Oh you gotta be kidding...
First of all, what's wrong with the characters? Especially the lead character. I played more than 20 hours and I can't even remember his name... That's how dull and non-attractive he is. Same thing goes for every character inside the game. They're just so... meh! I don't even want to mention his looks. I mean, yeah feminine guys are popular in Japan, but no need to make them look like a tranvestite...
And about the story... All I remember is; there are two evil big kingdoms, and a small one. Small one gets invaded and then you know... They want freedom!!! Boring? Yeah...
Sounds and music are not attractive either. Actually all musics sound same in one point. Who doesn't remember the "Hymn of the Fayth" from FFX? And the ending theme? After I finish the game there was "The End" screen and I just couldn't turn off my console because I wanted to keep listening the beautiful piano. Well, you won't experience that kinda stuff with the music of FFXII. And voices are... umm... I don't know how do characters sound in Japanese, but English voices don't fit the characters at all. Especially main guy's appearence and his voice...
And gameplay... Now that's the worst point of the game. If something is not broken, don't try to fix it. Final Fantasy games always had great battle mechanics, now I don't know what they wanted to do by changing it to this crappy new system. But it doesn't even feel like playing a RPG anymore. You're just running around and if there's an enemy around you choose to attack in "real-time" then the rest you do is just wait. Or moving far from enemy to heal or use items. It makes you so passive during battle and ofcourse ends up with being... boring! And just because I'm a fan of the series, I won't mention how mini the minimap is and how hard to find where to go and how boring to open the menu, then world map, then chosing the district you're in, and then... boring!
The only positive thing, and the reason I give it a 4.0 is because it has the best graphics you can ever see on PS2. Cutscenes look awesome, and in game graphics look wonderful. A problem though... Everything looks kinda yellow-brownish like someone threw up all over the universe of FFXII... It wouldn't hurt to use different color pallettes once in a while...
Well finally, if you played FFX and loved it, you'll hate this one no matter what. If you're new to the series and this one will be your first, then avoid at all costs! I believe Gamespot gave 9.0 just because the sake and fame of the FF series. There's no way I can believe a truthful and honest RPG gamer or a FF series fan could ever enjoy this title. It's the worst in the series by far...