Get comfortable - this may take some time...
*coff*
FFXII took FAR too long to be released. I promised myself I wasn't going to by into FFXI because (a) it's a money-spinning scheme, and (b) all the races are terribly, terribly dull. Because of this (and also due to the fact that the only game they had supplied purist PS2 users was FFX-2 (which almost completely killed the plot of FFX (which is not to say it's a bad game (I'm using too many brackets)))) by the time I got XII into the console I was gnawing my limbs off.
Technically, the game seems to play as a kind of grown-up Kingdom Hearts, and seeing as I like KH that, in my opinion, is a good thing. The Gambit system is good (if a little disconcerting to begin with), and the nigh-on infinite possibilities for character customisation is a very good idea. Okay, so maybe the whole Esper system sucks, but I can forgive them for that...
As for characters, I think I like most people - except, strangely, Ashe, who I think is just a teensy bit grating with her pseudo-English accent and her backwards way of looking at things.
I think I ended up taking about 120 hours to finish the game, and I still hadn't done everything I wanted to.
In a word: