Final Fantasy XII – Review

Final Fantasy XII was definitely a mixed bag. The story started out pretty damn good, but quickly fell into non-existence. The game began to feel more like a dungeon crawler as dungeons began to resemble the very last dungeon you were in. The characters were flat and seemed to be there to just tag along with our main female lead. Most of them had very little impact on the story. The only saving grace to this game was the change to the battle system. What a change it was. Oh and if you are wondering why in the world you are reading a review of a game released god knows how long ago, it is because I am a poor bastard. Good thing though because this game was definitely not worth $50.

Battle System

Something has definitely changed when you begin your first battle by actually drawing your weapon at hand and engaging your enemy right on the battlefield. Replacing the Active Time Bar or Turn Based system Final Fantasy is known for, is a more streamlined action type of system. In my honest opinion this was probably the saving grace of this game for the gameplay quickly overshadowed both the non-epic and underdeveloped characters and story. The action is fast-paced and very quick. Fight to fight, the monsters are very well spaced out allowing you to breathe if for some reason you get overwhelmed by a rare monster that was ripping your party apart.

Characters now fight under the Gambit system, allowing you to place simple AI commands to your other two fighters. You can give them instructions for them to attack the target closest to them or cast a fire spell when they see flying monsters. There are hundreds of gambits as they are called that you may input. At the start of the game you are only given a few gambit options. Until you get the specific gambit you are looking for, you will have to manually input the commands via the battle menu.

The gambit system is both a curse and a blessing. As you quickly progress through the game you realize you are not playing the game, rather the computer is playing the game for you. Normal monsters require very little effort on your part other than going up to the monster and having the gambits control your party as you sit there and watch them hack and slash without even touching a single button. Bosses can be taken down with no effort on your part again as the gambits properly curing status ailments, curing members low in HP, etc.

Magic spells have taken a nose dive as they are not required to beat the game’s story bosses. Melee (swords, 2H swords, and axes) does far superior damage for most of the game. That and the spells are not as flashy as they used to be so they are not even worth casting visually.

Quickenings are the Limit Breaks of Final Fantasy XII. These look amazing and as you acquire more Quickenings for your characters, you can chain your Quickenings over and over again. The Quickenings really showcase the power of the PS2.

Espers

These usually play a very big role in a Final Fantasy game, but this time around I can recall only having to cast it twice. Using an Esper consumes a large amount of MP. They are easily killed and thus you return to the battlefield with having accomplished nothing and having a depleted MP bar to show for it. I am going to leave it at that. They looked pretty dumb this time around and were never required to beat the game. The MP cost actually discourages you from using them as MP is very important for curing party members as they become very costly later in the game, the healing spells that is.

Story

Oh how I wished there was a real story to this game, but alas, Square has proven that they are losing their former talent at telling an engaging story.

I had found myself in the latter parts of the game and read the forums realizing that I was three hours from finishing the game. I was in shock because nothing of magnitude had occurred. Exploding ships does not make good story telling nor does the death of underdeveloped characters touch me in any way. One could sum this game up in one paragraph. The main focus of the game was revealed so late that any time to flesh out the concept itself was so limited since you were practically done with the game.

Only at the end of the game did I finally start to care for these characters. It seems as though when you finish the game, you think to yourself that you were only at the half way point if they had actually worked on this storyline.

Characters

Vaan is our main male lead, though when you think about it he’s nothing more than just some kid along for the ride. His impact on the story is absolutely non-existent.

Penelo is probably without a doubt a filler character. She just tags along on this journey because she wants to make sure Vaan is safe. That’s pretty much it, she does not say much of anything for the next 50 hours or so that you play the game. All she manages to do is make the party an even number of six. She does make the ending possible, so I guess she gets some points for that.

Ashe seemed to me like a stuck-up-know-it-all. She did partially grow on me considering she was practically the main character when things got going and the character that had the most dialogue.

Basch was an okay character. After you see his part in the story, nothing happens with him until the end. He’s just there for some commentary on lady Ashe’s actions.

Balthier, a sky pirate, was probably my favorite character. He was cool and actually had a brain unlike the rest of the cast we got going here.

Fran, the cat chick as I refer to her was nothing more than some character that talked all fancy here and there. Her very small part in the game was actually the most interesting, in terms of the lore of her people.

Vayne is the main baddie if you could call him that. He was given 30 minutes of screen time throughout the game.

Larsa is Vayne’s little brother. Anyway, he was pretty cool and one of the few developed characters.

Oh yes, everyone besides Vann and Penelo, and I do mean everyone speaks in such a high-class royalty manner it really began to piss me off. “No” becomes “Nay” and so forth. I began to go crazy after 25 hours listening to them talk that way. Oh well, at least the dialogue was somewhat well written I would think.

Music

Very weak and very unmemorable. Right next to the story telling, the music in this game really failed to catch my attention. It does not have to be catchy for me to like it, it just has to be good. Chrono Cross music good.

Graphics

Meh, plain is all I can say. The outdoor environments were so bland it really was showing the last days of the PS2. Hell, the game lags a hellish amount if you engage more than five monsters at once later in the game. The Quickenings are probably the most graphically impressive thing in the entire game.

The FMVs were forgettable at best. Even the ending FMV was only decent and fairly short to my disappointment. I usually look forward to the ending FMV’s, while this one was good at closing the story (what story?) I wish there was more to it.

The in-game cut scenes do look nice since the armor designs on the guards are fantastic.

Side Quests and Optionals

The game is littered with many side quests that could easily provide you with well over another 100 hours of gameplay. Monsters hunts, very self explanatory, give a break to the story and allow you to challenge monsters from previously explored areas and gain superior loot and cash. The latter monsters asked of you to challenge are no joke, as they clearly are superior to the last boss of the game itself. The last monster hunt involves a fight lasting well over five hours.

Obtaining the best and greatest weapons in the game also will add many hours of gameplay, for better or for worse as you realize trying to get a “perfect” game is putting you well over 150 hours. Getting the best of the best requires what MMORPG games call “farming.” You go out, and you kill many monsters again and again until it drops the loot you need to acquire said weapon. This process is definitely annoying as you are playing the percentage game as you wait until your 5% to loot item actually drops from that monster you have been killing for the past five hours.

Overall

A truly mixed bag for me. The game did manage to give me a solid 60 hours of gameplay, too bad I could not say that for the story itself. With a very limited scope in story telling and characters that are forgettable, Final Fantasy 12 is a hard game for me to recommend.

Rating: 3.5/5