Birthday presents are wonderful-- my parents bought FFXII for me! So far, the hardest part of it all is keeping the Licenses straight. I hate the fact that the tiles that you use overlap from person to person such that if someone learns a quickening, another person can't use that same tile position to learn their own quickening. It's annoying and it makes it so much harder to get everyone to learn their abilities! Agh! I also dislike how summons are assigned, permanently, to just one person in the party.
Anyhoo-- aside from that, it's very good so far. The political intrigue is a lot more interesting than the last few games. Also, there's no real romantic developments yet-- which makes me happy. The lovey-dovey nature of VIII, IX and X were okay, but I was getting kind of tired of everyone having to be in love to get anything done. I'm sure some romance will develop later on-- I mean, there's "Amalia" popping up, not to mention Penelo's worrying way of clinging to Vaan, and several as-yet unintroduced characters.
I do have to say that Balthier is so over-the-top that I laugh at him anytime he opens his mouth. He's ridiculous! Fran is almost equally laughable with her dead pan nature-- though I think that perhaps that's the fault of the voice actress and not the character or dialogue. Also, Fran runs funny.
The battle system took some getting used to, but I actually like it now. It's especially nice that potions, etc. are instantaneous, unlike the magic or physical attacks.
