A whole new world (Final Fantasy XII (PS2))

Member Name: sandemp

Product:	Final Fantasy XII (PS2)
Date:	06/08/09 (91 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Improved battle system, fantastic graphics, hours and hours of play

Disadvantages: Score gets a bit boring, can take a while for areas to load

I'm a huge fan of the Final Fantasy series of games and have played (and completed) most of them. I love the way the combination of exceptional graphics, complex storyline and multiple sub-plots immerse me in a fantasy world. Final Fantasy XII (FFXII) is no exception and I must say it's probably my favourite of the series. As with all the Final Fantasy (FF) games, this is a RPG or Role Playing Game, where the player takes on the role of a hero in a world that needs saving.

In FFXII you take on the persona of Vaan, a young street rat, a mere boy whose brother was treacherously murdered 2 years ago and while looking for revenge Vaan finds himself in a position where the fate of his home town and indeed whole world falls in his hands. The plot is well thought out, if a little contrived in places and needs to be followed in order for the game to be completed. As well as the main plot there are a number of sub-plots and mini-games that make this the most complex FF yet.

Graphically speaking this is the most impressive FF yet, backdrops are beautifully rendered and look extremely realistic with very few glitches. The characters are also beautifully drawn even to the point that when the weapon equipped is changed the character will be carrying the new weapon. But, there is something very familiar about some of the characters. If you've played FFX or FFX2 then you'd probably notice that Vaan has something of the look of Tidus (the main character from FFX), and Ashe could easily be Yuna's sister. This isn't just something that I have noticed, my partner noticed it too and he doesn't play the games, he's only ever watched me playing them. The score is not so impressive, yes it is haunting, but it's also very similar to that in other FF games, and it never takes long before I turn the sound down.

For seasoned FF players, FFXII brings a whole new system of play, from controlling characters, to battles, to levelling up and even in gaining money to buy new weapons, it's all different (and in my opinion better). One of my favourite new aspects is that the view can be changed (using the right joystick), this makes it easier to spot monsters, switches and little things that are otherwise missed. The random battles of the past are gone with the majority of monsters being marked on the map. I find this makes levelling up far less frustrating as I know where the different monsters are in any area and as they re-spawn regularly I know that I can gain a certain number of points from each area. The old system of just waiting for the action bar to fill and then controlling each characters actions one at a time has as gone, it's now possible to set 'gambits' for each character so that they automatically perform certain actions in particular circumstances. I found this a little confusing to start with, but now love the fact I can play around with these settings and so work out the best plan of action for some of the tougher bosses. Even with these gambits set up there are areas of the game that are a real challenge and one boss in particular took me a total of about five hours to defeat.

The monsters themselves are pretty varied, with a number of different strategies needed to defeat them. They also get progressively more difficult, and there's always something to challenge your characters, even when levelled up to the max. Aeons (powerful allies) also make a return appearance, but personally I didn't find these much help in the battles. The limit break system has been replaced with mist abilities, and combining these powerful attacks can be fun, but the cut sequences are simply too long.

With previous FF games gil, the standard currency, could be gained simply by defeating monsters, but in FFXII the monsters drop items instead of money and these need to be sold in order to buy weapons, armour, magic and potions. But selling items also leads to something called 'bazaar goods' being available, some of the rarer items can only be obtained in this way and I personally find that while this can be a little confusing and hit and miss, it does add a little something to the game. It can be quite challenging collecting all the different items needed to unlock a super-duper new weapon. Simply purchasing weapons, magics, etc does not mean that they are available for use. Each character needs to unlock licences by means of licence points that are gained after each battle. Again this adds to the challenge and it can occasionally be frustrating buying that fancy new weapon only to find you can't use it.

The world map has also improved in FFXII, although only a few areas are available at the start of the game, this soon increases and quite early on you find that you can visit most places. (Even though if you do visit some too soon you'll find the monsters impossible to defeat). Each location is split into several areas and as they are explored they become visible on the map. There are plenty of save crystals, even if there are times that there's not one quite when you need it, and there's a new 'teleport' crystal that allows instant re-location to areas already visited. Airships are also utilised between the main cities so it's very easy to go back to different areas to complete the side-quests.

As with all FF games this takes a long time to complete. I finished the basic story within about 60 hours, but at 400+ hours I'm probably only 75% towards completing all the side quests and mini-games. There are actually a greater number of side-quests to complete here, and some of them are very difficult and a few are extremely frustrating. I'm not going to describe them all here, but I will say that I don't think I'd have even got as far as I have now without using an online FAQ to give me the occasional clue.

So am I recommending FFXII? Without out a doubt my answer is yes, this is simply the best RPG I have ever played. It's not just a game, but a whole world, with beautiful graphics, complex puzzles and even when you think you've finished there's something else to discover. But this isn't a fast paced action game, it's a game where you have to think about strategies, solve puzzles and think 'out-of-the-box'. The battle system is as near to perfect as it can be (although it can take a few seconds for areas to load) and although the different control aspects can be complex they are all introduced in an almost tutorial manner at the beginning of the game. The only problem that I can really think of is that as this is a PS2 game, it's unlikely that you'll be able to find it new on the High Street, although it is available at Amazon for £16.99 It's also quite difficult to find second-hand, as most FF fans (myself included) treasure their discs, but I did find this used in Game after a few months of searching for a reasonable £7.99 and think it's worth every penny.

Summary: My favourite of the FF series