Yeah, XII has a lot of fighting in it, but it's fighting on YOUR terms. Meaning you can choose when and where you fight.
But do you ever choose not to? It's perfectly possible to avoid contacts with every enemy you encounter, but it's a chore, and then you wind up seriously underleveled or underequipped for coming battles. And other times, it's just not worth escaping, for the same reason it's not worth escaping from a pack of imps in previous FF's: It's much much easier and faster to take the fight and get the goods.
And sometimes, trying to avoid battle with tougher monsters might do as much ore more damage to the party, since, like always in the series, there's a good chance they'll land some hits before you're clear. They might even follow you, and in areas with enemies blocking the narrow corridors I often found myself with an army of beasts on my heeels, running into a new after escaping from the old.
So while you have "the choice" to fight or not to fight, there really isn't a choice at all.
@satsuki:
In pre-XII FF the encounters can come at any time, usually when you're in a hurry to get someplace.
I've thought about this as well, and perhaps part of the explanation is that in XII, you're never really in a hurry toget anywhere, since the -otherwise decent- story is chopped up and administered in minute portions at huge intervals. Perhaps that's the biggest reason people don't mind XII battles; there's simply nothing else to do.
Maybe I haven't set up my gambits as well as you did, but I don't think it's THAT easy.
My gambits were nothing spectacular or ingenious. I just had Curaga if HP<50 /40 /30% on the characters, Phoenix down-ally, Attack party leaders target, and the rest was just self-buff, self libra, and status cures. The only thing this left me to do was input the occasional quickening chain if the boss upped his defenses. And if my party ever got in trouble, I had a back-up party of the exact same strenght and abilities ready to take over.
If you invest in the latest swords and HP buffing gear, XII is a breeze.
That's like saying that the game is boring if you use Hero's to kill every enemy, max out all of your Materia, or just get to Level 99 through grinding.
The key phrase was "halfway through the game". Of course, it's possible to max out all your materia before wutai or reach level 99 before Oelivert, but doing so requires extreme grinding and time expenditure, and omnipotency like that is usually reserved for endgame. Moreover, it's something you choose to work towards, jumping ahead of the games' suggested track.
In XII, they give you unlimited heroes automatically during the course of the story, as an integrated mechanic of the games' fighting system.
All of those involve choice, and so do Gambits. If a Gambit set-up makes the game too easy, don't use it. DURHKAY?
A simple set of effective gambits (like the set i posted above) is more like a balanced job party in 3 or 5, a good materia combination, or a well made junctioning than it is like using KOTOR - mime.
Making purpously bad gambits would be like playing without the cure materia.
You can of course fight gambit less, but we all know what an absurd chore that would be.
. Where should I begin?
