Yea, I'm doing the same thing now. I got about 13 hours in when the game first came out, but got sidetracked by WoW.
I'm back in now, about 12 hours or so. Loving it this time a lot more.

I've got a nasty habit of doing the same thing; getting sidetracked from playing a game by either another game or something else entirely. Glad to hear you beat it and even happier that you didn't spoil it.

Well done on completing FFXII. I managed to finish it on Saturday. After saving at the "point of no return" before the final area, I wanted to go and do all of the hunts and find all the secrets, but in the end I just carried on through the final area and the bosses (Getting 100% can be my goal if I ever replay it). I think it's definitely my favourite FF. The style and design of it appeal to me so much more than the previous games.
Finally beat the final area of Mercenaries last night too. So satisfying to have two huge games conquered after playing them for weeks.

I haven't finisjed it yet but so far I have enjoyed FFXII. Despite my original misgivings I don't have a problem with the gambits, in fact I found them most useful for casting haste etc...

Glad you were able to finish FF XII and enjoy it so much. I just finished it about a week ago and I also thought it was fantastic, though a few at the Temple seem to disagree with us Not that you have the time, but if you ever get the chance I'd also recommend Rogue Galaxy, which I started on a few days ago and has ben a lot of fun.

Congrats, FFXII is a great rpg. The battle system in the game was my favorite feature.

Unlike Andy here, I have always been a great believer of the gambit system, even before the game was released. I am glad I finished the game too, it was an awesome gaming experience.

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David, I'll definately check out Rogue Galaxy. I just had a look at it in GS's review and it's appealing to me so far.

Jude, yes the gambit system is very innovative but I have to tell you I really didn't play around with it too much. When I beat the last boss my characters Vaan, Ashe and Bach were all at level 53 and the only gambit I had set was on Ashe was Ally less than 50% Health - Curaga and Foe: Party Leader's Target - Attack and on Basch Foe: Party Leader's Target - Attack and I was controlling Vaan manually healing, attacking and casting black/white magic. Admittedly I didn't use the gambit system much only on a couple of bosses that I needed to adjust it accordingly. However I think on my second play through to find the rest of the hidden espers I'll play around more with the gambit system.

Glad you had a chance to finish FFXII Jirair, and really enjoy it. Now onto Okami! Chop chop! Not to be so biased but I'm sure you'll be happy to finish that one up as well.

Congratz! Who are your favorite Final Fantasy characters?

Glad you like XII Always good to hear from another person who knows a good game when he sees one And Okami?! What a game to move on to, another great choice

Well, I shall make no comment on FF XII. But I'm glad you are going to finish up Okami. What will be on your plate after that Jirair?

Rachael, I'm going to be glad I finished Okami. I remember enjoying it very much and I'm sure I'm almost at the end. So when I finally finish it, it's going to be a big contentment.

Drewski90: Well my favorite all time FF player would have to be Auron. I just like his demenor. Again I enjoy most of the FF characters that Square-Enix has put out throughout the years. I tend not to fixate on only one or two. Also about your answer to which Sonic character I enjoy, I haven't played Sonic at all. Since was mostly into Atari, NES, SNES, PS, and now the PS2, PS3 and Wii I never did own a Sega and thus never did get a chance to play Sonic.

kryu88: Oh yeah, FFXII is one of the top games on my "fav list". I really did enjoy it although I had some quirks with it namely the Espers and the magic. I didn't think they allowed for more time to see these components in action as much as the other FF series and to me this is one of the aspects that gives this series such popularity.

Ron: I think I'm going to start the Shadow Hearts series. I think I might make someone in the Temple a very happy person by doing so. I still have to start Twilight Princess on the Wii as well. But I think I'll wait untill my brother in law finishes it.

Hey there, Jir11! It's good to hear from you again!

I'm glad you finally finished FFXII, too! It's funny, how you got side-tracked with other games, because the same thing happened to me. I still have not finished FFXII! (LOL) I think for me, the only thing that I did not like about FFXII was the enormous amount of experience grinding, but that problem exists in all FF games.

I have to admit, that Auron is also my favorite out of all of the FF characters, but you probably guessed that by looking at my avatar. He just had an awesome personality and he could hit so freaking hard compared to the others, as long as you trained him properly.

On a side note, I went from writing recapitulations for Battlestar Galactica, to playing Neverwinter Nights, Neverwinter Nights 2, and Civilizatrion IV Beyond the Sword. I wrote a walkthrough for the Final Frontier scenario of the latter.

In closing, one of the best RPG experiences I have had recently, was Neverwinter Nights 2 and you should give that a chance, if you have a decent computer that can handle the steep system requirements. There were some initial problems with the game at release, but after the 1.05 patch came out, all game breaking bugs have been dealt with. Also, make sure your computer is not bogged down by conflicting resources caused by obscure software installations and your hardware drivers and operating system are up to date (A Fresh OS Install and updates, would be best. Personally, I have one hard drive that is exclusively used for gaming, so I usually never have a problem playing anything on my PC). One thing of note, is that some of the characters are annoying, but most are pretty awesome because they were well developed. It has a great story, but regrettably a terrible ending. Although, the expansion is supposed to pick up from where this game's story left off, so that fact might not be an issue after all. Also, the character faces are a bit on the ugly side, but they plan on fixing that with the expanion. One final thing of note, is that the romance options are pathetic so just stay away from that aspect of the game. All in all, it offers a pretty darn good RPG gaming experience and one of the best I have had in a while.

Cheers!

Hamarabi2006

Quite a few Shadow Hearts fans in the Temple will like that choice Jirair. I still need to play Covenant myself. I own it, just haven't got to it yet. I'm sure you understand how that is.

Hey Jirair, good feedback on FFXII. I still haven't gotten it, but I did get FFVI for my DS and I'm playing that all the time (very good one).

I played through most of the third Shadow Hearts this past spring and I liked it, it's very quirky and the judgement ring is a cool twist on the whole turn based combat system. I didn't finish it though, I stopped two levels short of the end... random encounters with tough foes was dragging the game down for me... but maybe I'll get back to it at some point.

Hemerabi2006: I've heard of Neverwinter Nights and I heard about all the issues it had when it originally came out. I'll have to check it out and see how it it once I catch up with most of my console games. Thanks for the overview. Much appreciated.

Ron: Yeah man I know how that is.

Scott: Dude I picked up FFIII for the DS and that is a sweet game so far. I'll have to finish that one as well, but it's a game that I play on the side, but from what I played so far it's a pretty decent game. All these old school games comming out for the handhelds are driving me nuts but in a good way. lol I picked up FFI and FFII Anniversary Editions for the PSP and I completed FFI and I have to say I was impressed with the graphics and music overhaul. Very nice game.