Actually I'm pretty balanced with this game; I hated certain things and loved them, as well.

If there was anything I loved about this game, it was the fact that Square was trying to do something new - but I also kinda hated the fact that they changed lots of things beyond recognition. Now, I'm obviously not saying that I want everything to stay traditional, but the games shouldn't each be so radically different that Square could easily market it as separate from the Final Fantasy franchise.

Another thing I loved was the politics and the balance between social delicacy and ruthlessness - but of course this is something I hated as well, because the politics totally gets dropped toward the end in favor of supernatural with the tacked on Occuria ending.

Also, while the scenery was quite elaborately rendered, I felt detached from it emotionally. None of the places you went to really meant anything from each other. Take Dalmasca - it's Vaan and Penelo's home, yet it hardly seems like they feel attached to anything in it. You don't get to see their actual home.

The only place that came close to being emotionally and symbolically important was Eruyt VIllage and Fran's connection with it - but the emotional impact gets pretty much evaded, as Fran only enters the village proper one time (and it struck me as a bit anticlimactic when she does, as the other Viera don't really do much to repel her, except with words).

In other games, we got locations with real emotional ties to the characters that were fully expressed. Places like Aeris' Church in FVII, Kohlingen in FFVI, Home in FFX, and Trabia Garden in FFVIII.

In past games, the locations really meant something, and each one would hold a distinct emotional quality to it, but it's all a little fuzzy in FFXII.