Final Fantasy XII - Final Thoughts
Unlike previous titles, this Final Fantasy has quite a few stats for it. I'll include everything I can think of and describe some of the ones that aren't self-explanatory.
Game Stats
Time Played - 82 Hours
Rank - Riskbreaker (Ranks were earned through by your overall points and number of Marks defeated.)
Overall Points - 365,023 (I'm not 100% sure, but I think you get points for all sorts of things during the game. The main thing that rewards points are enemy kills though.)
Party Levels
- Vaan - Level 46
- Balthier - Level 46
- Fran - Level 46
- Basch - Level 46
- Ashe - Level 46
- Penelo - Level 46
Secret Espers Obtained - 1 of 8 (On top of the Espers gained through the story, there are eight other Espers you can get. Of those, I only ran into Adrammalech.)
That's it for the game stats, and so now we move on into the biggest and most important part of the review...the review! For this time around, I'll be focusing on the usual of Gameplay, Story, and Characters, but graphics will only get a mention. For now, look forward to a fun-filled review of adventure, laughter, and a very concerned Final Fantasy fan. To begin, I'll start with the gameplay.
Final Fantasy XII introduces a new style of gameplay to the Final Fantasy series. There are some recognized elements here and there, but they've abandoned the Active Time Battle system for a sort of live action system know as "Active Battle Dimensions", or ADB. Basically, instead of getting into random encounters and switch off to a personal battlefield, you encounter and fight all the enemies on the field as you explore. This changes things a bit, and it offers up quite a different type of Final Fantasy playing. As far as the ADB goes, I'm pretty split on it. It's a decent blend of both turn-based and live-action battles without really throwing out one or the other.
My journey through the game showed two things about combat...1. It's more about buffs and statuses than anything else. 2. If you don't refer to step one, then you'll have to spend a lot more time leveling. Thankfully, buffs can be set to Gambits so you might never have to waste your time with them! But once I got enough Gambits, the combat turned into "let the game play itself". I only interrupted here and there because my Gambit settings weren't perfect. Honestly, with the Gambit system, the game almost plays itself. There were times I just put the controller down and let it handle itself. Apart from Marks and Bosses, most of the enemies weren't too much of a bother.
I will admit that XII is definitely harder than pretty much all previous Final Fantasy titles. However, the difficulty tends to jip you more than challenge you. Is the big bad guy almost dead? Well now he casts Renew, and his health is completely refilled. WORST GAMEPLAY MECHANIC EVER. Seriously, it's a big pile of crap when you take forever to knock an enemy down in health only for it to return to full in 3 seconds. I could go on about this for a while, but I won't. Quickenings take up the spot for this title's super moves. They're pretty useful and can be combo'd for amazing amounts of damage. However, you burn up all your MP doing a high powered Quickening combo, and this just ends badly. At the same time, you are trading your MP for a big style attack, so that generally evens out.
Then there is the leveling and License Board. Thankfully, they put back the idea of character levels after X's sillyness of the Sphere Grid growth. The License Board has an essence of Sphere Grid in it, but it's done in a better way...to a point. License Points are gained and spent on your character to gain them new abilities, new spells, attribute bonuses, weapon proficiencies, and armor proficiencies. The system works well enough, and it allows for full customization of every character. Unfortunately, specialization seems almost completely pointless. If you do enough training, you gain enough LP to buy all the skills always. This gives your characters all the spells, all the proficiencies and so forth. Meaning...the License Board is basically pointless.
The worst part of all this, is all of that was only mild complaints. If I had one TRUE complaint for this game, it would be loot. Loot just angers me in so many ways. In previous titles, every battle would drop gil. However, for FFXII with its MMO style, you don't get gil from most enemies. Instead, they have a chance of dropping loot. On top of that chance, it's possible that the loot you get isn't worth the effort you put into getting it. The alternative to this is the "Poach" ability, but then you trade any XP or LP you'd have gotten for loot only. It's not a good trade. All the need for loot is reflected through constant rising cost of equipment. I was too often met with the choice of "continue with old crap" or "spend an hour or more getting loot for new stuff". I often chose the second option, and I'm pretty sure that's why I spent so much time delaying the game. If they had simply made loot just a LITTLE easier to get, I'd have been okay with it.
Now to summarize all of my rambling into a few sentences...The gameplay is new and fresh for Final Fantasy. It combines some of the best features of both ideas, but it tends to fall out with little problems. Gambits make the game play itself. Stupid, stupid game design with half the Marks having the spell "Renew" on hand. Customization is vast, but specialization is pointless since you can give everyone everything. Above all, loot should have either been worth more or dropped more often. I shouldn't have to spend like half of my in-game time just trying to scrap up enough money to buy the current item sets. Gameplay gets a pass, but at the same time, I'll never, ever play Final Fantasy XII ever again ever.
Before I move on, I'd like to give the graphics their mention. For a PS2 game, it looks fairly good. The cutscenes were generally really good. The character designs reminded me more of Final Fantasy 8 characters than anything. It wasn't really anything new, but it was the right look and feel for the game. That's all I've got to say. Let's jump into story and characters now!
The further along the path Final Fantasy titles get...The more likely that the story is a horrific mixture of the older games in the series. For Final Fantasy XII, it's not really free from this. The beginning is all "there is a nation invading other nations because it's all war-liking", and that story quickly shifts around as the nation does get taken over because of shady business. (FF4 sorta) Cloaked in all of that is royalty dying and a great man being framed. Fast forward a couple years, the people are under "Imperial" rule, and now I'm looking at a couple of war orphans. Somehow, these orphans become integral to the plot to overthrow this Empire. (Final Fantasy 2 some?) They join up with a ragtag pirate and his sexy bunny compadre. Then they meet the framed soldier and the 'dead' Princess who turns out isn't dead.
They're all determined to work together and defeat the Empire, but then there starts being stuff about all powerful crystals and how the Empire wants to use them for power and try to make their own (Kinda a mix of FF4 and FF6 really). This evolves into a big deal over crystals. You investigate that and don't really learn much, but the Empire has all sorts of back-stabbyness going down. Emperor is about to die, but then his son kills him. Then you move on to learn that the crystals are actually gifts from god-like beings who have been ruling over time since forever ago. (I feel like FF9 just got sprinkled in right there...You know! The last minute 'crystals are super important to the plot now' twist.) You destroy the super crystal and stop the god-like beings. But then the Emperor's evil son, who killed him, was able to create/find a massive airship that's the size of a city and power it up without anybody finding it. Your group goes in single-handedly and destroys the ship without actually doing anything directly to the ship really. /end story
Why did I spout all of that? Just seemed right if you asked me. That's a summary of the story. I didn't really love the story at any point, but when the game ended, I was satisfied with the ending of it all. It's not the most original or new story, but at the same time, who does make anything super original/new anymore? It's good for what it is, but it doesn't really blow previous stories out of the water. I also don't get why Final Fantasy games need to have a last minute and huge critical plot point. It's usually shovelled in at the very final point. My favorite Final Fantasy (FF9) does this probably the worst. I don't want a last minute shoehorn of massive plot details. Why? Because by the time I get them, who cares anymore? When it is THAT last minute, it's honestly not needed. So I find the story acceptable but not my favorite. I'm going to wrap it up soon, but before that, we need to investigate the characters.
Ah Final Fantasy XII! You've taken a more fantasy-esque style to your characters and setting. Everything has to have a long and fancy name to it. Remember the lovely Tchitia Uplands? Or maybe that Dalmasca Westersand with the word "West" cleverly worked into it. I make fun of the names, but they really aren't that bad...unless we start talking about the people. Seriously. I was always annoyed when characters like spouted out this ridiculous lengthy name. Just gimme a first and last name...but I digress.
Overall, the characters were interesting at times, but then not much happened to some. Vaan seemed like a bad Tidus clone. Penelo was really only there to have another young character with Vaan. Fran was the sexy-indian-bunny girl with her knowledge that was always there to answer random things or her "indian" ways where she was all spirit-y. Basch just never felt like anything special. He was Ashe's guard and didn't have much beyond that. Balthier and Ashe are the best two characters of your group. Balthier was quite charming (supposed to be of course), and his backstory was quite interesting and nicely interlaced with the rest of it. It's sad that Cid was a bad guy, but he actually made an interesting bad guy while remaining a science-y type as always. I didn't really enjoy Ashe at first, but she starts to grow on you as things go. She's not the strongest character there, but I feel she stands above the others in a lot of ways. Basically, the main cast is 2 for 6.
Apart from them, you go through a large number of VIP NPCs and random NPCs that only get one part but nothing more. It's fun when you get this random guy who seems important, but then he disappears completely forever. I liked a lot of the Judges with their different attitudes and such, but you don't get much of them apart from the boss fights and brief spots in scenes. You could have easily made a game about the Judges if you ask me. Also, the longest strung out thing in the game (IMO) was the "Who is this Basch doppelganger " They suggest it at a point here and there, but I didn't pick up on it. Then near the very end, Gabranth just yells out "THAT GUY IS MY BROTHER!" Maybe I was supposed to catch the hint mid-game, but I never did. Long story short, the most interesting NPCs the game has to offer don't get enough time on screen.
Now we discuss the villain/villains. Final Fantasy XII doesn't really have any one strong villain. You go all throughout and deal with multiple villains. It's mostly the faceless entity called the Empire. Apart from that, you get to face off with countless villains throughout. There's the Judges, Vayne Solidor, random monsters who get in your way, and the Occurian briefly somewhat. Vayne takes the reins as the main and top tier villain, but he really doesn't get much airtime overall. His villainy is pretty much summarized as "killed his father to become Emperor and then attempted to destroy stuff with giant air fortress". It's evil, but it's not really "Final Fantasy villain" evil. I preferred the Judges to Vayne in most cases, so I'll let the game have the pass for them.
Overall, the characters are very much pick and choose. As usual, you'll probably have your favorites here and there, but I feel like only a few truly shine through as interesting characters. I've said it all, and it's time for a final wrap up before I close this post.
The gameplay is an advancement for Final Fantasy, but there are flaws here and there. Customization is pointless if you can get everything, and you end up spending more time trying to earn money than anything else. The story isn't the most creative story in the series, but I felt a decent sense of satisfaction when it was all said and done. The characters are composed of a cast of mostly uninteresting people while two or three take the front lines. It might come down to personal opinions in the end, but I feel like the overall rating of the characters is "okay".
To be fully honest, I spent so much time on the game that most of me wanted to finish it just to finish it. I was bored so often that I had a hard time pushing through, and only a handful of moments sustained my interest into continuing my play. It was more challenging than previous titles, but I skipped probably more than half of the side stuff in favor of finishing it. That's not a good sign if you ask me. If you were to ask me if you should play it or not, I would probably answer "No, there are better Final Fantasy games out there. Only play it if you are truly, truly interested in playing it. Otherwise, it isn't worth the time, effort, or money."
And that's all for my review. Pardon the disorganized aspect of it, but I had to really focus on not making this a big "I hate this game"-fest. I feel like I was fair in my judgement, but it just doesn't have the same spark as previous titles. Anyways, my initial journey of all the numbered Final Fantasies is coming to an end soon! All I lack is Final Fantasy XIII, and the goal will be complete. However, before I move on to XIII, I'm going to do a ten hour review of Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions (the PSP remake). It's a great game, and it'll give me a small breather before I jump on XIII.
As always, thanks for reading, and I hope you look forward to more coming soon!
~May the Crystals Guide Me~
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