Final Fantasy XII
After I played the demo, I had no intention of picking up this game for a while. A friend of mine got lucky playing poker, however, and I received it as a gift. Lucky me. Well, in spite of that, fate did not seem to want me playing this game. I couldn’t play it for over a week due to broken controllers, a scratched disc, and several other unlucky circumstances. Maybe I should have seen it as a sign.
I was not overly fond of the demo but I still got swept up in the excitement of a new FF. As I mentioned in the demo review, FF’s are some of my favorite games of all time and the allure of a new one is too much for me to resist. I eagerly jumped into this game with my shiny new controller and an honest desire to enjoy the game in spite of the demo.
Gameplay
For their most recent installment, Square Enix released the first console FF with a real-time battle system (I never played Final Fantasy XI – I think that was also in real time). Each character has a set of gambits or commands that control what they do in battle. For instance, you can set up characters to automatically heal themselves if their hit points get below a certain percentage. You can still manually command a character to do something in battle but it takes a bit longer. The battles are fast paced and you don’t really have time to think.
Apart from leveling up, you enhance your characters via the license system. For every enemy killed, you gain experience and license points. The license points are used to obtain licenses that can add hit points, enhance magic, gain strength, etc. There are also licenses for each weapon, accessory, and piece of armor. You can’t just buy a weapon and use it if you don’t have a license for it.
There are many aspects of the gameplay that will be familiar to FF players such as espers, chocobos, quickenings (similar to limit breaks), and of course, plenty of sidequests. I didn’t find the fighting to be overly tedious or difficult. The game is not completely hack and slash but the fighting is mindless and there aren’t really any puzzles to figure out. I pretty much never used my espers and rarely used magic other than to heal. Merely by going through the game with out any sidequests or by wandering around to level up, you can probably still achieve a level that you can beat the game with. I was actually rather disappointed with the ease of the final battle.
Story
The story is set in the world of Ivalice where warring empires and small kingdoms duke it out for the power to rule. To be frank, it is rather dull. I never cared about any of the characters. I never laughed, cried, or really shared any emotions whatsoever with them. It felt to me like a lackluster version of Star Wars and a friend of mine remarked that it “was like watching a really boring war movie.†Then there was the ending…well, I have more interesting things floating in my udon soup right now (seriously—there’s this brown spongy thing – is it a mushroom? tofu?) than the ending to this game. It’s sad really because FF’s are known for their endings.
Graphics
The graphics were of course, outstanding. The CG’s were especially pretty. The environments were vast, beautiful, and full of rich, natural colors. The character designs were rather dull, but then, they fit in with the general dullness of the story. I must admit though, I really liked the Viera. Some of the other anthros were really neat as well. I can’t use enough superlatives to describe the overall graphics in this game. I am very excited to see what the Square Enix team will come up with for the PS3.
Sound
The music is generally entertaining and I never had to mute it in favor of my own music. The FF franchise as a whole generally has good, memorable music. They re-use a few of the more unforgettable tracks from previous FF’s such as the intro theme and victory song from VII.
The voice acting is all really good even though the dialogue was lifeless. It took a while to get used to some of the stranger accents (Fran, the Marquis…), but I really enjoyed Balthier and Cid’s voices.
Overall
This game felt a little too much like an mmorpg, and I really don’t like those. It took me a while to get any enjoyment at all out of this game actually. I couldn’t play it for more than a couple hours at a time without falling asleep. It wasn’t until I was about 60-70 hours into the game and going through extra areas and doing sidequests when I realized that I was enjoying the gameplay. Oh well, they can’t all be winners. I give this game a 5/10.
Hmm, that doesn’t sound too good. I don’t like fast paced battles because it takes the joy of planning different moves middle of battle without hurry. I rather play complete action game in that case. And if the end is like you said I can’t really count this to same game series as few awesome ones in the past.
In some ways this is my favorite FF game and at times it put me to sleep. When I’m into it or in the mood to play, I could play for hours on hours forgetting to eat and stuff like that, then sometimes when I’d turn it on I’d be nodding off after 10 minutes.
I’m only like halfway through, walking toward Archades. One of the things I like so far is it’s not a drama where the main character needs to learn how to love. Maybe that there’s no definitive lead is why it doesn’t have that must find out what happens next feeling to it. I enjoy that actually, but I have to be in the mood for it. It can’t put me in the mood.
There’s a little bias since it’s what I’m currently playing but it’s probably my favorite FF game. Magic would have been more effective if the more specific conditional gambits were available earlier. And a greater difference in character strengths and weaknesses would have been welcome.
Anga- I actually found that I enjoyed the game more when I didn’t think of it as a FF. It just isn’t the same caliber as a lot of their other games (IMO).
Super rats- There are pros and cons to having differences in character strengths. In this game, when one died in a battle you could just replace them with someone else and it wouldn’t be a big deal. OTOH, I may have used magic more if there were mage-type characters or something.
As far as the lead character goes, sure, there’s a lack of a love interest, but character development can still be made interesting without that. This just wasn’t–to me anyway. I too, like a break from the drama every now and then but completely removing it? I don’t know.
I’m glad some people are enjoying this game though. I enjoyed some aspects of it.
Well, I’m currently playing this game. Totally into it. I’ve played other RPGs like .hack\\ and legend of dragoon. I like the fact that you don’t have to be a certain type of character to use a specific weapon. If you want Vaan to use a gun he can, or a bow, sword. Its more flexible to your liking. I personally think that the body graphics of Vaan are bad, but the over all graphics are excellent.
As for magic, its enjoyable to use. The game to me does have a good difficulty rate. I’m not an avid ff player so when you move from another enjoyable RPG to this one then you don’t have the back ground of ff expectations.
This addition to the RPG world gives the player more chances to fail, test and enjoy it.
Tip – don’t build all characters the same style.
i agree with the review completely. i felt like i was playing gauntlet legends with better graphics and landscapes. the plot was extremely generic and dull. there’s no part of the game that makes you (or the characters for that matter) emotionally or psychologically intertwined with the final boss to make you actually want to fight him. he’s pretty much absent from 95% of the game not including the end. the boss was not a “character.” he was far from memorable. he was no sephiroth, kuja, or jecht.
the more time that passes since i beat this game, the more i feel like i want my money back. i’m not a huge gamer but i love the ff series. it’s painfully disappointing to think that i’ve been waiting about 5 years for this game.
Sir mage–even without the “background of FF expectations” I would still find the story to be incredibly dull and the characters to be completely uninteresting. I read a lot of fantasy though–I like plot ^^
As far as building all characters differently, they don’t really encourage that because the license board is the same for everyone.
vlad drac–He was very far from Sephiroth or Kefka indeed. I was really disappointed with how boring the end battle was. I like my heart to be pounding out of my chest when I fight the last boss. I expect to maybe die once or twice before I beat him. Totally not the case here.
I don’t think I totally regret playing the game though. It had its moments. I certainly haven’t lost my faith in the greatness that is Square-Enix.
Well, I’m not all that far in the game, but I love it already. The gambit system is an awesome improvement. While some hate it, I love the liscense board system. The flexibility it provides cancels out the repetitivity of having each character with the same board type for me, but that’s my own opinion. Quickenings, now those are fun. Especially if you don’t use any of your mp anyway, quickenings can turn the tide of the fight, and trust me, they have many a time ^^.
I definately don’t regret buying this, it’s great.
I am glad you enjoy it Tarekishmal.
What I found is that although the license board feels like it would offer some flexibility, it fills up rather fast. Especially if you use accessories that double your license points (which I did).
I think it is a neat idea. I think it could have been done a bit better though. Perhaps if it were bigger like say, the sphere system in X. Then you could really customize your characters.
If I play this game again, I will take your word for it and try to use quickenings more.
There are a lot of aspects of battle that I wish I would have used more of.
i like this
Final Fantasy XII is the best out of all 13 in my opinion,since to complete the entire vast amount of things you must accomplish,it takes a lot of time,not like the others which I finish it completely in 100-120 hours or so. Plus since in my own way I prefer using only 1 character and one alone,which in this game I actually can (Balthier FTW). Also,as I have completed the game,or at least, the storyline,I started over and try to accomplish all I can A.S.A.P. without progressing through the game. (Currently level 96 with Balthier with nearly all weapons/armor,exept the best of the best ones,and I’m just before the Draklor Laboratory) I really suggest to every to try it and actual take the time to see the game in its various superior aspects to the previous versions of FF. Also,the battles are NOT fast paced…you can choose between wait and active,which wait somewhat stops everyone’s movements while you choose your next move,but I prefer active,and faster battles,but wait is better till you get used to the various commands and all.Well happy gaming to you all,I need to finish collecting as many Espers as I can before going to kick Cid’s pathetic…well you know. LOL