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…
