Spectacular game in near every aspect.
However it loses major points on character importance, as neither of the supposed main characters are very good. This isn't exactly a spoiler, though if you are looking to be extra cautious skip the rest of this post. Vaan is NEVER important. He has no place in the story, never develops one, and Ashe doesn't do much better. Technically, her character is important. Technically her character develops. Technically, I care. She's a waste of space and an eyesore in every way except...well... in an ironic twist, visually.
If you ask me, the self-dubbed leading man REALLY is the main character, as he is awesome at the beginning, awesome throughout the middle, and awesome at the end.
*SPOILERS*
Almost exactly the same thing can be said for the main villains. Vayne is an eyesore in every way except for the way other people talk about him. He's a badass in theory, but only there. The occurians are an enormous wtf, they've barely any plot attendance themselves, and don't get me started on the judges. They start cool. They carry on as cool. When you see their faces, they lose points. When you beat them silly, they lose a lot of points. When seemingly the strongest one turns out to be a family grudging little boy with less original thought than his kiss ass brother, they lose almost all remaining points.
Again in an ironic twist, the leading man's father turns out to be the best villain (and so good that he really saves the whole thing near solo).
Beyond characters, my only complaint was that the end seemed a bit rushed, as there is so very very little finality to it. What happened to Venat (Dare we presume it died?)? What are the Occurians going to do next? It's not as if there's quite enough to make a real sequel on (When a sequel is on a "lesser" system, it's not really a sequel, more of a spin-off). Also, are we to assume Rozzaria just...resumed its normal routine of having little to nothing to do with the rest of the world?
*END SPOILERS*
I actually find a lot of my problems with this game to be shared by surprisingly the most commonly listed other favorite in this thread, FFT. That game had major character and ending issues as well (though not nearly as badly as 12 on characters, and much worse on ending). Odd no?