yayapex2's Full Review: Final Fantasy XII for PlayStation 2
Final Fantasy XII was a game that I didn’t plan on buying until two to three years after its release. I had no intention of paying $50 for this game because I’m way too cheap. One day a friend of mine was trying to get rid of his games to get a new CD player for his car. I bought .hack 2, 4, and G.U. for $30 altogether to complete my current .hack collection. I later bargained with him and received Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete and Grandia for $12. I also noticed that he had Resident Evil 4 for PS2 and Final Fantasy XII which I offered $30 but he wouldn’t sell it unless it was for $35. I later tried to get all the change I could get which added up to a little over $5 and was able to snag LaPucelle Tactics. I was pretty happy that day too because I had beat Tales of Symphonia and had a new shiny RPG to play.
"That’s As Deep As It Goes?"
The story is mainly a political dispute between two countries. It starts off in Dalmasca, a country which has been taken over by the Archadian Empire. A peace treaty was about to be signed allowing Archadia to occupy Dalmasca until the war was over. However, the king is assassinated the night of the signing. Now the Archadian Empire assumes complete control of these once neutral people. Years later a teenager named Vaan is aspiring to becoming a sky pirate and having his own airship. For the most part he goes around pick pocketing Archadian troops in his town. Later, with his friend Penello, he decides to break into a castle to steal some riches. They both run into some sky pirates and later the former princess of Dalmasca. Now they’re involved in a big plot to try and end this senseless quarreling between nations.
In the beginning of the game the story was very entertaining and political stories tend to be my favorites. The character development was good too; you were getting a sense of their individual personality. However, about 15 hours into the game I starting to see that the story was just going down hill from there; it felt fragmented. I might have been because I decided to stop playing the main story and doing many side quests and when I got back I kind of forgot what was going on with the story. My only complaint is that I wish the story was much deeper and more emotional. I like to cry.
(Glass Shatters) “OMG! Stone Cold’s Back!”
Final Fantasy always used the same basic formula, walk around, buy armor, equip the armor, and then fight in random turn-based battles. I was never really fond of the older Final Fantasies traditional turn based battle system; turn based battles usually bore me. In a sense the new battle system is real time but not entirely. These battles aren’t random either because now you can see all the enemies within 30 feet or so on radar. When you do confront some enemies you can give your party commands to attack them. Usually the character will run in a straight line up until he reaches the enemy but you can also control his walking during the battle. It is very similar to Star Wars: KOTOR for the Xbox. I’m just so happy that they got rid of the turn-based battles because it wasted so much time. I would try to explore a dungeon or something and the... poof!... a battle. Now if I want to avoid monsters I can just take an alternate route or run as fast as possible away from them if they chase me.
Having to input commands gets really sickening especially in a long dungeon with really weak monsters that are one-hit kills. Thank (whatever God you worship, if any) that the gambit system was created. This system allows you to put the game in auto. For example, instead of manually inputting commands to attack nearby enemies, you can walk up to them and your party instantly attacks the enemies without having to input commands. You can also set priorities and conditions to these gambits. An example of a condition would be when a party member’s health is less than 30% of his/her total health, the party leader will cast cure to heal the character who is suffering. A priority would be to continue to be in attack mode until someone’s health gets really low. Then you would heal that person and go back to attacking. One thing I didn’t enjoy was that you have to buy or find these conditions. I believe that you shouldn’t have to get 15 hours into a game to be able to heal a party member with less than 20% health. I believe that the game could have been better if you were given all the conditions in the beginning of the game.
Hmmm, so how does my party get stronger throughout the game? Easy, each character gets experience points that raise their levels. As they go up levels, their stats such as health, attach power, and defense goes up making then stronger. You also get points called LP (I think it stands for License Points) that are used to activate squares on a licensing board. When they are activated, some will increase character stats, unlock new useable magic or basically allow them to use a certain weapon or piece of armor. In the beginning of the game it’s very hard to get everything activated because you don’t get too many points. This also makes you think, “Hmm do I want to use these points to increase my character’s health or save it until I have enough to allow him to use this really strong armor?” If you did buy a particular piece of armor but you didn’t activate it on the licensing board then you are unable to equip it. I didn’t find this feature to be too bothersome because about 30 hours in the game I had just about everything unlocked. It also makes the game more challenging if you have to make decisions no matter how big or small.
One thing that disappointed me was that you could beat the games main story in less than 30 hours. However, you’re not just limited to that because there are so many side quests for those of you who are overachieving RPG fanatics. In the game you join a guild which is involved in hunts. What they ask you to do is find all the monsters that they need killed and you basically hunt them down and kill them. I think I did about 45 of them until they became too hard and I was too lazy to learn new gambit strategies; there are roughly 50 or so. There are also many weapons, armors, and items that can be acquired by only doing these hunts too. Some bosses literally take hours to beat because they have thousands of HP. I was very pleased that there was so much to do in this game but it doesn’t make up for the short storyline. I ended up playing a little over 90 hours which was mostly spent leveling up.
“It Was Big, Giant, and Humongous!”
I have to say that Final Fantasy XII looks too good to be a PS2 video game; most PS2 games that are out can’t even compare to it. The amount of detail shows that there was much time spent in polishing this game. When you’re walking in forests you can see plants growing off the bark of some trees. You also have beaches that look very realistic and frosty mountain ice with little cracks in it. There were even deserts that you had to travel while very serious sandstorms were brewing. The cutscenes for Final fantasy X and X-2 were good but the ones for Final fantasy XII were amazing. The mouth movements for when characters were talking matched what they were saying; the cutscenes were just beautiful.
“Awe Man, What Happened To Nobuo?”
When I played this game I knew that there was something different about the music; it just wasn’t like the music I was used to hearing. Then I began reading some reviews and read that there it wasn’t done by Nobuo. The music didn’t feel very energetic to me; it wasn’t the kind of music that made me hum. I can remember playing all the other Final Fantasies and humming the battle tune almost instantly. Although the music seems to be very low in energy, in my opinion, it fits the game just perfect. The sound effects are all there and very realistic; everything from doors opening, the clanking of swords, and walking on different surfaces sound superb. I was also very pleased with the voice acting. The voices sounded perfect with the person who was speaking. None of them sounded weird or annoying.
"Surge, Is Final fantasy XII Really Worth Buying and Playing?"
If you’re a hardcore fan of the turn-based Final Fantasies and prefer to keep it that way, then maybe I would recommend this to you. If you are into very deep stories then don’t get this. You will be disappointed, because I was. I believe even casual gamers would like to mess around with this game; it’s rather simple. It’s worth the $30 that it goes for now and should last for a long time. Or should I say could last you a long time unless you decide to get lazy and skip the optional side quests.
Random Information:
Only On PS2
Player(s): 1
Genre: Role Playing
Release Date: Oct 31, 2006
Developed By: Square Enix
Published By: Square Enix
Memory Card: 94 KB
Disc(s): 1
T for Teen (13yrs)
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