personally i enjoyed FFX more than 12, but in FF12 there is a sense of a lot of freedom, generally you can go where ever you like and do what ever you want (although they could have added even more sidequests.....

also I found FFXII more of a challenge than other FF simply because the battle system was difficult to work out and rare items were often diffuclt to obtain early in the game, it basically made you play the game properly and allowed you to mess around if you wanted but at your own gain.