Actually, I hear there are some unprecedented epic battles in FFXII. They're optional, though. Rumors are that there's one or two last can last for hours simply because of how much HP the enemy has.
Wow, that's just... boring. o_O
The Final Fantasy series needs to go back to where it began, well not where it began (I found I really... um... yeah) - but to the retro type of RPG. VIII was futuristic and X was too pathetic. I admit X was good and it was fun, but the game itself was so easy, just attack constantly - no stragtegy whatsoever. And when it is it's one option in a Trigger Command, and Trigger Commands only come up when you HAVE to use them. So if one pops up... <hint>Trigger Command</hint>. Unless they had multiple options with them. Rather than one. So that's a good thing to improve on.
V is my favourite Final Fantasy because it has one thing almost all RPG's need: abruptness. I don't want to play a game where a prologue rolls over the screen and I see a fancy video of the backstory - that's not me playing the game, that's me watching it. Well, that's pointless and it's boring me. A key in RPG's is too never tell the player what is going on, that way by doing the task set they can find out - that's already an interesting ten minutes. Of course they'd need to pull it off the right way.
V does because of how adventourus (sp?) it is, you get four characters and you STAY with them for almost the whole game, and it isn't stupid because it makes sense. V is incredibly fun due to this, so why other RPG's choose to show the gamer the story rather than have the gamer play it out is beyond me. That's what RPG's need 'MOAR' of:
+ Abruptness and adventure
EDIT: Suitable boss themes, not rock or metal - that actually feels out of place in RPG's (maybe that's cause I don't like either genre though) - something like Challenge (X), Last Battle (V), Deceisive Battle (V), Battle With Gilgamesh (V - my god the arranged version would be hell suitable even though it's rock), Extreme (VIII) - final boss themes should almost always be fairly laid back, simple and tense, even slow paced (Extreme comes to mind).
NOTE: I contradict myself in that edit, oh well.