyone got a spare HDTV and PS3?