| Title: Final Fantasy XII Rating: Teen Publisher and Developer: Square Enix Release Date: October 31st, 2006 Platform: PS2 Players:1 Genre: RGP |
Final Fantasy fans, we wait no longer. The years of anticipation are now behind us as we hold in our hands the next wonderful, remarkable, exciting (etc, etc) installation in the Final Fantasy series. Does Final Fantasy XII quench our rabid RPG thirst?
I admit, I view the Final Fantasy series through rose-colored glasses. So what if Tidus is a whiny punk? Who cares if listening to Cloud for an hour makes one want to take Zoloft? It’s a frickin’ FINAL FANTASY GAME! Get over it whatever Final Fantasy issues you’re dealing with and just plug in the game. Final Fantasy XII is worth it.
The story behind FFXII takes place in a world called Ivalice. Many races (including those adorable, yet useless, moogles) make up the population, and the skies are crowded with airships. Magic in this age is more common it seems than in other Final Fantasy games. The Archadian Empire is looking for power, and has been picking off enemy kingdoms one at a time. One of these kingdoms is Dalmasca, home to many of the characters in this game.
Our main character is Vaan, a homeless boy on the streets, who is looking to avenge his brother’s death at the hands of the empire. For Vaan, his brother was his only remaining family member. Now alone, Vaan hatches a plan to relieve the royal consul of a few of his treasures. However, during his plan the Dalmascan soldiers began launching an attack on the Archadian Empire. In the confusion, Vaan sees among the Dalmascan resistance the last heir to the throne. Princess Ashe had been given up for missing…so Vaan, Princess Ashe, Vaan’s friend Penelo, sky pirate Balthier, and his partner Fran team up to reveal the reason for the Archadian Empire’s invasion.
If you thought other Final Fantasy games had dark story lines, each pales in comparison to FFXII. The first hour of the game should make this obvious. Prepare to be shocked, as this game does not travel through moments of maturity mixed with stupid jokes (take that Wakka!). Vaan is a serious character, and he’s got some major beef to take care of. FFXII does not try to cater to a younger audience. Players definitely need to be teens or older to appreciate the seriousness of the plot.
Besides a darker tone, FFXII has many changes to boot. Don’t worry, veteran Final Fantasy players will still know the basics of the game. There are a few bigger changes, such as the battle and leveling up systems, but I sincerely believe Square Enix is heading in a good direction.
The battle system is no longer turn based, which shouldn’t be a big surprise if you’ve been doing your Final Fantasy homework. The change in the battle system has been the biggest news since previews of FFXII were released to the public. In some ways, the new battle system is easier than turn based battle. Players run through the environment and choose which monsters to attack. Blue lines indicate your choice to attack the baddies, red means the baddie wants to attack you. Your party members attack until told to do otherwise. For example: Vaan could attack the bad guy while Penelo uses cure to heal members of the party. When you want the character to go back to attacking or casting spells or whatever, simply choose the character and change what they are doing.
There is also the introduction of the Gambit system. Gambits are accrued throughout gameplay, and when equipped they have different functions. If you equip Penelo with a particular Gambit, she will keep attacking chosen baddie until a character’s health falls below 40%, where she will then start healing them. Gambits are interesting to manage and can enhance battles if used effectively. The only major pain of this battle system is that if you don’t attack bad guys who are chasing you, a big group of them could gang up on you. Pick and choose your battles wisely…..
The leveling up system is a little like Final Fantasy 10, except everyone is on the same board. For those of you who are not familiar with FFX (do you live in a cave!?!), characters level up by choosing which attributes to “buy”. You receive points based on how many battles you’ve won, and you use those points to level up your character. Players could play FFXII over and over again, changing the abilities that each character has. Although not as linear as the traditional leveling up system, I think this chessboard-method allows players to make their characters more individualistic.
One of my biggest gripes about FFXII is save points. (Yes I know I always gripe about these.) I just hate that you have to wait until a certain point in the game to save, or have to continue running back to the closest save point whenever something big happens. Yes, I am obsessive compulsive about saving, but it’s a result of always getting a Game Over when I could’ve saved just a few seconds earlier. Plus, if you’re any kind of Final Fantasy veteran, you should know that save points are offered right before something big happens like an important scene or boss battle. Take the hint! I suppose the nice thing about the save point is that it automatically replenishes your characters’ HP and MP, which can be convenient (you know, right before a battle, hint hint…). But I quickly tire of running back and forth between save points.
Another gripe is that the life of the Playstation 2 needs to be over. Now. Stop producing games for it; its graphics suck. The graphics of FFXII may have been acceptable three years ago (Drr… when FFX came out) but with the next-gen systems raising graphic expectations, needless to say I was sorely disappointed. The disparity between the beautiful pre-rendered cut scenes and the crappy real-time graphics is HUGE. Wait, let me express that in another way: HHUUUUUGGGGEEEEE. The cut scenes look like they came from Advent Children. Yes, they are that good. However, characters represented first in cut scenes and then using real-time graphics look almost nothing alike. Frankly, I am quite disgusted. Move on Square-Enix… it’s time to move on….
Okay promise, last gripe. FFXII does feature voice acting, but only in the cut scenes! Yes, I too thought we were past the days of reading our video games, but evidently not. The cycle goes like this: play, read, play, read, play play play, read read read. Get the picture yet? Games are so much better when the voice actually conveys the emotions going through the character’s minds. Are they sad? Happy? Tired? Disgusted? Your guess is as good as mine. Microsoft, you spoil me too much…
Back to some good stuff: The soundtrack of FFXII is beautiful. Those who didn’t know it wasn’t the same composer as before wouldn’t be able to tell. The music is just as powerful, fitting, and moving as it has ever been. I can’t wait till I can buy the sheets for it. This is some high caliber music people, appreciate it while you can.
Another welcome addition is that the characters’ MP bar fills up as you walk around. It’s so nice to start a battle back at full MP. Casting a lot of spells is really essential to winning battles, particularly the boss battles. You’ll need all the MP you can get, so it’s nice to be able to conserve ethers and such until the battle begins.
The environments of FFXII are huge and look good. Treasures are all over the place and are easily spotted, and luckily the correct direction is often quite obvious. Players can purchase maps from travelling moogle-rabbit-things (I know I’ll get an email about this…), and the maps are really straightforward. I enjoy that I can look at my map and make a strategy to avoid certain bad guys I don’t want to mess with.
It has been said that FFXII is less linear than the games preceeding them. Is this true? The answer is both yes and no. When players open up their menu using select, the current objective is usually listed at the bottom of the screen. It’s easy to figure out where you are supposed to go. Also, specific objectives have an “X marks the spot” marker on the map, so you know exactly where to travel to in order to complete the mission. The open world is a little harder to navigate; speaking to people around you is key. Usually they can give you tips that you’d be lost without. Talk to everyone. and you’ll be golden. So no, this game is not like FFX where you are rushed from one place to the next, you get to a do a little bit of wandering, a la FFVII style.
Prepare to invest your lives in FFXII, this game is looonnnggg. However, not as boring as Dragon Quest with all of the reading. There is a lot of story here, for those who like big, long, involving stories. I haven’t heard estimates from people who have beat the game, but I want to estimate around 75 hours. Let me know if my estimate is close or not…
Now, the last question that you’ve all been dying to ask: are the characters memorable. That’s right, memorable! Would I buy a Vaan action figure like Auron? Would I want to play a sequel to FFXII (Like FFX-2)? Would I want to watch a movie that uses FFXII characters like FFVII: Advent Children? The answer is: kinda. I’m not as interested in the story as with other FFXII games, but that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t like to play with a Vaan action figure……
Besides all of the complaints, FFXII is definitely worth your hard earned fifty bucks. The collector’s edition is definitely worth the price because the bonus disk is frickin’ awesome (interviews, trailers, and lots more goodies!). This edition could only be purchased at Gamestop or EB games, and they may have some left. If you’re a Final Fantasy fan, the collector’s edition should not be missed. Go buy it! Final Fantasy XII is a welcome addition to the series, and thankfully slakes the thirst of millions of Final Fantasy fans everywhere. For those who wish the game was a little more old-school, you’re in luck: Final Fantasy V advance was just released for Game Boy Advance, and Final Fantasy III is slated to release for the DS next week. We Final Fantasy fans definitely have enough to keep us occupied for now.
At least that was until I saw screen shots of FFXIII the other day… damn you Square-Enix!
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