Final Fantasy XII- Another Great FF Game Begins!
Written: Nov 24 '06 (Updated Nov 24 '06)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: Great graphics and gameplay!!
Cons: Certain things are only attainable with the guide or on gamefaqs.
The Bottom Line: A fantastic RPG, well worth the price!
|
|
|
| annecal's Full Review: Final Fantasy XII for PS2 |
This is the first serious console game I've played since my husband died. He usually researched games for me and figured out what I'd like. In this case, I knew I could trust the Final Fantasy people not to let me down, and for the most part, I was right. The new Final Fantasy game is quite solid, save perhaps for a somewhat weak story line (but what else is new?), and I've been enjoying it immensely.
Plot and Characters
I'm going to get into this bit, without revealing anything that occurs past the first couple of hours of the game, so here goes...Possible Very Minor Spoilers
The plot for this game has been compared to Star Wars quite a bit. Basically, there is an Empire that has been overthrowing the various kingdoms, and a resistance is forming. Characters end up fighting against the resistance for various reasons, and they are from various kingdoms, but most of the action begins in Dalmasca, we meet Vaan. Vaan is an orphan who hates the Empire because of the loss of his family, particularly his brother. He meets up with Fran, a Viera (sort of half-bunny, half woman) and Balthier, a sky pirate, and they in turn all join up with Penelo, another orphan, Basch, a man once thought to be a traitor, and Ashe,the Princess of Dalmasca. Other characters will join your party as guests from time to time, as you'll gain and lose party members as the plot advances, but these are your primary six. Each is in the fight for their own personal reasons, and together they form a somewhat motley crew in their quest to overthrow the empire.
I'll give the plot 4 out of 5 stars, because until you get about halfway into the game, or more, you may not give a toss about what's happening in the videos.
Graphics and Sound
The graphics of this game are astounding. The video sequences in particular have that sort of dream-like reality that the Final Fantasy games are known for, and for the most part, the voice acting is really quite good. The video sequences have very minor changes signifying facial expression, and on the whole, even without a HD TV, the video clips are beautiful to look at.The real time graphics are very well executed and the music is pitched right for the game. You notice it, but it usually doesn't detract or annoy.
Everything from the smallest flower to the largest waterfall is rendered rather perfectly. The one "what were they thinking" aspect of the visuals is Vaan himself. I think they were trying to give him well defined abs, but they failed, and the result is sort of ridiculous looking. It looks like a make up artist tried to shade abs in on him, or he's wearing some sort of "buff suit"- it's not pretty. But all the other characters look good (Ashe looks an awful lot like many other main characters in previous games, but we'll let that slide).
Despite Vaan's pathetic excuse for washboard abs, I'll give the graphics and sounds 5 out of 5 stars, for even with their faults, I've still found them to be better than 99.9% of the games on the market.
Blood and Sex
There isn't any of either in this game. I'm tucking this part in for parent's who wonder if this might be an appropriate children's gift. During fight scenes, even during videos, there is no blood. In live action, a number appears to let you know how much your health has fallen. But the gore factor is null. There are a couple of baddies you need to kill which you'd sort of rather not. One of these are bunny rabbits. Very cute and non-threatening, but if you're fighting a nearby werewolf, or some such thing, said bunny will cast healing spells on the nasty monster that's trying to eat your face, and for this, they have to die. Well they don't HAVE to, but they will. At least when I'm playing. Secondly, there are wolves, hyenas and other dog-like creatures that you'll need to kill and when you do, they make a doggy sounding whimper, which still makes me cringe, everytime. Ugh. But still, it's just a game, and if you don't kill them, they'll eat you, so fair enough.
The last thing worth mentioning is Fran's attire. The Viera (and you will meet her people at some point in the game) wear rather provocative outfits, the most notable point being the rather bare bunny bum. Her outfit is more or less covering her more interesting parts, save a thong which leaves both cheeks bare. On the whole, not that big a deal, nothing you wouldn't see on a travel channel special on Brazil and certainly less than you'd catch in your National Geographic magazine, but still, I figured I'd throw that out there in case there are any insanely protective parents reading this.
5 out of 5 for Sex and Violence because I don't care to see a lot of gore, and am happy there isn't any, and because, well, Fran's outfit is pretty rockin' and if I looked like that in a thong, I'd probably wear one whenever possible, too.
Side Quests
The game is packed with side quests, most notably, Clan Hunts. You'll be able to go to a notice board, where people have posted help wanted ads for dealing with monsters. There are dozens, if not hundreds of these available, and each offers a variety of rewards for completion. I've been doing most of these in between main game play and as a result I am now about 80 hours into the game and probably just about half way through the story line. Works for me. For each hunt, you need to speak to the petitioner, who may be located anywhere in the game(they'll tell you where in the notice) and then defeat the monster, return to the petitioner for your reward and check in with the head of the Clan to have your hunter's rank increased and receive further loot.
Speaking of
Loot
Like other FF games, this one has a lot to offer. One new concept is the Bazaar. When fighting monsters, you're still able to try and steal from them, and this is always a good idea. In addition to items they may drop when killed, and treasures you might find in chests, stealing will give you some prime loot to sell for better things. There is a Bazaar now and when you've sold the correct numbers of X,Y and Z a new piece of armor, weapon or item will pop up available for sale. The frustrating part of this, is trying to get all the loot from all the creatures in order to make sure that the coolest weapons become available to you.
Speaking of which, one of the things that drives me crazy about this game is the fact that the best items are not given to you automatically for defeating a boss, or completing a task. These items are only available if you do, or don't do, some very specific things. You'll only get the best spear in the game if you DON'T open 4 or so specific chests and then you have to kill this particular monster, wearing this particular accessory, and then you'll get it.
There is a game guide you can buy for an additional $20, but some of these things aren't even available in there. I strongly suggest checking out the forum and FAQ guides at www.gamefaqs.com before you even play. I realized 20 hours into playing that I'd done something to preclude me getting some major weapon, but there was no way I was starting over. This site has been really helpful and prevented me from having to buy the guide for the game, the idea alone makes me angry!!
Fighting
Ok, this is perhaps the most involved system of fighting seen yet in an FF game, and also the most wonderfully simple. Firstly, if you played X, there's no more of this walking along and then a cut scene and a monster, thank God. Now, you'll encounter them as you encounter them, crossing deserts, etc. The main thing in the fighting system are Liscenses and Gambits.
As you kill creatures, you'll get exp points, which will level you up and also LP points, which go to your liscense board. You'll move around the board choosing the various weapons a character can use, the armor they can wear, the spells they can learn and so forth. Now, and this is a bit irritating, just because you've gained the liscense to use black magic or wear heavy armor, doesn't mean you can actually do it. Shops and traders will then SELL you these skills,permits, etc and until you've bought the ability and gained the liscense on the board, you can't use it.
Also on your liscense board, you'll find three Mist Quickenings. Once you have these, you can do very special moves if you have enough MP available. It actually took me a while to figure out how to use these- once you select one, in the right corner you'll get a sort of slot machine, and the triangle will do one MQ, the square one, and circle another. One or more will be highlighted, and you have to hit the corresponding button for the one you'd like. This will happen several times in a certain time limit, so you have to be quick and pay attention. If you do it right, you can chain together several Mist actions by several characters, and do a lot of damage. This will drain your MP, though.
Another notable feature of the game is the Gambit System. There isn't turn based fighting anymore, instead, you'll assign gambits to your characters. An example of this is to tell a character that if an ally's health falls below 40% cast a cure spell, then to attack the foe nearest them. You'll want to set your gambits to heal first, then fight. More specific gambits, like if an ally is sleeping wake them up will have to be bought. Some you'll find in chests. For the most part, I love the gambit system. I usually turn the gambits off for the main character and let the other two use them to back me up. Works fantastically. If you turn gambits off, you need to manually give commands to the character, and this gets tedius unless you're only doing it for one, and overrriding the occasional gambit on others.
You'll still have Summons in the game, but to be honest, I don't use them that often. When you defeat a certain boss, you'll get that boss as a summons. It'll appear on the liscense board, and only one character can choose it. If you use it, the monster will appear and the other characters will vanish and the monster will fight for you until it is defeated.
Travel
There are many ways to travel within the game. Certain save crystals are orange, and you can use these to teleport to other orange stones you've found, but you spend a teleport crystal (usually gained when defeating or stealing) to do it. You can also spend gil and travel by chocobo or airship, or walk, which is what I ususally do. By walking you'll encounter beasties to fight and level up. Maps are available for purchase and/or found in green urns. Usually the urns will be found in palaces, caves, etc, and the maps can be bought of a certain area. Touching a save crystal will also restore your party to full health and mana. You can also go for quite a long time before finding one, so if you want to just play for 10 minutes, or even an hour sometimes- be prepared to pause it and come back, or lose the time you've put in and the exp and loot you've gained.
Final Thoughts
Apart from the story line, which I'll admit is getting better- this is a really fantastic game. If you complete side quests and whatnot, you can easily spend well over 100 hours playing, and it's a thoroughly enjoyable and somewhat addicting RPG to get into!
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
annecal
|
 - Top 500 |
|
Member: Annie
Location: Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Reviews written: 125
Trusted by: 129 members
About Me:
Road test drivers over 75!!
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.