Final Fantasy coming up tops (Final Fantasy XII (PS2))

Member Name: Secre

Product:	Final Fantasy XII (PS2)
Date:	03/01/08 (131 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Plot, Characters, Graphics, Sound...

Disadvantages: Long - 40 hours min, rather repetitive on occasions...possibly license board

I have to admit I have always been slightly addicted to the Final Fantasy games, when I have time to play them - which at the moment isn't a lot. But I've always admired the complex plots and characters which can immerse me in an entirely new world for hours at a time until I finally look at the clock and suddenly realise how long I've been playing for. But is this new addition up to scratch, to give credit it couldn't be much worse than X-2 or XI but when you bring it against some of the Final Fantasy legends such as VII or IX how does it compare. And the answer, pretty darn well.

==Boring but necessary==
Price: Amazon: £9.89
Game: £29.99 new
Platform: PS2
Age: 16
Release: October 31 2006

==Plot==
The plot for Final Fantasy XII is a completely different style from any of the other Final Fantasy games, every other FF I have played has had an epic story line that you watch unfold and has an ever lasting impact on the lives of everyone in the game. This isn't quite the same in this newer version, you have more of a political game which is concerned with political intricacies and philosophical concerns. The basic idea is that the Archadian Empire has taken over the Kingdom of Dalmasca, assassinated the king and supposedly the princess has committed suicide. As in many cases of a complete dictatorship taking over a large amount of the common people aren't happy and there is a resistance group out there. Three guesses which side you're on!? Well it isn't likely to be the empire! So you're on a major quest to find out who the real enemies are, and who you are really meant to be fighting...and it isn't as easy as it seems. I think this is one of the things that makes the game, the uncertainty and the far more adult theme of betrayal. There is no straight forward plot as you seriously don't know what will happen next.

==Characters==
With the Final Fantasy games the characters tend to be the winning part, the realistic characters who don't tend to be your sterotypical good or bad guys, the games have nearly always realised and implemented the idea that people are not good or bad but somewhere in between. Needless to say this makes it more realistic, and this Final Fantasy doesn't let you down; the characters are well formed, often likeable but as with all humans there are occasions when you could quite happily strangle them!

Vaan: An orphan who lost his family during the war, he's a likeable young lad who is a cut-purse on the streets on Rabaneste. He's one of those cheeky youngsters who is always in some mischief...and yet you can't help but like. He is your main character through the game, and the only character you can control in the game.
Penelo: A cheerful young female, who although being younger than Vaan almost acts like his mother, forever trying to keep him out of trouble. It's quite obvious she has a great liking for Vaan, but where will that lead?
Bathier: A rather arrogant sky pirate, who tends to act like he owns the world. Not necessarily perfectly honest, but still his heart is in the right place...but does tend to look at where the money comes from!
Fran: Fran is a Viera who travels with Balthier. She is mysterious and you don't really know that much about her, except for the fact that she almost worships Balthier.
Basch: An interesting character, and one of the few that you could say is truly honest and a real member of the Order of Knights. By bad luck and bad placement he is convicted of treason and assassinating the king, so from a brave and valiant knight to being a traitor of the country...except there's more to him than this...
Ashe: Princess of Dalmasca, presumed dead...umm...reports of her death seem to be greatly exaggerated...she is a feisty character who knows what she wants and will take no messing along the way, and what she really wants is to gain back her county's sovereignty.

==Game play==
A large amount of the game is in the typical Final Fantasy style, wandering around towns, caves and plains whilst talking to random people to find information or fighting beasts to build up your level. Again as with most Final Fantasy games a large amount of your time is spent in conversations, shops and in general wandering around. I may have to say too much time, to get to the levels which you need to be at for the main storyline you need to do one heck of a lot of training up (well, if you're a perfectionist like me...if you're more like my brother you'll shoot through the game and get stuck on the final boss while swearing fluently). Also to gain the money to buy anything in shops, as everything is very expensive and enemies don't drop money they drop loot which you can sell for money, but you have to gain a lot of loot to make money!!!

The main game play takes you through a lot of caves, tunnels and airships whilst trying to rescue various people or find various things. The whole story is interspersed with large amounts of dialogue, both in normal graphics and in cut-scenes and however much you may marvel at the graphics to begin with, they get slightly tedious after a while. You end up thinking, 'come on, hurry up, I want to get on with the story'. But even so I have to admit the cut-scenes are quite remarkable, the conversations between the characters and the detail shown on the characters make it seem completely real. Whereas on older Final Fantasy's you only got the dialogue, on this you get so much more, the body language is there - the nods and looks between the characters really do make the whole thing far more believable.

==Side Quests==
Again, to begin with, these seem good fun. Going out killing big things to gain money, status and items whilst being involved in a secret clan - what could be more appealing? But as time goes on they bore you, you want to get on with the main story instead of messing around having to run after creatures who have nothing to do with the main plot. They are also more often than not, far more difficult than the regular story critters, and the amount of times I found myself killed by something that I didn't really want to go after was quite remarkable. It's a nice idea, but I believe it was given too much dominance in the game plot.

==Battling==
And now we get to the really controversial area of the game. Every single other Final Fantasy game has used a turn based system on a different screen, you never saw where the enemies were, completely random separate battles which gave you enough time to decide what tactics you wanted to take. But on this game, Square went for something different. The battles are more realistic, you can see what's out there and avoid or fight as you see fit. It's more like the majority of fighting games where you see your enemy on the horizon and then attack. To begin with I hated it. I've always liked the old style of fighting, it gives more of an impression of control. I knew what all my characters were doing and I was giving the orders. This is a far more impersonal style of fighting. Most of the time you just don't have the chance to mess around with individual fighters, only the main character...you kind of just hope that the others are doing what they are meant too!

For the first time they've introduced a gambit system, which basically means that before battle commences you can set up preferences for how you want your characters to fight. This does make it easier in battle as you just don't have the time to control every character, and it also means you can set them to heal characters who are say at below 50% health. The whole healing thing tends to be where I fall in battle as I have the blunt approach of whacking till the enemy falls, so this system tends to be an absolute life saver. But again, it makes the battle less personal, it could almost happen without your interference and this possibly makes the game less interesting.

Chaining is another new thing in the battles, the more enemies of the same type you defeat the higher chain you gain and the better items you will receive to put it very basically. This means a large amount of wandering around fighting the same enemy time and time again. Now if you're anal retentive and completely compulsive like me this is fine, but if you get bored easily (like my brother) this is tedious - big time.

==Levelling up==
Now, the levelling up is the easy part, that just comes from gaining tons of experience points by fighting different enemies...often the same enemies. The difficult part however is the license points and boards which is almost more complex than Final Fantasy X's grid system. Once you've got the gist of it, it does become rather simple and then rather tedious. It takes so long to gain the license points from defeating enemies to even allow you to equip weapons, armour or magic...and then you need to buy them as well. The other problem with this is that you could easily end up with all your characters the same, as a large amount of strength is dependant on the weapon you carry, and the game rather loses it's magic if all the characters have the same skills and magics. With every other Final Fantasy game each character has their own strengths and weaknesses regardless of what you equip them with, in this you could almost turn them into the same character.

==Graphics==
What can you say, it's Final Fantasy and that almost speaks for itself. The graphics, as per usual, are splendid and if it's possible better that FFX. The cut-scenes are usually splendid examples of artwork in itself particularly the characters and the landscapes. The art style is different to the other Final Fantasy games, however it does have definite similarities to Vagrant Story from 2000. The characters seriously look real, with facial expressions and body language showing fairly subtle emotions, and the scenery is imaginative and interesting. Even if you're getting bored of the game it's worth going to the next area just to see the graphics!

==Sound==
The soundtrack to accompany the game has quite obviously been very carefully choreographed and fits the game perfectly. Regular players of the game will recognise some of the older and more 'traditional' FF themes for the music, but there's a large amount in there which I hadn't heard before, and to be honest it's beautiful.

None of the voices are particularly recognisable actors, but they do the job perfectly. The voices don't sound like the 'typical computer voice', they are voices for real human beings, filled with emotion and humour on occasions. This really, more than anything, brings the entire game to life.

==Conclusion==
A game that's well worth getting, particularly at the prices going on Amazon. I have thoroughly enjoyed - even if there are a few issues which annoyed the living daylights out of me! But other than a few fairly minor glitches it is a well rounded game with good characters, plot, graphics and sound - what more could you ask!

As my first game review, any comments for improvement would be brilliant.

Summary: A Final Fantasy well above the usual cut