The PS2 had FFX, Kingdom Hearts 1 & 2, FFXII, and FFX-2, all of which are stone-cold classics and very different in many important ways from Square's typical output. But yeah, there wasn't nearly as much there, and those four games were all—for their time—essentially AAA titles.

My PS1 library was almost nothing but Square Enix games because they used to just crank out all sorts of different titles. Short games, long games, quirky games, silly games, serious games, simple games, complex games, and all of them in various art styles, from lavish, hand-painted 2D backgrounds to stylish…

Leveling up classes sounds like a good idea, but very nearly ruins the game because you have to grind yourself stupid if you want any class introduced even a little ways into the game to ever be useful.

I could definitely see a version that ditched the purchasing requirements; Final Fantasy Tactics has a similar character advancement system, and it doesn't need to make you double-pay for upgrades.

I'm curious what your complaints with the leveling system are, especially now that they've significantly changed things with the job system.

Here's another interesting article about FFXII, this time how it's troubled development may have locked Square into the arduous development cycles of FFXIII and FFXV:

Looks fine to me.

I have got some opinions on FFVIII.

It probably helps that Laguna and his friends are actually likeable characters.

Although all of the games from that team do that in some form or other. Even Tactics Ogre revealsthat the Dynast-King sold his soul and has become a demon and guides you to a showdown with him, all at the very tail end of the game.

I understand what you mean and wasn't trying to defend Tactics so much as point out that we had to wait years and play an entirely different game to even begin to understand what was going on with Tactics.

Since a bunch of us are playing FFXII, there might be some interest in the localization of that game:

It wasn't so much that it was sunk as we didn't really understand what the Zodiac monsters were doing or why. It was a kind of Game of Thrones-y, here's-the-real-threat-while-everyone-else-is-politicking storyline, but with a much more nebulous threat.

I feel like the only one that fully worked the way they wanted it to was Tactics Ogre. I played the PSP remake and it did a much better job of balancing the grand politics and personal stories. Unfortunately, it's also not nearly as fun as Final Fantasy Tactics and has a number of serious flaws.

At least now you can fight all five judges if you are good enough at the game to reach the end of the challenge mode.

Now I understand why it's Batman's favorite game.

Is Judge Ghis really about a third of the way into the game? I thought it was earlier than that.

My only real complaint about The Sexy Brutale is that the story is ultimately pretty stupid. It makes the game end on a real bum note.

Also, FFXII's art style is clearly trying to reflect the style of Akihiko Yoshida, the same artist who worked on Final Fantasy Tactics and Vagrant Story (and later Bravely Default and FFXIV). The effect is intended to emulate his illustration style, but being a deliberate artistic choice rather than just an attempt to…

The only game to ever dabble with the Gambit system is Dragon Age Origins. Even the series that's most like FF12 overall, Xenoblade, does nothing with it. The closest you'll find these days are some very light options in Western CRPGs like Neverwinter Nights 2: Storm of Zehir and Pillars of Eternity.