Final Fantasy XII
PS2
Release Date: October 31st, 2006
Role Playing Game
Review by Dack
Final Fantasy XII starts you out as Reks, a soldier in the Dalmascan Army. You experience the game’s beginning tutorial through his eyes as Basch explains the basics to his new soldier. At the end of the tutorial, you witness a shocking scene when you enter the throne room. The game then switches you to controlling Vaan, Recks younger brother who is fighting rats in the sewers to practice his sword skills. When you get out of the sewers, you head to see Migelo, your boss, who is looking for Kytes who hasn’t returned from his job yet. When you find Kytes and send him back to Migelo, you realize that the job Kytes was supposed to do involves completing a hunt.
This serves as your introduction to the way hunts work in the game and, aside from this hunt, the rest of the game’s hunts are completely optional. After the hunt is completed, and you return to town, Vaan decides to sneak into the palace to steal a little something during the commotion of the ceremony going on that night. While in the palace, Vaan meets two sky pirates, Balthier and Fran, who help him escape the palace, cementing Vaan’s place in the story. The game leads you on an epic journey across multiple expansive locales on your quest to take down the empire. The majority of the story is very well done and engaging although near the end it gets a little slow. The ending totally makes up for any slowdown and leaves you satisfied.
As far as gameplay, FFXII succeeds with one of the most addictive battle systems in recent RPGs although, depending on the player, it might lose its freshness by the time you decide to tackle the game’s multitude of side quests. The game’s basic gameplay succeeds because it resembles the battles seen in the now ever popular MMORPGS. Everyone you use starts out with the ability to auto-attack as a default gambit. Once you attack an enemy, your characters will keep attacking until the enemy is dead, at least until you get gambits that let you auto-cast cure or throw a potion when a party member is hurt. The battles are generally challenging enough that they don’t get dull but the regular enemies along the story paths never get hard enough that they can kill you before you realize what is going on.
The difficulty in the game is really strange because, on the one hand, the game is a lot easier to complete without much side leveling up if you pick a team of three characters you like the most and use them exclusively throughout he game. On the other hand, if you do that, when you do get overwhelmed, your other characters will die before they even get a chance to use a phoenix down on your dead party members. Thankfully though, most required enemies aren’t that overwhelming and you can always run if you think you are getting killed too fast. Leveling up the other three characters in your party equally, making six equally leveled party members, is helpful for backup purposes but generally takes way too much time and energy to really be worth it. Players who are looking for a challenge should definitely take this path though as I rarely died with my three man party.
Like most RPGs, you have a multitude of equipment types to choose from. Each character can equip whatever type of armor or weapons you choose to give them granted they have the license for it. Licenses are the game’s way of allowing some degree of customization. Every time you kill a regular enemy for the majority of the game you get 1 LP, which may seem kind of lame but, considering how fast you can kill enemies, you will still have more than enough licenses for what you need. Different characters start out at different points in the license grid but you can easily take whatever path you want with any character.
There are three main types of armor and three main types of weapons. To truly fit within character archetypes you could essentially have your three-man party consist of a mage type character using magic staffs and magic robes to boost magic power, a ranged attacker using any of the four kinds of ranged weapons wearing light armor, and a fighter tank character using heavy armor and a melee weapon. The game gives you freedom to make your characters use whatever combinations you like though as long as you have the licenses to do so.
The license board also has magic skills, magic power augments, physical power augments, boosts to items, accessories, technicks, quickenings, and summons once you defeat them. Magic must be bought at a magic shop before it can be used but once you have purchased a spell, it can be used by any character who has the license for it. Generally, the damage dealing spells are fairly useless although healing magic is many times more effective. With the right augments and equipment your healer type will easily heal for twice as much as the rest of your crew. Magic and physical augments are found among item boosting licenses and gambit squares.
Magical and physical augments give you certain passive abilities to make you deal more damage with certain types of attacks. Item boosts make potions more effective and are very helpful for the players who prefer to use items for healing. The accessories and technicks, on the other hand, I suggest you not delve into at an early point. Accessories you learn licenses for early on will do you no good without the accessories themselves that you can’t buy till much later. Technicks are generally useless with only a few that are worth buying like charge for mages, steal for item hunting, libra to view enemy information, and telekinesis to give your melee attackers a chance to damage flying enemies that they will otherwise never hit.
Quickenings and summons are done very uniquely in FFXII. Quickenings are limit breaks of sorts that you can learn on the license board. There are enough quickenings for each character to learn three. After a character learns his second quickening, his max MP available doubles. Once he learns the third, his max MP triples for a final max of three times the initial max. In fighting general enemies, it’s not really practical to use quikenings because they use up all of your mana. The quickenings are useful for certain boss fights but by the end of the game you are really going to be able to kill all the bosses without quickenings anyway and, unless you get a massive chain from a huge stroke of luck that deals damage on the higher end of the randomized spectrum, you might as well save your mana.
Summons are similar to quickenings except, rather then doing direct damage, one character summons a creature who replaces the other two characters in the party and fights along side you. The problem with many of the game’s default summons is they don’t do that much damage and many times the character who summoned them will die before the summon can let off his finishing attack which, while it looks cool, usually doesn’t do that much damage. Completionists will have fun unlocking the optional summons that are found in obscure optional areas filled with strong enemies. Players looking for a challenge will certainly find more of a challenge on the higher end hunts and optional content although it is quite daunting without clear direction on where you should go first.
The game also introduces a system of gambits which basically boil down to a simplified list of commands and when to use them. Some players will automate everything but I found the game to be more fun with only certain spells automated. Gambits work as a good substitution to the sometimes frustrating AI of characters in other games. The game also replaces the traditional “killing a dragon and getting 10k gill” with item drops that you have to sell to merchants for money. It works just as well because you get battle chains for killing the same kind of enemy over and over, making it even easier to get fast money. As you sell certain items enough times to the merchants, you get access to certain bazaar weapons that are usually moderately cheaper then the same thing you can buy at the store although many of the best weapons in the game can only be obtained in this way.
FFXII succeeds the most with its soundtrack. Hitoshi Sakimoto does it again with a beautiful orchestral score that perfectly complements the game’s scenes. The music is even better with Dolby Digital Pro Logic 2 support. There is also the most beautiful in-game vocal song ever with Angela Aki’s “Kiss Me Goodbye” composed by Nobuo Uematsu. Angela Aki is the perfect voice for the traditional game ballad charging the ending with much emotion. The game’s voice acting is also very well done with the most important characters sporting some very memorable performances.
Graphically, FFXII looks great in normal in game scenes and supports widescreen and progressive scan for the PS2 gamers who have already taken the HD leap. Also, in traditional Square-Enix fashion, there are a good number of breathtaking pre-rendered cut-scenes that really serve to make the story come alive. In the end, FFXII is a satisfying experience for the 55 hours it takes to beat the main story. Players who tackle the game’s multitude of side quests could easily double that number before they get 100% completion. While FFXII is satisfying, neither the story nor the gameplay are that memorable. The characters are minimally developed and some of them are just there for the sake of gameplay.
While these might be things that keep the JRPGamer from truly praising FFXII, the more casual players who don’t know of any RPGs besides Final Fantasy will have a blast. Despite its shortcomings, FFXII is still a worthwhile purchase and most players will certainly get their money’s worth.
Story: 8
Gameplay: 9
Graphics: 9
Sound: 9
Lasting Value: 9
Difficulty: Easy-moderate
Final Score: 8.8/10
PS2
Release Date: October 31st, 2006
Role Playing Game
Review by Dack
Final Fantasy XII starts you out as Reks, a soldier in the Dalmascan Army. You experience the game’s beginning tutorial through his eyes as Basch explains the basics to his new soldier. At the end of the tutorial, you witness a shocking scene when you enter the throne room. The game then switches you to controlling Vaan, Recks younger brother who is fighting rats in the sewers to practice his sword skills. When you get out of the sewers, you head to see Migelo, your boss, who is looking for Kytes who hasn’t returned from his job yet. When you find Kytes and send him back to Migelo, you realize that the job Kytes was supposed to do involves completing a hunt.
This serves as your introduction to the way hunts work in the game and, aside from this hunt, the rest of the game’s hunts are completely optional. After the hunt is completed, and you return to town, Vaan decides to sneak into the palace to steal a little something during the commotion of the ceremony going on that night. While in the palace, Vaan meets two sky pirates, Balthier and Fran, who help him escape the palace, cementing Vaan’s place in the story. The game leads you on an epic journey across multiple expansive locales on your quest to take down the empire. The majority of the story is very well done and engaging although near the end it gets a little slow. The ending totally makes up for any slowdown and leaves you satisfied.
As far as gameplay, FFXII succeeds with one of the most addictive battle systems in recent RPGs although, depending on the player, it might lose its freshness by the time you decide to tackle the game’s multitude of side quests. The game’s basic gameplay succeeds because it resembles the battles seen in the now ever popular MMORPGS. Everyone you use starts out with the ability to auto-attack as a default gambit. Once you attack an enemy, your characters will keep attacking until the enemy is dead, at least until you get gambits that let you auto-cast cure or throw a potion when a party member is hurt. The battles are generally challenging enough that they don’t get dull but the regular enemies along the story paths never get hard enough that they can kill you before you realize what is going on.
The difficulty in the game is really strange because, on the one hand, the game is a lot easier to complete without much side leveling up if you pick a team of three characters you like the most and use them exclusively throughout he game. On the other hand, if you do that, when you do get overwhelmed, your other characters will die before they even get a chance to use a phoenix down on your dead party members. Thankfully though, most required enemies aren’t that overwhelming and you can always run if you think you are getting killed too fast. Leveling up the other three characters in your party equally, making six equally leveled party members, is helpful for backup purposes but generally takes way too much time and energy to really be worth it. Players who are looking for a challenge should definitely take this path though as I rarely died with my three man party.
Like most RPGs, you have a multitude of equipment types to choose from. Each character can equip whatever type of armor or weapons you choose to give them granted they have the license for it. Licenses are the game’s way of allowing some degree of customization. Every time you kill a regular enemy for the majority of the game you get 1 LP, which may seem kind of lame but, considering how fast you can kill enemies, you will still have more than enough licenses for what you need. Different characters start out at different points in the license grid but you can easily take whatever path you want with any character.
There are three main types of armor and three main types of weapons. To truly fit within character archetypes you could essentially have your three-man party consist of a mage type character using magic staffs and magic robes to boost magic power, a ranged attacker using any of the four kinds of ranged weapons wearing light armor, and a fighter tank character using heavy armor and a melee weapon. The game gives you freedom to make your characters use whatever combinations you like though as long as you have the licenses to do so.
The license board also has magic skills, magic power augments, physical power augments, boosts to items, accessories, technicks, quickenings, and summons once you defeat them. Magic must be bought at a magic shop before it can be used but once you have purchased a spell, it can be used by any character who has the license for it. Generally, the damage dealing spells are fairly useless although healing magic is many times more effective. With the right augments and equipment your healer type will easily heal for twice as much as the rest of your crew. Magic and physical augments are found among item boosting licenses and gambit squares.
Magical and physical augments give you certain passive abilities to make you deal more damage with certain types of attacks. Item boosts make potions more effective and are very helpful for the players who prefer to use items for healing. The accessories and technicks, on the other hand, I suggest you not delve into at an early point. Accessories you learn licenses for early on will do you no good without the accessories themselves that you can’t buy till much later. Technicks are generally useless with only a few that are worth buying like charge for mages, steal for item hunting, libra to view enemy information, and telekinesis to give your melee attackers a chance to damage flying enemies that they will otherwise never hit.
Quickenings and summons are done very uniquely in FFXII. Quickenings are limit breaks of sorts that you can learn on the license board. There are enough quickenings for each character to learn three. After a character learns his second quickening, his max MP available doubles. Once he learns the third, his max MP triples for a final max of three times the initial max. In fighting general enemies, it’s not really practical to use quikenings because they use up all of your mana. The quickenings are useful for certain boss fights but by the end of the game you are really going to be able to kill all the bosses without quickenings anyway and, unless you get a massive chain from a huge stroke of luck that deals damage on the higher end of the randomized spectrum, you might as well save your mana.
Summons are similar to quickenings except, rather then doing direct damage, one character summons a creature who replaces the other two characters in the party and fights along side you. The problem with many of the game’s default summons is they don’t do that much damage and many times the character who summoned them will die before the summon can let off his finishing attack which, while it looks cool, usually doesn’t do that much damage. Completionists will have fun unlocking the optional summons that are found in obscure optional areas filled with strong enemies. Players looking for a challenge will certainly find more of a challenge on the higher end hunts and optional content although it is quite daunting without clear direction on where you should go first.
The game also introduces a system of gambits which basically boil down to a simplified list of commands and when to use them. Some players will automate everything but I found the game to be more fun with only certain spells automated. Gambits work as a good substitution to the sometimes frustrating AI of characters in other games. The game also replaces the traditional “killing a dragon and getting 10k gill” with item drops that you have to sell to merchants for money. It works just as well because you get battle chains for killing the same kind of enemy over and over, making it even easier to get fast money. As you sell certain items enough times to the merchants, you get access to certain bazaar weapons that are usually moderately cheaper then the same thing you can buy at the store although many of the best weapons in the game can only be obtained in this way.
FFXII succeeds the most with its soundtrack. Hitoshi Sakimoto does it again with a beautiful orchestral score that perfectly complements the game’s scenes. The music is even better with Dolby Digital Pro Logic 2 support. There is also the most beautiful in-game vocal song ever with Angela Aki’s “Kiss Me Goodbye” composed by Nobuo Uematsu. Angela Aki is the perfect voice for the traditional game ballad charging the ending with much emotion. The game’s voice acting is also very well done with the most important characters sporting some very memorable performances.
Graphically, FFXII looks great in normal in game scenes and supports widescreen and progressive scan for the PS2 gamers who have already taken the HD leap. Also, in traditional Square-Enix fashion, there are a good number of breathtaking pre-rendered cut-scenes that really serve to make the story come alive. In the end, FFXII is a satisfying experience for the 55 hours it takes to beat the main story. Players who tackle the game’s multitude of side quests could easily double that number before they get 100% completion. While FFXII is satisfying, neither the story nor the gameplay are that memorable. The characters are minimally developed and some of them are just there for the sake of gameplay.
While these might be things that keep the JRPGamer from truly praising FFXII, the more casual players who don’t know of any RPGs besides Final Fantasy will have a blast. Despite its shortcomings, FFXII is still a worthwhile purchase and most players will certainly get their money’s worth.
Story: 8
Gameplay: 9
Graphics: 9
Sound: 9
Lasting Value: 9
Difficulty: Easy-moderate
Final Score: 8.8/10