Final Fantasy XII

Yesterday marked the release of the latest installment of the Final Fantasy games, Final Fantasy XII -- yes, that's right, they're up to twelve now (although the actual count of Final Fantasy-affliated games is likely somewhere in the 30s). Available for the PS2 (and the PS3 when it ships), this latest adventure takes place in the world of Ivalice, and I'm torn about whether I should play this game, or just skip this one. Unlike Star Trek, there's no set pattern to whether a FF game is good or not, and this is the first Final Fantasy without both Nobuo Uematsu (composer) and Hironobu Sakaguchi (original Final Fantasy creator)

Here's my track record with Final Fantasy

• Final Fantasy 1: Played and Finished.
  
• Final Fantasy 2: Never played.
  
• Final Fantasy 3: Never played.
  
• Final Fantasy 4: Never played.
  
• Final Fantasy 5: Never played.
  
• Final Fantasy 6: Played and Finished.
  
• Final Fantasy 7: Played and Finished.
  
• Final Fantasy 8: Played, but could not finish.
  
• Final Fantasy 9: Played, but could not finish.
  
• Final Fantasy 10: Played and Finished.
  
• Final Fantasy 10-2: Played, but could not finish.
  
• Final Fantasy 11: Played, but could not finish.
  

In my mind, I only finish the good ones. The other thing in common with the ones that I've finished is that their battle systems are all essentially similar -- 6 uses Espers, 7 uses Materia, and 10 uses the Spheres, but essentially they're Power-up systems that required time, and not much else. Final Fantasy 12 has an all new battle system that more closely mimics MMOG style combat, which I'm rather ambivalent about, having spent several realtime months in the MMOG world already.