Hell to the yes, say what you want, but I thought Final Fantasy XII was a step in the right direction for the series and still feels like one of the most mature FF titles, next to Tactics and the non-FF game: Vagrant Story.
Despite it's shortcomings, the plot was intriguing enough, and the game rewarded you for exploring. I get that Vaan and Penelo suck, but Fran, Balthier, and Basch make up for it. Basch should have been the main character. The voice acting and script, was also quite decent, and not nearly as cringe-worthy as X or XIII.