Review: Final Fantasy XII

Platform: PlayStation 2

Originally published in 2007. Lovingly translated to English by Google for your enjoyment.

---

The empires of Rozarria and Archadia are at war with each other. The small kingdom of Dalmasca, meandering between the two, is taken over by Archadia. Coincidentally, a young Dalmatian boy who dreams of a career as an air pirate but meets Princess Ashe, who is thought to be dead in the kingdom, and soon the battle against Archadia may begin. Gods and crystals also play a part in the story.

The plot of Final Fantasy XII focuses more on politics than previous parts, which is sure to annoy the friends of the epic world-saving. Starring are events, not so much characters. This is the stumbling block of the whole game. The story is good, but if the characters are not interested, their fate is indifferent. There are a few good characters in the game, like Balthier, a robber who steals the entire show, but most of the characters remain paper-thin. There is not enough exposure to the characters ’stories and there is no name development for the characters, let alone the interaction between the characters. The protagonist, however, is a full-fledged statistician who has little or no influence on the plot and has no reason to be involved. As long as the spirit is involved. Other characters, like Archadia’s judges, are just a wasted potential.

On the plus side, however, the game’s good-evil layout isn’t the usual black and white. Even if the heroes are on the side, the enemies also have their motives and human sides. It’s annoying, however, how much better the story could still have gotten.

Although the plot did not live up to expectations, there is still a whole part to be played. A word of warning to old Final Fantasy fans: the battles have been put on a whole new one. Instead of turn-based random battles, enemies now appear on the screen all the time and the battles take place on the same map screen where you move from place to place. The basis of the combat system is the same as in the previous parts, but what is new is the Gambit system, which automates the movements of group members to always do a certain thing in a certain situation. Of course, you can also enter commands manually. Gambits speed up the monster's bite, but on the other hand, the player does not necessarily have to intervene in the course of the fight except in special cases, which can seem boring.

Balancing different combat techniques would need to be adjusted, as much of the skill and ability is completely useless. At the top of it all, though, are the summon creatures, who really don’t have any joy at all. In addition, familiar limit attacks have been replaced with a strange Quickening system, which at least I didn’t learn to use properly myself.

There is a lot of fighting. The caves teeming with monsters are really long and self-repeating compared to the previous ones. Now that all backgrounds no longer need to be painted by hand, it’s easy to use the same elements over and over in landscapes, creating quite dull-looking places. The cities are handsome in architecture, but they also show a nasty repetition. In addition, the freely rotatable camera also causes a lack of cinematic angles of view.

The best insights in the game are to make it worthwhile for even the weakest enemies to leave. In addition to experience points, enemies also release license points, which are used to learn new abilities. License points are detached from even the worst enemies, so when passing through old areas, it's a good idea to slam the bugs of the place along the way. The license board is a simple system that allows characters to be developed in basically whatever direction they want. In practice, however, this is not necessary, as the board is too easy to complete and some of the abilities are unnecessary anyway. The difficulty level of the game depends quite and directly on how many characters you can develop. If you explore all the areas thoroughly and list all the monsters, the game is really easy.

Also, money is no longer found in the pockets of every wolf and mouse, but enemies leave behind other stuff, such as furs, that must be sold to get money. This time, the currency is not available indefinitely, but there is really little to think about what the funds will do. Money and other goods can also be found in treasure chests in a familiar way, but the content of treasure chests is determined by an incomprehensibly silly random system. You know it's possible to get a super weapon B from room A. However, the journey to room A is quite tricky. When you finally get there, you’ll find that the treasure chest isn’t even found, as it only has a certain probability of occurrence. You still ramp up a few rooms back and forth to find a coffin, but it only contains a couple of funny coins, as the chances of a super weapon appearing are even lower. Annoying? On top of all that, this randomness has also been applied to some other features of the game.

In addition to the plot game, there are a lot of side quests in Final Fantasy XII, the biggest of which is the hunt for the wanted monsters. Anyway, the side tasks are largely focused on the battle line. Any larger mini-game like the previous card games or treasure hunt would have been a nice addition. However, side quests and secrets increase the life of the game commendably.

Graphically, the game is quite pretty, except for the monotony of the landscapes I mentioned earlier. Admittedly, I don’t know if I’m just imagining whether the FMV snippets are really uglier than in the X. The sound exhibition has also finally been put in order, because even if there is room for improvement in sound quality, he is happy to listen to the speech of most of the characters. Some, like my own favorite Gabranth, are even absolutely brilliant. The music, on the other hand, is pretty meager in the background. There are a few pretty songs to be found, but by Final Fantasy criteria, that’s not enough.

All in all, Final Fantasy XII isn’t as dreamy as it could be hoped to be, but at least it hooked me tightly to the playground for the couple of weeks it took to get through. A very enjoyable game with annoying potential.

Score: 9