12 is garbage. IZJS / TZA is pretty good though but the story and characters still suck.
The story and characters are pretty good despite their flaws. IZJS / TZA do improve it, but the base game is still great.
I've always been puzzled when I see this particular complaint.
Other than the near-useless player stand-ins (Vaan and Penelo), I thought all the characters were interesting, as was the story overall.
The main character should have been Larsa.
It should have been Larsa, Ashe, Balthier, Fran, Basch, and El Cid
iirc, Ashe was originally intended to be the main character. I guess something about a married, adult protagonist didn't test well with audiences, so they subbed in Vaan, the most generic JRPG protagonist ever.
Sounds like made up fan theory bullshit.
Final Fantasy fucking loves their lowlife orphan hero stories.
Cecil, Terra, Squall, Zidane, and many others are all "tragic past orphans"
Tidus, explicitly not an orphan, instead has a story about how life would have been better if he was an orphan.
The difference is that all those characters had damn valid reasons to be in the party, and were central to the plot and had a connection with the primary antagonist. Vaan literally doesn't do shit all game, nor does he have a personal connection to the final boss in any way. Hell, Vayne literally asks him who he is when you confront him for the final battle