Hynad
02-26-2007, 10:10 PM
I'm currently writing an in dept review of the game. But I thought I'd give my first overview of it before I complete it. Might help me think of some details I may be forgetting.
So here's my early thoughts on it, after I went through it twice (nearly 300 hours of playtime).
FINAL FANTASY XII
Story:
Without spoiling too much, I'll give a very brief synopsis of the story. The action takes place in a world called Ivalice (those familiar with Final Fantasy Tactics will remember that world... Montblanc the Moogle is back for example =) ), two years after a devastating war left the Kingdom of Dalmasca to succumb to the Arcadian Empire. But it is mostly what happened 2 years ago that we, the players, are asking to understand as the story unfolds the more you play.
2 years ago, the Nabradia Kingdom fell under the strength of the Archadian Empire. Their King slain and shortly after, their Prince Rassler, newlywed to the Princess Ashe of Dalmasca, also fell in battle. The breach is opened for the Empire to enter the kingdom of Dalmasca.
King Raminas, benevolent ruler of Dalmasca not willing to spill the blood of innocents, was forced to agree to a peace treaty.
But as Sir Marquis Ondore eloquently says, "The treaty would be signed with steel and writ in royal blood."
Considering the king as a traitor for agreeing to sign a treaty with a tyrant Empire, Basch, a Dalmascan Royal guard, assassinate his king before the treaty could be signed. Found guilty of high treason by the empire (strangely), he is then put to his death.
2 years later. Dalmasca, having lost its freedom to the Empire, is about to "welcome" a new consul.
This marks the introduction of the game, and I have to say that it is quite possibly the greatest game intro I've ever seen. Both in direction, plot, and visual mastery.
Only, the story is well written for the most part, but I can't help but feel they didn't elaborate it enough. The enjoyment of the story for me came from the many subtleties in it. Especially during my second run in the game. But even with all those subtleties, I still thought it was lacking something. And the more I think of it, the more I feel it's the epic part that was not touched enough. You see a lot of potential in it, some of the best characterization in the series, quite possibly the most realistic breathing world ever made for a RPG, but still, I feel the potential was never really exploited to its fullest.
Don't get me wrong though, the story is quite good. It just feels a bit rushed at times.
Presentation and Graphics
Final Fantasy X was too linear in it's pacing. And FF X-2 was not really a Final Fantasy in my book. FF XI? Come on...
I was waiting this game both in anticipation, and with some worries in my head. The last 2 in the series had been quite a let down to me.
Although FFX had a great story, I just wasn't happy with the pacing, and the way you traveled from "corridors to corridors". So I was hoping SquareEnix would try and fix that. Take Dragon Quest VIII for example. A big overworld map with the only occasional loading occurring when you enter a town. You don't travel with the idea that you are following a line.
You are free to explore every corners or the map. And if you do, find some rare and very well hidden treasures along the way.
FF XII makes a compromise between FFX and DQ VIII. The "zones" are a lot bigger than those in FFX, and each one branches to many other "zones". Which in the beginning of the game, can overwhelm you a bit.
But it's still not a free roaming overworld map as seen in DQ VIII.
And as you play the game, you get to understand why they didn't take the Dragon Quest VIII approach. I'll get to that a bit later.
As far as the Graphics goes, we're talking about Final Fantasy... Do I really need to say more? The game shows a great deal of artistic flair.
Everything is so polished, so detailed and refined, you have to give it to them, the repeated delays sure served the game well. Wait until you see the level 3 Quickening attacks (FFXII's version of the Limit Breaks) or the many different Esper attacks, these are sure to wow you. Some of these almost look as good as the CGI used in the many story sequences. I'm not kidding. This game being one of the last one SquareEnix will release for the PS2 (only one left i think is Seiken Densetsu 4, Dawn of Mana) they definitely put every efforts in the title to show us all that no one else masters the PS2 graphical abilities better then them. A technical achievement both in the polygonal and CGI department. The environments are rich and varied. Montainous paths, huge cities looking like renaissance versions of New-York (got to see these stone sky-scrapers to believe it), ruined fortresses, deserts, plains filled with dragons... You want variety, you got it. All of these are filled with over 300 types of monsters. Some fits into similar categories, such as Wild Snakes, Python and Serpent, but even though they look alike, there's still enough to differentiate them from each other. I think FFXII's bestiary is the biggest one in the series, by far.
As a side note, the CGI in the game rivals even the best from PIXAR!
Gameplay:
Now, this is where some of you might not be so pleased. In fact, the Battle system is a bit of a controversy among FF gamers. You either like it, or not. As far as I'm concerned, this much faster battle system is a welcome addition to the series, and is probably the deepest one since the Materia system from Final Fantasy VII. Remember when I said the game still used "zones" as the way to travel through the map?
Here's the reason why. You no longer get into an out of the blue "battle screen" like in the older games of the series. Now, every monsters are seen from afar. You either decide to approach them and fight, or avoid them. Because the monsters are seen on the map, and because there's no loading before the battles start, each individual monster AI are loaded at the same time the "zone" is loaded. So it takes a lot on the PS2 RAM. Being so, SquareEnix had to make that kind of "zone" compromise. But enough of the technicalities.
The battles are also paced a lot faster. And this is thanks to FFXII's own "gambit" system. This system allows you to assign each of your characters with a different AI. For example, want the character to attack an enemy at sight? Assign him with the Gambits: Nearest Enemy = Attack. Want to be sure your characters are well cured? Assign one of them with the gambit: Ally HP 50% = Cura.
There's so many combination possible, you'll have a great time trying to figure out the ultimate combinations that will make your party literally invulnerable.
So... you're asking: WTF? Do I play the game, or do I tell the PS2 how to play it? To that I will give you a really simple example. If you played a FF game before, or any other RPG, You know that when your characters are strong, you mostly press the X button every time the "fight" option comes in. Which ends up being you smashing the X button over and over to take the same action. Now, the system is basically the same, but you just don't NEED to press this X button over and over again. Once you assign AI to your characters, they will act according to your choosing until you press the X button to enter a particular command... For example, if your character is starting an attack, but you want him to cure that petrified character. At any time, you can press the X button to make the battle menu appear. You then choose the Stona magic to cure the petrified one, and your character will cancel any command he was doing to make your manual command his priority. Basically, it speeds up the battles a lot, and it makes the game feel a lot more real time (even if each characters take turns based on their speed stats). Also of note, you can position the camera any way you want at any time during battles or exploration.
Complementing the gambit system is the License system. Each monster you slain gives you LP (License points) which you can spend on the "License Board" to unlock stat boosts, magics, technicks, pieces of equipment you can use, Quickenings (FFXII's version of the Limit Break) and so on. In fact, the License system is about the same as FFX Sphere Grid system. The only differences to me is that it is now square shaped instead of sphere shaped, and every square on it are blank so you don't know what will be available next. An other minor difference is that although you may have gotten a new piece of equipment or a new ability, you'll need to buy the corresponding License in order to use it. This can be a little annoying for some, but considering the battle system is so much fun and brilliantly incorporated to the exploration, I doubt you'll ever have any LP shortage unless you rush the game. If you liked the Sphere Grid system, you should enjoy the License system as well. Only this time, it might not take you as long to get everything for every characters compared to FFX.
Other than the Battle system, the gameplay is filled with mini games and side quests. More than in any other in the series. FFX had the boring BlitzBall (yeah, give me some controls over my team please!!!), FFXII has the Centurio Hunter Clan. A clan that hunts dreadful beasts that threatens the citizen of Ivalice. This being the greatest challenge in the game, as the more you advance in the Hunts, the tougher the beasts get. But accomplishing every one of them can earn you the most powerful items in the game. There's also a sprint race, a fishing "helper" mini-game, hidden dungeons, and a lot more I cannot put each one of them here. I've played the game twice. My first game was mostly to see the story, so even though I didn't rush in, I didn't try to finish every side-quests. My clock still got to 91 hours.
On my second run, I searched every corners of the world, finished the Hunts and probably most of the other side-quests (some of them leading to some new Espers for me to summun !!) and my clock is at 185 hours. And never did I let the PS2 run without me playing!!! All this without one moment where I felt it was too long, or boring. That's a feat of his own for an RPG. Gameplay wise, I have to say that this game was addictive to me.
Music and Sound
I wont take as much time here. Although the soundtrack is good, it is a bit too repetitive. The Imperial theme is rehashed and rehashed for too many scenes. And most of the other themes fit the mood, but never really impress, with a few exceptions. This lost in quality is to me ascribable to the lost of Nobuo Uematsu as main music composer of the series. He's the one responsible for most of the best game music ever composed. His style was more dynamic, more emotional, and more inspiring. This is what FFXII's music lacks at times. Most of the best themes in the game, are remakes from older themes in the series (thus composed by Uematsu himself). That's sad, because the music in FF were always one of the best factor in the games. Sound effects though are on par with those founds in the other iterations on the PS2.
Voice acting is great, although the sound compression might be off at times, each actors play their part extremely well. As an other side note, 2 thumbs up to the actor playing Balthier. This character is by far my favorite of all.
Conclusion (until I post my in-dept review--which will be spoiler filled)
I was once worrying about the Final Fantasy franchise. One, because Hironobu Sakagushi (Final Fantasy creator) left the company to start his own Mist Walker, second, because FF X was a linear game, FFXI was an online game (WTF, call it Final Fantasy ONLINE, not XI!!!) and lastly because Nobuo Uematsu also left to start a free-lance career. FFXII still managed to convince me they still have it despite all of that. They created a game that is near perfection. A game that took me by surprise in a really good way. The last game in the series that impressed me as much as this one was Final Fantasy VII... nearly 10 years ago. Now, even if FFXII has no Aeris or Sephiroth, it still has a compelling story, some really well fleshed out characters, and probably the best cinematic sequences a game can offer. Add this to an addictive gameplay, a good balance between battles and exploration, and then mix that with a whole lot of rewarding side-quests, and you're sure to get a great time playing this game.
Although I don't really like giving notes to a game, some of you might prefer a numbered rating.
It would go like this:
GRAPHICS________10____[Definitely among the best there is on the PS2]
GAMEPLAY________9.5___[totally addictive, fast-paced battles are greatly welcomed]
STORY____________9.5___[Probably the best RPG story this year]
PRESENTATION____9.5___[There are some menu issues that could have been worked out, but nothing really bothersome]
MUSIC____________8____[Good, but not excellent, unlike what we're used to get from Uematsu. They should have hired Yasunori Mitsuda (Chrono Trigger music "co-composer" [he did the job with Uematsu] and Chrono Cross music composer). He have a style similar to Uematsu and the game wouldn't have suffered such a lost. FFXII music composer, Hitoshi Sakimoto, is responsible for the FF Tactics and Vagrant Story soundtracks.]
FINAL SCORE (not an average): 9.5 out of 10
Comment's are welcomed.
So here's my early thoughts on it, after I went through it twice (nearly 300 hours of playtime).
FINAL FANTASY XII
Story:
Without spoiling too much, I'll give a very brief synopsis of the story. The action takes place in a world called Ivalice (those familiar with Final Fantasy Tactics will remember that world... Montblanc the Moogle is back for example =) ), two years after a devastating war left the Kingdom of Dalmasca to succumb to the Arcadian Empire. But it is mostly what happened 2 years ago that we, the players, are asking to understand as the story unfolds the more you play.
2 years ago, the Nabradia Kingdom fell under the strength of the Archadian Empire. Their King slain and shortly after, their Prince Rassler, newlywed to the Princess Ashe of Dalmasca, also fell in battle. The breach is opened for the Empire to enter the kingdom of Dalmasca.
King Raminas, benevolent ruler of Dalmasca not willing to spill the blood of innocents, was forced to agree to a peace treaty.
But as Sir Marquis Ondore eloquently says, "The treaty would be signed with steel and writ in royal blood."
Considering the king as a traitor for agreeing to sign a treaty with a tyrant Empire, Basch, a Dalmascan Royal guard, assassinate his king before the treaty could be signed. Found guilty of high treason by the empire (strangely), he is then put to his death.
2 years later. Dalmasca, having lost its freedom to the Empire, is about to "welcome" a new consul.
This marks the introduction of the game, and I have to say that it is quite possibly the greatest game intro I've ever seen. Both in direction, plot, and visual mastery.
Only, the story is well written for the most part, but I can't help but feel they didn't elaborate it enough. The enjoyment of the story for me came from the many subtleties in it. Especially during my second run in the game. But even with all those subtleties, I still thought it was lacking something. And the more I think of it, the more I feel it's the epic part that was not touched enough. You see a lot of potential in it, some of the best characterization in the series, quite possibly the most realistic breathing world ever made for a RPG, but still, I feel the potential was never really exploited to its fullest.
Don't get me wrong though, the story is quite good. It just feels a bit rushed at times.
Presentation and Graphics
Final Fantasy X was too linear in it's pacing. And FF X-2 was not really a Final Fantasy in my book. FF XI? Come on...
I was waiting this game both in anticipation, and with some worries in my head. The last 2 in the series had been quite a let down to me.
Although FFX had a great story, I just wasn't happy with the pacing, and the way you traveled from "corridors to corridors". So I was hoping SquareEnix would try and fix that. Take Dragon Quest VIII for example. A big overworld map with the only occasional loading occurring when you enter a town. You don't travel with the idea that you are following a line.
You are free to explore every corners or the map. And if you do, find some rare and very well hidden treasures along the way.
FF XII makes a compromise between FFX and DQ VIII. The "zones" are a lot bigger than those in FFX, and each one branches to many other "zones". Which in the beginning of the game, can overwhelm you a bit.
But it's still not a free roaming overworld map as seen in DQ VIII.
And as you play the game, you get to understand why they didn't take the Dragon Quest VIII approach. I'll get to that a bit later.
As far as the Graphics goes, we're talking about Final Fantasy... Do I really need to say more? The game shows a great deal of artistic flair.
Everything is so polished, so detailed and refined, you have to give it to them, the repeated delays sure served the game well. Wait until you see the level 3 Quickening attacks (FFXII's version of the Limit Breaks) or the many different Esper attacks, these are sure to wow you. Some of these almost look as good as the CGI used in the many story sequences. I'm not kidding. This game being one of the last one SquareEnix will release for the PS2 (only one left i think is Seiken Densetsu 4, Dawn of Mana) they definitely put every efforts in the title to show us all that no one else masters the PS2 graphical abilities better then them. A technical achievement both in the polygonal and CGI department. The environments are rich and varied. Montainous paths, huge cities looking like renaissance versions of New-York (got to see these stone sky-scrapers to believe it), ruined fortresses, deserts, plains filled with dragons... You want variety, you got it. All of these are filled with over 300 types of monsters. Some fits into similar categories, such as Wild Snakes, Python and Serpent, but even though they look alike, there's still enough to differentiate them from each other. I think FFXII's bestiary is the biggest one in the series, by far.
As a side note, the CGI in the game rivals even the best from PIXAR!
Gameplay:
Now, this is where some of you might not be so pleased. In fact, the Battle system is a bit of a controversy among FF gamers. You either like it, or not. As far as I'm concerned, this much faster battle system is a welcome addition to the series, and is probably the deepest one since the Materia system from Final Fantasy VII. Remember when I said the game still used "zones" as the way to travel through the map?
Here's the reason why. You no longer get into an out of the blue "battle screen" like in the older games of the series. Now, every monsters are seen from afar. You either decide to approach them and fight, or avoid them. Because the monsters are seen on the map, and because there's no loading before the battles start, each individual monster AI are loaded at the same time the "zone" is loaded. So it takes a lot on the PS2 RAM. Being so, SquareEnix had to make that kind of "zone" compromise. But enough of the technicalities.
The battles are also paced a lot faster. And this is thanks to FFXII's own "gambit" system. This system allows you to assign each of your characters with a different AI. For example, want the character to attack an enemy at sight? Assign him with the Gambits: Nearest Enemy = Attack. Want to be sure your characters are well cured? Assign one of them with the gambit: Ally HP 50% = Cura.
There's so many combination possible, you'll have a great time trying to figure out the ultimate combinations that will make your party literally invulnerable.
So... you're asking: WTF? Do I play the game, or do I tell the PS2 how to play it? To that I will give you a really simple example. If you played a FF game before, or any other RPG, You know that when your characters are strong, you mostly press the X button every time the "fight" option comes in. Which ends up being you smashing the X button over and over to take the same action. Now, the system is basically the same, but you just don't NEED to press this X button over and over again. Once you assign AI to your characters, they will act according to your choosing until you press the X button to enter a particular command... For example, if your character is starting an attack, but you want him to cure that petrified character. At any time, you can press the X button to make the battle menu appear. You then choose the Stona magic to cure the petrified one, and your character will cancel any command he was doing to make your manual command his priority. Basically, it speeds up the battles a lot, and it makes the game feel a lot more real time (even if each characters take turns based on their speed stats). Also of note, you can position the camera any way you want at any time during battles or exploration.
Complementing the gambit system is the License system. Each monster you slain gives you LP (License points) which you can spend on the "License Board" to unlock stat boosts, magics, technicks, pieces of equipment you can use, Quickenings (FFXII's version of the Limit Break) and so on. In fact, the License system is about the same as FFX Sphere Grid system. The only differences to me is that it is now square shaped instead of sphere shaped, and every square on it are blank so you don't know what will be available next. An other minor difference is that although you may have gotten a new piece of equipment or a new ability, you'll need to buy the corresponding License in order to use it. This can be a little annoying for some, but considering the battle system is so much fun and brilliantly incorporated to the exploration, I doubt you'll ever have any LP shortage unless you rush the game. If you liked the Sphere Grid system, you should enjoy the License system as well. Only this time, it might not take you as long to get everything for every characters compared to FFX.
Other than the Battle system, the gameplay is filled with mini games and side quests. More than in any other in the series. FFX had the boring BlitzBall (yeah, give me some controls over my team please!!!), FFXII has the Centurio Hunter Clan. A clan that hunts dreadful beasts that threatens the citizen of Ivalice. This being the greatest challenge in the game, as the more you advance in the Hunts, the tougher the beasts get. But accomplishing every one of them can earn you the most powerful items in the game. There's also a sprint race, a fishing "helper" mini-game, hidden dungeons, and a lot more I cannot put each one of them here. I've played the game twice. My first game was mostly to see the story, so even though I didn't rush in, I didn't try to finish every side-quests. My clock still got to 91 hours.
On my second run, I searched every corners of the world, finished the Hunts and probably most of the other side-quests (some of them leading to some new Espers for me to summun !!) and my clock is at 185 hours. And never did I let the PS2 run without me playing!!! All this without one moment where I felt it was too long, or boring. That's a feat of his own for an RPG. Gameplay wise, I have to say that this game was addictive to me.
Music and Sound
I wont take as much time here. Although the soundtrack is good, it is a bit too repetitive. The Imperial theme is rehashed and rehashed for too many scenes. And most of the other themes fit the mood, but never really impress, with a few exceptions. This lost in quality is to me ascribable to the lost of Nobuo Uematsu as main music composer of the series. He's the one responsible for most of the best game music ever composed. His style was more dynamic, more emotional, and more inspiring. This is what FFXII's music lacks at times. Most of the best themes in the game, are remakes from older themes in the series (thus composed by Uematsu himself). That's sad, because the music in FF were always one of the best factor in the games. Sound effects though are on par with those founds in the other iterations on the PS2.
Voice acting is great, although the sound compression might be off at times, each actors play their part extremely well. As an other side note, 2 thumbs up to the actor playing Balthier. This character is by far my favorite of all.
Conclusion (until I post my in-dept review--which will be spoiler filled)
I was once worrying about the Final Fantasy franchise. One, because Hironobu Sakagushi (Final Fantasy creator) left the company to start his own Mist Walker, second, because FF X was a linear game, FFXI was an online game (WTF, call it Final Fantasy ONLINE, not XI!!!) and lastly because Nobuo Uematsu also left to start a free-lance career. FFXII still managed to convince me they still have it despite all of that. They created a game that is near perfection. A game that took me by surprise in a really good way. The last game in the series that impressed me as much as this one was Final Fantasy VII... nearly 10 years ago. Now, even if FFXII has no Aeris or Sephiroth, it still has a compelling story, some really well fleshed out characters, and probably the best cinematic sequences a game can offer. Add this to an addictive gameplay, a good balance between battles and exploration, and then mix that with a whole lot of rewarding side-quests, and you're sure to get a great time playing this game.
Although I don't really like giving notes to a game, some of you might prefer a numbered rating.
It would go like this:
GRAPHICS________10____[Definitely among the best there is on the PS2]
GAMEPLAY________9.5___[totally addictive, fast-paced battles are greatly welcomed]
STORY____________9.5___[Probably the best RPG story this year]
PRESENTATION____9.5___[There are some menu issues that could have been worked out, but nothing really bothersome]
MUSIC____________8____[Good, but not excellent, unlike what we're used to get from Uematsu. They should have hired Yasunori Mitsuda (Chrono Trigger music "co-composer" [he did the job with Uematsu] and Chrono Cross music composer). He have a style similar to Uematsu and the game wouldn't have suffered such a lost. FFXII music composer, Hitoshi Sakimoto, is responsible for the FF Tactics and Vagrant Story soundtracks.]
FINAL SCORE (not an average): 9.5 out of 10
Comment's are welcomed.