Apart from the soundtrack, how does everybody feel about the upcoming Final Fantasy XII PS4 remaster? Did people who played the original enjoy it enough to be excited about a new release with improved graphics and a beefed-up skill system? I never invested in a PS2 (gasp) but this was one of those titles that always interested me.

I think I played the first 10 minutes of this and just never went back to it. I'm excited to play the remaster as I've heard nothing but great things about it but for some reason just never made time for it.

This. I think I had the game less than a week before I sold it back.

I played demos of FFXII back in the day on PS2 and again last year on PS4, and both times I couldn't find the fun, so I'll be skipping this.

Curious what the detractors' problems with the game were. The battle system?

Pretty much. I couldn't shake the feeling that the game played itself; I disliked that.

I thought gambits were a cool idea, but would have been better utilized in a game like Star Ocean were the A.I. is dumb as paste to begin with.

I actually didn't have any problems with the game other than I knew it'd take too long for me to finish and I just didn't have time to.

FFXII was a neat and fun game. I enjoyed the hell out of the game despite is License System which is kind of like a strange FFX Sphere Grid that included some weirdness like you need to buy a license to equip particular items. A lot of people jump on the OST for not being Uematsu melodic like previous FFs but I thought Sakimoto's take was actually really rich and beautiful. If you liked FF Tactics, Tactics Ogre, Vagrant Story would love this OST.

In addition since this takes place in Ivalice Tactics, Tactics Advance/2, Vagrant Story/XII all take place in Ivalice.

My only things I kinda which was different is that you got more characters to play as that we different races. Fran is a Viera and really cool but I would love to play as a Bangaa/Nu'Mou/SeeQ as well, particularly the Bangaa.
The battling was MMO-ish and the story kind of played out like Japanese Star Wars but ultimately enjoyed.

This is one of those games that massively benefits from the extra power of the PS4. The load times were awful so for that reason alone this is worthy of a replay.

On a side note I am really disappointed that the new soundtrack is not getting a standard CD release.

I loved the original and pretty much lived in it for four months of my life. It was definitely more akin to Vagrant Story than a Final Fantasy due to the relatively small scale of its story, but the massive and elaborately realised world more than makes up for that. I think the game was ahead of its time in many respects, both positively in terms of its serious storytelling and music, but also negatively in terms of its combat-centric open world with endless Monster Hunter-ish quests.

I won't be playing the remaster, though, as I'm getting sick of the remake/reboot/remaster mentality in general. I have a CRT and PS2 to play this anytime as it was originally envisaged, and would rather see companies developing all-new games.

To be fair, in this case there's a pretty major difference -- the job system -- that makes the game play somewhat different. On top of which, you get (= can buy) all the gambits not too far into the game instead of them being unlocked progressively.
(Not to mention other tweaks such as the speedup and a revamp of the treasure chests)